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 Nov.,1913 NOT]S ON THE EGGS OF THE NORTH AMIRICAN LIMICOLAE 197 Vanellus cristatus (or Vanellus vanetlus). Lapwing. The general ground colors of the eggs of this pcies are clay of various depths and buffish olive with very black brown markings; but among the eggs of this species there are some wonderful mbdifications, varying greatly both in color and markings and very difficult to describe. There is the palest grey stone color with very tiny black specks sparingly distributed; a deeper stone color similarly spotted but with a blotch at the butt end; another with a buffish olive ground color so completely dusted over with the tiniest specks of chocolote brown as to almost obscure the ground color; a warm buff fairly evenly spotted with black brown and smeared over with a yellow ocher color; another; greenish olive ground, with markings of blackish brown around the larger end of the egg and with a band of lighter ground color about one-fourth inch from the apex; a lovely deep olive green with enormous blotches of black interspersed with streaks all over the egg; a net brown ground with smallest markings of black brown; and rarely a fine red with darker markings of the same color, a color so absolutely unlike anything that we would expect in eggs of this species as to make one doubt its identity though I know of four sets of this variety in different collections. Generally the markings on the four eggs of a set show a great similarity to each other, but often there is one egg in a set totally distinct both in ground' color and markings. Owing to the black brown markings, the general appearance 'of a series of these eggs (leaving out the varieties) is a sombre one. The eggs have no gloss. Number of eggs in set 4- Measurements: .87 x .34 inches. charadrius dominicus. American Golden Plover. Surely Dr. Shufeldt is in error when he says the eggs of this species are al- ways much lighter in ground color and larger than tbose of Fanellux crixtatu'. Taking the ground coor, I have never seen or heard of any eggs of, C. doninicus as light in ground color as those of F. crixtatus described previously, nor do the average measurements show that they are larger; indeed I have a set of C. domi- nicux taken by Macfarlane in which the actual measurements, L8 x .35, are much smaller than a great many sets I have of F. cristatus. Owing to the reddish buff ground color of the eggs of C. dominicus they appear to be brighter and han/i- somer eggs. Charadrius pluvialis (or C. apricarius). European Golden Plover. Although this is not an American species the eggs are so beautiful that 1 venture to give a description of some of them. These eggs are consid- erably larger and more richly colored than the eggs of either C. dominicus or F. cristatu. The description given by Dr. Shufeldt is much more applicable to the eggs of this species than to those of C. dorninics, and the measurements he gives, 2.07 x 1.4o (Ridgway), are Ridgway's measurements for C. pluvialis (or apri- cariu) and not for C. dominicus. The ground color varies considerably, very pale buff, mid buff, olive buff, light olive and mid olive, and a rich deep reddish brown buff, spotted and blotched with blackish brown and red brown, the two shades often appearing on the same egg, either separately in spots, or the lighter brown on the top of the darker, giving a very rich appearance to the eggs. The underlying markings are usually few in number, never very large and of a dark- ish gray. On many of the eggs the markings are small and are evenly distributed, on others the spots and blotches are large, often confluent, and covering most of the surface of the egg, but chiefly the heavy markings are massed at the large end, sometimes forming a zone and at other times a cap. The eggs have in some instances a little gloss. Number of eggs invariably 4. Measu. rements: 2.o 7 x .4 inch. The eggs are pyriform in shape. -