where the pigment is thickest. The underlying spots are in pale shades of "vinaceous drab." The measurements of 65 eggs in the United States National Museum average 29 by 21 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =31= by 21, 30 by =22=, 26.5 by =20=, and 28 by =19= millimeters.] _Young._--Incubation is believed to be performed largely by the male. Mr. Philipp (1925): Collected four birds from the nests and all proved to be males on dissection. Also a bird which was accidentally stepped on while it was shielding four young or "downies" was a male. In fact, after the eggs are laid both birds are seldom seen around the nest. The incubating bird is most solicitous about its nest. It sits very closely and, when flushed, half runs, half flutters for a few feet as if trying to lead the intruder away. If you are not deceived by these actions but remain quiet, the bird soon returns and walks daintily about, uttering a quickly repeated _peep, peep, peep_, often with such vehemence that the saliva fairly runs from its bill. Mr. Moore (1912), however, shot a bird which he thought was both incubating and singing, and it proved to be a female. Sometimes both parents show solicitude for the young as in the following case in the Yukon region, reported by Dr. Louis B. Bishop (1900): I came upon a female surrounded by four downy young. Both parents tried time and again the well known wounded-bird tactics to lure me from the spot where the young were hidden in the bunches of grass, and finding this a failure, would circle around me only a few yards off, uttering a plaintive twitter. _Plumages._--[_Author's note_: The tiny chick of the least sandpiper is prettily colored as are the young of all the tundra nesting species. The upper parts, crown, back, wings, and thighs, are quite uniformly variegated with rich browns, "bay," "chestnut" and "Sanford's brown," through which the black basal down shows in places; this is spotted irregularly, from crown to rump, with small round spots, terminal tufts, of yellowish buff. The forehead and sides of the head and neck are pale buff, with narrow, black frontal, loral and malar stripes. The under parts are pure white.