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THE CONDOR 
Vol. XV 
pale greenish-olive, a pale bufify, or a clear, very light, clay color, which last may 
be darker by being uniformly tinged with light brown. For the most part they 
are spotted, speckled (often very finely), and blotched all over in the most re- 
markable way with dark vandyke brown, pale gray, and didl lilac. Sometimes 
the blotches of brown are nearly black, and become confluciic as shown in no. 19. 
Ridgway gives descriptions of the eggs of both our species of Totanus, but 
it is very difficult to tell about the appearance and form of birds’ eggs unless we 
present good figures of them, correctly colored if possible. 
Of the beautiful set of four eggs of the Rufif {Machetes piignax) in this col- 
lection, I present, on fig. 42, three figures of them (nos. 20-22). They are of a 
rich olive-brown, rather dark, heavily blotched, and speckled nearly all over with 
dark brown markings of forms shown in the figures. Meagrely interspersed 
among these, we find some almost imperceptible spots of a pale lilac-gray. Strange 
to say, Swann does not describe in his "Hand-hook” the eggs of the Ruff, per- 
haps for the reason that they are so well known to the collector. Coues, in his 
"Key” (5th ed. p. 837) likewise omitted their description, though 
possibly for a different reason. For them, according to Ridgway 
{loc. cif. p. 168), we have: “Bggs 1.71 by 1.20, light olive or 
olive-buff, spotted with vandyke brown or bistre," a description that would 
not correctly describe the set in this collection, though I doubt not it might apply 
to other specimens of Ruff’s eggs. In some, the ground color is really a deep, 
rich olive, untinged by any brown shade, as was the case with the specimen shown 
in no. 21, and still more so in an unfigured one of this set. 
Few, if any, of our sandpipers ever lay a handsomer egg than is laid by the 
well-known Spotted Sandpiper (Actifis macnlaria) . Two specimens of these are 
given in nos. 15 and 16 of fig. 41, the exceptionally handsome one being given in 
no. 15. These eggs, that is, the set of four in which no. 15 belongs, are of a very 
pale greenish white (almost white), being spotted and blotched all over with 
blackish browui markings and with a few very faint lilac ones. 
Another set of four (see no. 16) has the ground tint a very pale clay color, 
tinged wdtli olive, the markings consisting of much finer blackish brown spots, 
decks, and the minutest dottings imaginable. There are also a few faint, semi- 
concealed spots of a very pale purplish lilac, which would escape notice unless 
especially looked for by the observer. 
Average examples of the eggs of the Long-billed Curlew {Nnmeniiis amer- 
icaniis) are reproduced in nos. 28-30 on fig. 43. There are twenty eggs of this 
species before me, equally divided into five sets. They vary to some extent in 
form, size, and color, and withal are not particularly handsome eggs, being dull 
in color, often with weak, undecided markings. Ridgway gives the ground color 
of the egg of this species as “light grayish buff or pale buffy brown" ; while Coues 
("Key” p. 842) comes nearer the mark when he says they are “clay-colored, tend- 
ing either to darker olivaceous shades or to buff." All the specimens in this col- 
lection are either of a dark olivaceous, or a medium shade of that color. The 
markings are of various tints of brown, never very dark, and a few of a pale 
lilac. There is generally, but not always, a tendency for the heavier markings to 
be at the big end. They are both elongate and short pear-shaped (Coues, 2.45- 
2.80 by 1. 80- 1. go; Ridgway, 2.59 by 1.80). 
The Whimbrel (N. phecopus) lays eggs that are about one-third smaller than 
those of the Long-billed Curlew ; the ground color is more of a clayey tint with 
less olive in it, and the dark brown markings are often massed and confined to 
