Ititi PROF. NEWTON ON NEW BIRDS* EGGS. [Jail. 24, 



bidding them observe the difference between the two species of Pha- 

 larope, with the view of subsequently obtaining the eggs of tliis one. 

 It was not until 1862 that any good came of it. In that year, 

 Pastor Sivertsen wrote to me from Utskala, saying that three nests 

 had at last been found. Of these unfortunately the contents of 

 one disappeared, and those of the second were broken ; so that the 

 eggs from the third were all he had to send me. They reached me 

 in a very bad condition, and, but for the skilful manipulation of Mr. 

 Salvin, would have been useless. As it is they are presentable. 



In 1866 Pastor Theobald was so good as to send me three eggs 

 of this species with the parent birds caught on the nest, which were 

 brought to him the year before by Herr Zimmer from Egedesminde 

 in North Greenland. It is extremely satisfactory to find that these 

 well-identified eggs closely resemble those I had received from Ice- 

 land ; and the particulars in which they most resemble one another 

 are the pale ground-colour and infrequency of the markings, which 

 serve to distinguish them at once when laid among a hundred or 

 more eggs of Phalarojms hi/pei'bo)'eus. In size the Greenland eggs 

 of P. fulicarius are somewhat, though not a great deal, larger than 

 most eggs of P. hyjierhoreus, but are nearly as much smaller than 

 the Icelandic specimens, one of which serves to illustrate this paper 

 (PI. XV. fig. 1). The largest of the seven I possess measures 

 1*25 inch by '9 inch ; the smallest 1*17 inch by 'Si inch. I cannot 

 venture to say that the egg of P. fulicarius may never closely re- 

 semble that of P. hyiperhoreus ; but specimens of the former I have 

 here noticed could never for a moment be mistaken for any I have 

 seen of the latter. 



Yellow-shanks Sandpiper. 



Totanus flavipes (Gmelin). (PI. XV. fig. 5.) 



I am not aware that the eggs of this species have been anywhere 

 figured or described. I have received two from the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution. They are marked as having been obtained by Mr. INIac- 

 farlane, 25th June, 1863, on the barren grounds at the Fort, Ander- 

 son River ; and the note mentions that the hen bird was shot very 

 near the nest, which contained four eggs. The specimens sent me 

 measure about To? inch by 1*14 inch, and in colouring greatly re- 

 semble some eggs of Totanus calidris. 



Great Black-headed Gull. 



Chroicocephalus ichthyaetus (Pallas). 



Specimens of the fine egg of this fine bird recently sent to me by 

 Herr Moschler, v^ho received them from the Lower Volga, corre- 

 spond very well with the description given of it by Pallas (Zoogr. 

 11. -As. ii. p. 323). On a clean-looking ground of very pale stone- 

 colour or French white, good-sized blotches of dark brown are pretty 

 regularly distributed, patches of lavender-grey being interspersed 

 among and beneath them. My largest specimen is 3 '08 inches by 

 2-11 inches; the smallest 2-91 inches bv 2-09 inches. Three ex- 



