146 THE CONDOR Vol. XV in his "Manual" does not commit himself either on the form or the color of the eggs of the European Snipe. I select for description among the eggs of the stilts and.the sandpipers those of the Dunlin. (Pelidna a. alpina). Mr. Court has four sets of four each of the beautiful eggs of this species in his collection, and from these I select, for illus- tration, the characteristic ones given on fig. 41, nos. 9-12. Passing over what Doct'6r Coues had to say in his '(Key" about Dunlins and their eggs, we find that RJdgway, without giving any measurements, says of "Tringa alpina" that they (the eggs) are of a "pale olive-buff, spotted, somewhat spirally (sometimes speckled), with different shades of vandyke-brown and pur- plish-gray" (loc. cit. p. 159 ). Those before me are all of an extreme pale olive as to ground color, the various markings being a deep brown. These latter run all the way from large blotches to the finest of specks. They may be chiefly at the larger end, or they may not. Sometimes the larger blotches may all be at the butt, with a sh?gle one at the apex (no. lO). As Ridgway truly says, the blotches are very often spirally inclined (no. 11), doubtless produced as the egg passes down the oviduct. In size these eggs average 1.4o x 1.oo. Of the four godwlts (Lirnosa) found in the avifauna of this country; I select the eggs of the Black-tailed (L. llmosa) to represent their o61ogy. Doctor Coues, in .the last edition of his "Key,"-had the godwits all mixed up, believing, as he states, the Hudsonian Godwit (L. ha?rnastica)'to be the "strict American repre- sentative" of the "European Black-tailed Godwit, L. limosa"---and so on. ,Inas- much as this was the case, the descriptions of the eggs of godwits by that author would hardly be considered trustworthy. For Limosa limosa, Ridgway says on page 164 of his "ManuaF': "Eggs 2.? 7 x 1.5o, deep grayish olive, indistinctly spotted with deeper olive-brown." This description very neatly fits the four eggs of a perfect set I find in Mrl Court's collection, a representative one of which I photographed, and which is here re- produced in no.. 36 of fig. 44. In one of these eggs the spotting is very faint and meagre, a confluent blotching being massed at the butt. Coming next to the willets, I have before me the eggs of both the Willet (Catoptrophorus s. semipal.matus) (fig..44, nos. 37, 38), and the Western Willet (C. s. inornatus) (fig. 44, nos. 34, 35)- These birds lay very striking and beau-. tiful eggs, and my figures faithfully portray them in all particulars save color. There is scarcely any difference between the eggs of the two species, judging from the sixteen specimens at hand, two sets of four eggs each for either bird. An average one will measure about 2.13 by !-53, the form of them being well shown in the figures. In ground color they run from a very pale greenish olive or pale buffy to a somewhat darker brownish-olive. For the most part they are speckled, spotted, blotched all over, sometimes being a little heavier at the butts. Some'of the specks are exceedingly fine, almost requiring a lens to see them. In color, these markings are of various shades of brown, lilac, and umber, the dark brown spots sometimes overlying the lilac-gray ones. Of these four sets, the palest egg was laid by a Western Willet, and the darkest one by the eastern species (no. 37). I do not happen to have at hand any eggs of either of'our species of yellow- legs (Totanus), but I imagine they do not depart so very far from the Redshank (Totanus calidris) of Europe (fig. 42, nos. 18, 19), of which species I present the figures of two specimens, chosen from four sets of four eggs each. These show the form and size (1.7o by 1.2o, Swann) of these eggs very well, while the color and markings exhibit very considerable variation. 'The ground color may be of a
