MONGOLIAN SAND-DOTTEREL. 
nest either, but run away a distance from it before taking wing. It is therefore 
exceedingly difficult to find the nest, and I do not wonder that none of the 
Russian travellers have procured the nest and eggs. I myself only succeeded 
in finding a few nests with eggs. The eggs were found during the first days of 
June and young ones about the middle of July. About this time the families 
retire from the beach and are now met with in the interior, where they ascend 
the mountains in search of tender insects. I frequently met them at an 
altitude of 1,000 feet or more above sea level. About the middle of September 
the families return to the lowlands and to the beach, soon afterwards leaving 
the island. 
“ The call-note is a clear, penetrating ‘ drrrriit.’ 
“ While at Glinka, on Copper Island, in July, 1883, a young bird of this 
species, not yet fully feathered, was brought to me alive. Allowed to run 
free on the floor it immediately commenced a very animated pursuit of the 
rather numerous flies, which were caught with remarkable precision and rapidity, 
and devoured with an insatiable appetite. The little fellow did not pay any 
attention to the presence of several persons in the small room, but when the 
dog rose from his nap in the corner, the swift-footed fly-killer suddenly dropped 
flat on the floor, with withdrawn neck, making himself as small and flat as 
possible, and remained thus perfectly immovable until the dog turned his 
head the other way, when he ran off to the darkest corner of the room, where 
he remained until the former laid down in his old place. Then he started 
the fly-hunting again ; the dog rose once more, and the same performance 
was repeated. Within half an hour, however, he had learned that the dog did 
not take any notice of him whatever, and consequently he afterwards paid 
as little attention to the dog as to man. 
“ The nest, spoken of above, was found on the islet Toporkof on the 4th 
of June, 1883, and contained three eggs. They were lying with their ;^ointed 
end inwards and downwards, in a slight hollow in the ground between the 
stems of four Angelica archangelica. Dry particles of the leaves and stems 
of this plant, and numerous seeds of the same, formed the nest, being evidently 
brought together by the bird itself. The situation of the nest was about 
40 feet from the line of high water, and about 14 feet above the level 
of the sea. 
“ One of the eggs was quite clear ; the second contained a small embryo 
in which only the large eyes were distinguishable ; the third had a larger 
foetus, with well developed wings, legs, etc. 
In general appearances the eggs recall those of JEgialitis semipahnata 
being larger, however, and of a somewhat deeper ground colour, in two more 
olive, in the other more buff. The spots are on the whole smaller than in 
95 
