42 EGGS AND EGG-COLLECTING. 
the spot. Like its congeners, it only lays four eggs, very 
similar in ground colour and marking tc the two birds 
quoted above, varying from stone-colour to olive-green, 
blotched and speckled with rich brown and liver-coloured 
spots. 
THE WHITE-TAILED EAGLE. 
Tue high, inaccessible cliffs of Scotland and Ireland are 
the places where this noble bird propagates its race. Sticks, 
heather, grass, and wool are the nesting materials used. 
The eggs are two in number, usually of an unspotted 
white as representative, but sometimes slightly marked 
with pale red—this, however, being the exception. 
THE GREY PHALAROPE. 
Tue breeding haunts of this bird seem to be as far north 
as it can possibly carry out incubation successfully ; Green- 
land, Northern Siberia, and Melville Island being chosen. 
A natural depression in the peat earth serves as a nest, in 
which four eggs are usually laid, of a stony colour, tinged 
with olive-green, speckled and spotted (especially at the 
larger end) with dark brown. 
THE SHOVELLER. 
Tuts duck breeds in Norfolk, the Fen districts, and Scot- 
land, once numerously, but now more rarely. The nest is 
made in marshes as far removed from human intrusion as 
possible, and is constructed of sedges, reeds, &c.; and as 
the time of hatching approaches, the eggs are covered with 
down from the bird’s own body. They number from eight 
to twelve, and are white, tinged with green. 
