322 



PR^COCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOL^. 



oTouuds. The uests — which were found from about June 20 to July 10 — were in 

 every instance mere holes in the ground, lined with a few decayed leaves and having 

 a thin sprinkling of hay in the centre. It was very difficult to detect the nest of this 

 species, as the parent bird glides off long before a near approach, and the eggs closely 

 resemble the grass in their- colors. This species was very numerous in the Barrens. 

 The female, soon after leaving her nest, usually ascends into the air in a straight 

 line. The young birds leave the nest as soon as hatched, and when approached, hide 

 themselves in the grass, and can be found only with the greatest difficulty. Some 

 were already hatched by July 12. 



The eggs of this species exhibit very great variations in size, colors, and distrilnition 

 of markings. In No. 9431 (S. I.) the ground is a pale greenish-ash, with large oblique 

 blotches of different shades of sepia, the lighter inclining to a purplish-slaty tint. In 

 No. 14099 (S. I.) the ground is of a deep muddy or clay-colored drab. The markings 

 are chiefly toward the larger end, where they are confluent on the a]3ex, are of an 

 umber tint varying in tlie depth of the shade. In No. 9432 (.S. I.) the gromid is a 

 deep olivaceous drab, and tlie markings, of a very dark sepia-color, are in the form of 

 irregular small Uotches, more numerous toward the larger end. In No. 11401 the 

 ground is a light ashy -green color, and the markings are smaller, more numerous, 

 more longitudinal, and of a much lighter shade of sepia. These eggs are of an oblong 

 oval shape, slightly pyriform, one end more rounded than the other, and have an 

 average length of about 2.10 inches, and a breadth at the largest portion of 1.90 

 inches. 



Numenius phaeopus. 



THE WHIMBREL. 



Scolopax phoeopus, Linn. S. N. ed. 10, I. 1758, 116 ; ed. 12, I. 1766, 243. 



Ifunienms phccopus, Lath. Ind. Oni. IL 1790, 711. — Naum. Vog. Deutschl. VIIL 1836, 506.— 



Kkys. & Bla.?. Wirb. Eur. 78. — Bonap. Conip. List, 1838, 49. — M.\cgill. Man. II. 78.— 



Gray, Geu. B. III. 560 ; Cat. Bvit. B. 1863, 154. — Diiesser, Birds Eur. XVII. Apl. 1873, pi. 



— RiDGW. Norn. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 561. — CouEs, Check List, 2d ed. 1882, no. 644. 

 Numenius minor. Leach, Sy.st. Cat. 1816, 32. 

 Numenius islandicus, Brehm, Vijg. IJeutschl. 610. 

 Scolojmx borealis, Gmel. S. N. I. 1788, 654 (not of Forster, 1772 !). 

 Phceopus arquatus, Steph. Gen. Zool. XII. 36. 

 IFhimbrel, Penn. Brit. Zool. II. ISli, 36, pi. 9. — Yark. Brit. B. ed. 2, II. 583, fig. ; ed. 3, II. 616, 



tig. ; et Aucr. 



Hab. Palcearctic Rei^ion, occasionally visiting Greenland (of. Retnhardt, " Iliis," 1861, p. 10). 



Sp. Char. Adult : Crown snuff-brown or sooty-brown, divided lonf^itudinall}' hy a medial 



stripe of pale buff ; a dark stripe on side of head, from bill to and behind eye, with a distinct light 



