OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 313 



of the dwarf birch. The eggs are four in number, ranging from 

 buff to olive in ground colour, blotched and spotted, and some- 

 times streaked with rich blackish brown, and with underlying 

 markings of pale brown and gray. They are pyriform, very large 

 for the size of the bird (a clutch weighs nearly as much as the 

 hen herself), and measure on an average I'S inch in length by 

 I'o inch in breadth. The female is a close sitter, and remains 

 brooding over her eggs until the last moment ; Wolley was 

 allowed to approach one nest within six inches before the parent 

 rose. Only one brood is reared in the year, so far as is known. 



Diagnostic Characters. — Scolopax, with the mantle glossed 



with purple, and the inner webs of the scapulars with metallic 

 green; rectrices twelve in number. Length, 7^^ inches. 



