178 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



herbage of the coast, amongst tufts of grass or bushes, and is simply a hollow, 

 often under the shelter of a plant or bush, lined with a few scraps of vegetable 

 refuse. The eggs are four in number, glossy in texture, and vary from pale olive- 

 green to pale buff in ground-colour, boldly blotched, spotted, and clouded with 

 olive-brown and dark reddish-brown and with underlying markings of violet-grey. 

 They are rather pyriform, and measure on an average 1'6 inch in length by 

 1"1 inch in breadth. Both parents assist in the duty of incubation and one brood 

 only is reared in the year. As soon as the chicks are hatched the broods and 

 their parents repair to the shore, and very soon afterwards the migration south 

 begins. In the high north the entire breeding season lasts about a couple of 

 months only. 



Diagnostic characters.— Strepsilas, with the chin and throat white. 

 The mottled black, white and chestnut plumage of this species is very charac- 

 teristic. Length, 9 inches. 



