40 EGGS AND EGG-COLLECTING. 
of the Sandpiper species, being a natural depression in the 
ground, with a lining of dead leaves, or other such material 
as may be procured within easy reach of the place chosen. 
The eggs are four in number, of varying ground colour, 
from pale brown to pale greenish-grey, spotted and blotched 
with rich brown, the spots generally confluent at the 
larger end ; but the colour is probably subject to as many 
variations as the Dunlin’s eggs, already described. 
THE LONG-EARED OWL. 
Lixt the Hawk tribe generally, this bird manifests an un- 
mistakable dislike for maternal labour, as she contents 
herself with the old nest of a Crow, Magpie, or the 
abandoned home of a Squirrel. Some collectors give the 
number of eggs as from three to seven; but four or five 
is the general rule, and numbers above the last figure 
quoted the exception. The eggs are white, and almost as 
blunt at one end as the other. 
THE SHIELDRAKE. 
Tux labours of the Rabbit are utilised by the Shieldrake, 
and almost indispensable to her for incubation purposes, 
as she deposits dried flags, bents, reeds, and a liberal 
quantity of down, plucked from her own body, at the bottom 
of a deep burrow, after having enlarged and improved it to 
suit her purpose. She lays from eight even to twice that 
number of eggs, of a very smooth, roundish, oblong shape. 
They are cream colour, or nearly white in colour. 
THE REDWING. 
Tus bird very rarely builds in the British Isles, but 
pbundantly in Norway, Sweden. and other high latitudes 
