1882.] birds' eggs from Madagascar. 355 



It may be described as of a pale stone-colour, or, to be more 

 accurate, of the colour described and figured by Werner in his ' No- 

 menclature of Colours ' as cream-yellow, spotted or speckled chiefly 

 at the larger end with yellowish-brown and paler brocoli-brown 

 (Werner). It measures 1*4 inch by l-I at its greatest diameter. 

 Only one nest was found, containing two eggs. The native name for 

 this bird according to Mr. Deans Cowan is Hitsikitsidrano. 



2. jEgialitis geoffroyi, Wagler. 



In 'The Ibis' for 1870 I gave as complete a life-history of this 

 species as the materials then available enabled me to prepare, with 

 a figure of the bird in its nuptial plumage. Reference to this 

 account will show that the species is widely distributed and 

 has frequently come under the observation of naturalists at the 

 periods of its migration, or in its winter-quarters ; but I was obliged 

 to confess my inability to describe the egg (torn. cit. p. 383). 

 Jerdon, writing of its habits in India, thought it " retired northwards 

 to breed ;" and Dr. Leith Adams beheved he had found it breeding 

 on the banks of the Chimouraree Lake in Ladakh (P. Z. S. 1859, 

 p. 188), but the description of the bird given by him in his ' Wan- 

 derings of a Naturalist in India ' (p. 283) shows that it was the 

 closely allied, but smaller, J^gialitis mongolica that he met with. 

 JE. geoffroyi, according to Swinhoe, is abundant on the sandy shores 

 of Formosa ; and from the fact of the young being found in the island, 

 he conjectured that it breeds there. There can be little doubt that 

 it does so ; for several eggs which he took there, and supposed to be 

 those of the Eastern Golden Plover, Charadrius falvus, are evidently 

 too small for that species, and can only belong to JE. geoffroyi. These 

 eggs are now in the collection of Mr. H. Seebohm, and resemble those 

 now exhibited from Madagascar. 



As its smaller congener yE. mongolicits does not occur in Mada- 

 gascar, there is no ground for supposing that the eggs now exhibited 

 can belong to that species ; while the eggs of such other Sand-Plovers 

 as are known to occur in the island are so much smaller in size, and 

 so different in markings, that they cannot for a moment be con- 

 founded. JE. geoffroyi is common enough in Madagascar, frequent- 

 ing saudy shores and going up the rivers for some distance inland to 

 breed. 



The egg is of a cream-yellow, blotched chiefly at the larger end 

 with pitch-black. It measures 1*4 inch by 1 inch. 



The native name for this bird, and applied to all the Sand-Plovers 

 which are found there, is Vikiviki. 



3. GtAllinago macrodactyla, Bonaparte. 



G. bernieri, Pucheran. 



This Snipe, a very rare one in collections, is characterized by the 

 unusually long toes, and by the extraordinary length of bill which 

 distinguishes it from all its congeners. 



Hardly any thing has been published concerning it beyond the 



