Palcearctic Birds' Eggs. 179 
01* morass^ sometimes close to a small earth-mound, and often 
in a perfectly exposed position. Not unfrequently a pair will 
take possession of a small islet or tongue of land sparsely 
covered with grass, the nest itself being a mere heap of dry 
herbage with a slight depression in the middle. The full 
complement of eggs varies from two to four, consisting more 
frequently of the smaller number. In general appearance they 
much resemble those of Chettusia gregaria, but are consider- 
ably smaller ; the ground-colour is clay-ochreous, occasionally 
tinged with olivaceous, and the markings, which are commonly 
distributed over the surface of the Q^^, though, as a rule, more 
profusely at the larger end, are black, the shell-markings 
being paler and duller, and the surface-spots and blotches 
deeper in colour. The length varies from 1*5 to 1'7 and the 
width from 1'12 to 1*15 inches. In the early part of May 
Mr. Zarudny found both fresh and incubated eggs, while at 
the end of May and early in June he saw, near Merv, young 
birds just able to fly. 
The two eggs figured are a clutch received from Mr. Za- 
rudny, and were taken by him at Dort Kuju, in Trans- 
caspia. They measure 1*59 by 1*15 and 1*56 by 1*12 inches 
respectively. 
(2) Gallinago stenura. Pin-tailed Snipe. (PI. VI. 
figs. 3-6.) 
According to Taczanovvski, Col. Prjevalski found the Pin- 
tailed Snipe breeding on the Ussuri, in Mongolia; and that 
traveller has given (Rowley's Orn. Misc. iii. p. 92) some 
details respecting its habits, but has not described or figured 
the nest and eggs. I may also remark that the egg figured 
by Dr. Dybovvski (J. f. O. 1873, p. 104, tab. ii. fig. 31), and 
referred to under the name " Gallinago heterocerca Cab.,"*^ is, 
as Taczanowski informed me, not that of the present species, 
but of Gallinago megala Swinhoe. 
Mr. H. Leyborne Popham met with this Snipe on the 
Yenesei in 1895, and shot a female, apparently from the 
nest, but, after a careful search, failed to find the latter. 
In 1897, however, he discovered on the 28th May a nest of 
N 2 
