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Show 166 PROF. NEWTON ON NEW BIRDS' EGGS. [Jail. 24, bidding them observe the difference between the two species of Phalarope, with the view of subsequently obtaining the eggs of this one. It was not until 1862 that any good came of it. In that year, Pastor Sivertsen wrote to me from Utskala, saying that three nests had at last been found. Of these unfortunately the contents of one disappeared, and those of the second were broken; so that the eggs from the third were all he had to send me. They reached me in a very bad condition, and, but for the skilful manipulation of Mr. Salvin, would have been useless. As it is they are presentable. In 1866 Pastor Theobald was so good as to send m e three eggs of this species with the parent birds caught on the nest, which were brought to him the year before by Herr Zimmer from Egedesminde in North Greenland. It is extremely satisfactory to find that these well-identified eggs closely resemble those I had received from Iceland ; and the particulars in which they most resemble one another are the pale ground-colour and infrequency of the markings, which serve to distinguish them at once when laid among a hundred or more eggs of Phalaropus hyperboreus. In size the Greenland eggs of P. fulicarius are somewhat, though not a great deal, larger than most eggs of P. hyperboreus, but are nearly as much smaller than the Icelandic specimens, one of which serves to illustrate this paper (Pl. X V . fig. 1). The largest of the seven I possess measures 1*25 inch by *9 inch ; the smallest 1*17 inch by *84 inch. I cannot venture to say that the egg of P. fulicarius may never closely resemble that of P. hyperboreus; but specimens of the former I have here noticed could never for a moment be mistaken for any I have seen of the latter. YELLOW-SHANKS SANDPIPER. Totanus flavipes (Gmelin). (Pl. X V . fig. 5.) I am not aware that the eggs of this species have been anywhere figured or described. I have received two from the Smithsonian Institution. They are marked as having been obtained by Mr. Macfarlane, 25th June, 1863, on the barren grounds at the Fort, Anderson River; and the note mentions that the hen bird was shot very near the nest, which contained four eggs. The specimens sent me measure about 1*57 inch by 1*14 inch, and in colouring greatly resemble some eggs of Totanus calidris. GREAT BLACK-HEADED GULL. Chroicocephalus ichthyaetus (Pallas). Specimens of the fine egg of this fine bird recently sent to me by Herr Moschler, who received them from the Lower Volga, correspond very well with the description given of it by Pallas (Zoogr. R.-As. ii. p. 323). On a clean-looking ground of very pale stone-colour or French white, good-sized blotches of dark brown are pretty regularly distributed, patches of lavender-grey being interspersed among and beneath them. M y largest specimen is 3*08 inches by 2*11 inches; the smallest 2*91 inches by 2*09 inches. Three ex- |