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 1°1 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. AiGIALITIS 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 (tom. cit. p. 383). 
Jerdon, writing of its habits in India, thought it ‘ retired northwards 
to breed ;”’ and Dr. Leith Adams believed 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, dgialitis mongolica that he met with. 
44. 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 fulvus, are evidently 
too small for that species, and can only belong to &. geoffroyi. These 
eggs are now in the collection of Mr. H. Seebohm, and resemble those 
now exhibited from Madagascar. 
As its smaller congener . mongolicus 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. 42. geoffroy? is common enough in Madagascar, frequent- 
ing sandy 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 Vikivike. 
3. GALLINAGO MACRODACTYLA, Bonaparte. 
G. berniert, 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 
