MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 547 



to trace the tracks back well over a hundred yards before I came to a well 

 trampled spot and the eggs were at the side of it. 



I sat down some way off to watch and the bird returned in about five 

 minutes (the eggs were very hard set) running almost straight to the nest and 

 stood over it bobbing her head like a plover. She then sat down alongside the 

 eggs, not actually on them, and this seems to be a habit of theirs as I saw 

 another bird act in the same way when returning to its nest. The eggs in the 

 different clutches vary a good deal in size, but the largest are 1*95 x 1*45 and 

 are shaped very like a Whimbrel r s eggs. The ground colour is greenish- 

 grey and they are spotted more or less all over but chiefly at the larger end 

 with reddish-brown and pale purple, in colour and marking they are not un- 

 like some Tern's eggs. All the clutches were very hard set and indeed one 

 would have hatched in a very few days. I was overjoyed at getting them, 

 as I do not think they have been recorded before. 



While hunting for these eggs I also found a fresh clutch of the Common 

 Sandpiper (Totanus hypoleitcus) in quite a neat little nest of twigs and pine 

 needles under a boulder. I am not aware if this nest has been recorded from 

 Indian limits before, though, of course, it breeds freely in Kashmir. 



Camp, Jeolikote, U.P., S. L. WHYMPEK. 



May 10, 1906. 



[The Society has curiously enough just received an egg of Ibidorhynchus 

 strnthersi from Lieut. F. M. Bailey of the British Trade Agency, Gyantse, who 

 writes : — 



" The nest was situated on a stony island in the middle of the river here 

 (13,000 feet). The nest was made of small flat stones about ^ inch in diameter, 

 forming a perfectly smooth and flat surface. I unfortunately did not measure 

 the nest. The eggs, four in number, were laid with their points inward. This 

 nest was taken on9tb June when the eggs were hard set. On the same day I 

 saw two birds with two young ones each. On my approaching, the young birds 

 lay among the stones with their necks stretched out flat on the ground while 

 the old bird endeavoured to draw me off in another direction, uttering loud 

 cries. The young when crouching among the stones were very difficult to see, 

 and lay so still that they allowed themselves to be picked up before showing 

 any signs of life. The other three eggs were accidentally broken, so I have 

 not attempted to blow the remaining one." 



The egg which Lieut. Bailey has so kindly sent With those of other 

 valuable Tibetan breeding birds, is 52 millimeters by 39. It is very hard set, 

 but I hope to be able to make some kind of specimen of it. 



Among the others are two eggs of Tetraogallus tibetanus, the Tibetan 

 Snow-cock, the nidification of which was not known at the time of Hume 

 and Marshall's " Game Birds of India." 



H. MACNAGHTEN, 

 Hony. Secy., Birds 1 Eggs Section, 



22nd August 1906, Bo, Nat, History Society.] 



37 



