NESTING JN WESTERN INDIA. 17 



" Occasionally the primary and secondary markings are so dense, 

 that between them every particle of the ground-colour is concealed. 

 Some of the eggs not a little resemble those of Glareola pratincola 

 both in size and appearance, but the majority arc larger and have 

 smaller and more niggling markings than the eggs I have seen of 

 G. pralincola." — (Hume's Next* and Eggs of Indian Birds, p. 567.) 



842.— THE LARGE SWALLOW PLOVER. 



Glareola orientalis, Leach. 



Mr. Davidson records the Large Swallow Plover from the Deccan, 

 haviDg seen birds on the Bhima River, about 40 or 50 miles south of 

 Sholapur ; I am not aware of any one else having met with it, so that 

 it must be extremely rare. 



They appear to be not uncommon in suitable places in Sind, 

 notably in the Eastern Narra district, where Mr. Doig found them 

 breeding in company with the Collared Pratincole. 



He does not describe the eggs. I, therefore, reproduce a descrip- 

 tion by Mr. E. W. Oates, who found them breeding in Burma, 

 during April and May, 



" The ground-colour is stone or bull-coloured, and the whole shell 

 is thickly blotched with blackish-brown and underlying smears of 

 paler brown sunk into the shell. Other eggs are so thickly blotched 

 as to appear black, when viewed at a short distance off. They are 

 without gloss and plover-like, one end of the egg being much pointed. 

 In size they vary from P25 to 1*12 inches in length, and from 0-90 

 to - 9 in breadth, but the average of a considerable series is 1*8 by 

 0-93."— {Stray Feathers, Vol. III., p. 50.) 



To this Mr. Hume adds a footnote, — 



[This is especially noteworthy as showing that, in its eggs, this 

 species diverges widely not only from Glareola lacfea, but from its 

 extremely closely allied congener, Glareola pratineohi. The eggs of 

 the former ****** are no t i n the least plover-like, but 

 rather tern-like, and of the latter Mr. Hewitson says : — "In shape 

 and colour they bear a much closer resemblance to the eggs of 

 the Black Tern, than to those of any other British bird; they 

 are not at all like the pointed eggs of the true Waders," by which he 

 means to refer to the Plovers, Godwits, Snipes, &c] 



3 



