308 
PR/ECOCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOLA1. 
taken; this was near Chicago, Sept. 4, 1873. Dr. Hoy speaks of it as common near 
Racine from September 15 to October 10; but this statement Mr. Nelson seems 
disposed to question. 
Mr. Dali mentions that two specimens of this Sandpiper were obtained on the 
Yukon, below Nulato, where it was not common. One was obtained at Sitka by 
Bischoff. 
It breeds abundantly in the Anderson River region, where a number of its nests 
and eggs were found by Mr. MacFarlane ; and from his memoranda in reference to 
the nests and eggs of this species in upward of twenty instances, we gather that the 
nest is always on the ground, and hardly distinguishable from that of the Golden 
Plover, being a mere depression in the soil, scantily lined with a few withered leaves 
and dried grasses. These nests were all obtained on the Barren Grounds between 
Horton’s River and the coast, between the 26th of June and the 9th of July. The 
eggs in every instance were four in number. Even in July the embryos were not far 
advanced. When the nest was approached, the female usually made a short low 
flight to a distance of about twelve yards. 
The eggs of this species are conspicuously pyriform in shape, and measure 1.51 
inches in length by 1.10 in the greatest breadth. So far as I have noticed them, 
however much they may vary in certain minor respects, they all present a remarkable 
uniformity in their general characteristics and appearance. Their ground-color is 
uniformly an ashy drab, over which are profusely spread rounded markings, splashes, 
and confluent blotches of deep sepia. The markings are smaller and more rounded 
in shape around the smaller end, and larger and more confluent about the other. The 
sepia tint is quite uniform, and the deeper markings are mingled with washes of 
dilute purplish slate. These markings vary in their shape, size, and character, being- 
in some large splashes, and in others longitudinal, as if made by strokes of a paint- 
brush. The eggs described are in my own cabinet, and were taken by MacFarlane 
on the Arctic coast east of Anderson River (No. 1893). 
Genus EURYNORHYNCHUS, Nilsson. 
Eurynorhynchus, 1 Nii.ss. Orn. Suec. II. 1821, 29 (type, Platalea pygmcea, Linn.). 
Eurynorhynchus pygmaeus. 
THE SPOON-BILLED SANDPIPER. 
Platalea pygmcea, Linn. S. N. ed. 10, I. 1758, 140 ; ed. 12, I. 1766, 231 (“Surinam”). — Gmel. S. 
N. I. 1788, 615 (quotes “ Mus. Ad. Fr. 26. Bancr. Guj. 171. Dwarf Spoonbill, Lath. Syn. IV. 
i. p. 17, n. 3 ”). 
Eurynorhynchus pygmceus, Peaeson, Jour. As. Soc. Beng. V. 1836, 127. — Harting, Ibis, 1869, 
427, pi. 12 (critical, with full synonymy; Choris Peninsula, Alaska) ; P. Z. S. 1879, 111, 114 
(same loc.). — Coites, Check List, 2d ed. 1882, 136, no. 884. 
Eurinorhynchus pygmceus, Gray, Hand-1. III. 1871, 51. — Ridgw. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, 85, no. 
542 (Point Barrow, Alaska). — Bean, Proc. Ik S. Nat. Mus. V. 1882, 165 (Plover Bay, 
Siberia). 
Eurynorhynchus griseus, “Nilss.” Temm. Man. ed. 2, II. 1820, 594. 
Eurynorhynchus orientalis, Blyti-i, Ann. Mag. N. H. XIII. 1844, 178, 179. 
1 This name has been variously spelled Eurinorhynchus, Eurinoryncus, Eurinorinchus, Eurhinorhijn- 
chus, Eurinorincus, etc., but the form given above is the true orthography. See “ The Ibis,” 1869, p. 427 
(footnote). 
