20 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



sandy island was submerged. On the 3rd April I again went down, 

 and crossing the river made as thorough a search as was possible. 

 On a sandy bank, just below Kotri, I found it very trying work, as my 

 crutches (I could not dispense with them) sank several inches into 

 the sand at every step. My diligence was rewarded by finding three 

 nests (or holes would be the more correct term) containing, respectively, 

 two, two, and one egg, all much incubated, not so much but they made 

 decent specimens. 



The two pairs were of the usual type, but the single egg was very 

 deficient in colour, and densely clouded at the larger end with pale 

 underlying patches of inky-purple. The spot where I procured these 

 eggs was not an unfrequented one, neither was it a spit of land running 

 into the water, and scores of boatmen and others passed it daily, yet the 

 eggs were not in any way concealed. At the time I attributed the 

 cause of their being but one or two eggs in each batch, to the birds 

 having commenced to lay upon the island before it was flooded, 

 and were forced to finish lajdng in the nearest suitable place. 



I now think that they do not, in "Western India at all events, 

 usually lay more than two eggs, as in 1887, I was again stationed at 

 Hyderabad, Sind, and again found them breeding, during March and 

 April, in the same place, but in no single instance did I find more 

 than two eggs or two young in the same nesthole. Mr. Littledale's 

 experience tallies with mine ; he found them breeding, early in April, 

 on a small rocky island, a mile above Sehora on the Mahi ; he found 

 about 18 eggs altogether, but never more than two in one place. 



Mr. Hume and others give four as the maximum number, but 

 state that two only, fully incubated, are often found. 



The eggs are deposited in shallow holes, scraped in the sand, often 

 out in the open, exposed to the full rays of the sun, but usually they 

 are placed under the shelter afforded by a tuft of grass, or small 

 tamarisk bush. These depressions are scraped by the birds them- 

 selves. 



Mr. Littledale found eggs on the ground under a ledge of rock. 



The eggs vary a good deal, but are typically broad ovals, pointed 

 at one end ; the ground-colour varies from a pale greenish-white to 

 fawn colour. Occasionally eggs are found having the ground-colour 

 a pure white, and others much darker, approaching to reddish-brown ; 



