Mar., 1921 THE PRIBILOF SANDPIPER b) 
Ur 
1845 39.3 27.1 1854 40.6 27.9 
40.3 27.5 40.8 27.7 
41.4 27.4 39.6 27.4 
40.0 26.9 40.8 27.5 
1846 39.9 27.0 1855 38.6 27.0 
38.7 26.8 37.6 27.3 
39.0 27.9 35.0 27.4 
40.1 27.8 39.1 27.3 
1847 39.0. 27.5 1885 39.8 26.8 
38.6 97.3 2 Bf 26.8 
38.3 27.6 37.5 26.9 
36.5 27.0 38.7 27.5 
1848 37.6 29.0 2104 41.2 27.0 
37.7 28.6 40.9 26.9 
38.5 28.6 42.0 26.8 
38.1 28.4 40.0 26.4 
The average dimensions derived from the above series of 72 eggs are: 
Length, 39.473 and breadth, 27.468. Those which showed the extreme meas- 
urements were 42.0 by 27.8; 35.0 by 27.4; 37.6 by 29.0; and 39.1 by 26.4. 
Through the courtesy of Mr. Chase Littlejohn I am permitted to make 
comparisons of the eggs of the Pribilof Sandpiper with a set of four eggs of the 
Aleutian Sandpiper he collected on Sanak Island, Alaska, in 1882. One egg of 
this set is precisely like the average set of Pribilof eggs illustrated in fig. 15. 
Coloration, method of spotting, size, and shape are the same. The other three 
eggs are quite different. They lack the olive or greenish tinge to the back- 
eround and the spots are not massed about the larger end. They tend, how- 
ever, to form an irregular zone about the greater diameter. There is also a 
greater profusion of small spots mixed with the larger than in Pribilof eggs. 
Mr. Littlejohn states that the considerable series of eggs collected by him con- 
formed to the coloration and pattern of these three, and that the single dark 
egg of this set is the only one he ever saw: The average measurements of the 
four eggs are 39.0 by 27.2 and of the three which are considered typical of the 
species, 38.7 by 27.0. 
The measurements of the eggs of the Aleutian Sandpiper have been given 
by Oates (Cat. Birds’ Eggs Brit. Mus., I], 1902, p. 57) as varying from 38.2 to 
30.4 in length and from 25.3 to 24.0 in breadth (measurements converted to 
millimeters). The figure which he gives (¢bid., pl. II, fig. 10) does not con- 
form to his description of coloration, and the spots contain considerably more 
reddish than those of the eggs collected by Mr. Littlejohn. This figure re- 
ferred to measures 39.4 by 25.0. These are proportions differing considerably 
from actual measurements of eggs. The tipping of an egg in photographing 
it might cause more or less shortening in the resulting print but could not ae- 
count for all the discrepancies in the figure in the British Museum Catalogue. 
Some doubt is therefore cast upon the authenticity of what appears to be the 
only illustration of the egg of the Aleutian Sandpiper. 
The eggs of the Purple Sandpiper, according to Oates (¢bid., p. 56), vary 
in length from 39.2 to 34.2, and in breadth from 27.8 to 25.8 (measurements 
converted to millimeters). Thus the eggs of the Pribilof Sandpiper appear to 
be larger than of either of the other species of the genus, a fact which would 
be expected from the size of the bird. 
It will be interesting to enumerate the sets of eggs of the Pribilof Sand- 
