514 ,«TiTNtintt't .^ Zoological Society :-r^hP, J ,<! .,M 



small insects ; it also picks up small pieces of crystal to help di«f 

 gestion. The egg varies much in size ; one sent measures 1 ^^ in. 

 in length, by rather more than ly^^^ in. in width, of a yellow stone 

 colour, spotted and dashed with grey and dark sepia. 



Genus (Edicnemus (Cuv.). 

 (Edicnemus crepitans. Thick-kneed Plover. 



This bird is tolerably common amongst the stony hills and undu- 

 lating grounds of the Deccan. It is more active by night than by 

 day, at which time its plaintive call is heard. I had for some time 

 a young bird in my tent ; during the day it used to remain quiet, 

 but when evening began to draw on its restlessness commenced, and 

 it used to run round and round the tent with great rapidity, uttering 

 a single sharp querulous note. The Thick-knee feeds on small 

 beetles and other insects, as also small particles of grass, taking 

 down small stones to help the action of the gizzard, which is of a 

 strong texture. They breed during the months of March and April, 

 laying two eggs varying in colour, 2 in. in length, by rather more 

 than l^Q in. m width, of a stone colour, blotched and spotted with 

 dark sepia-brown, and a few under spots of dark grey. In some 

 eggs the blotches are more of an olive-brown. 



(Edicnemus recurvirostris (Swains.). 



On the 5th April, 1849, I found two young birds of what I then 

 took to be the young of (Edic. crepitans^ on a large sand-bank in 

 the middle of the river Bheema. At the same time I thought it a 

 very strange place for a bird found in dry stony places to breed in. 

 In March 1850, I shot a specimen of (Edicnemus recurvirostris on 

 the same river, some distance higher up ; I therefore think it most 

 probable that they were the young of (Edic. recurvirostris, and not 

 of (Edic. crepitans. Had I, at the time I found them, known that 

 the former bird was to be found on that river, I should have exa- 

 mined carefully the shape of the bill. The testes in the male speci- 

 men shot in March were in a turgid state. I brought away the 

 young birds above mentioned ; one was much smaller than the other, 

 but much more active. They were both, if I remember right, 

 covered with a greyish down. For fear of their dying through not 

 getting proper food, I returned them to their sandy hollow the next 

 day. The gizzard of the full-grown bird contained the bones of some 

 small animal. 



Genus Tachydromus. 



I believe the egg now exhibited to be that of the Courier Plover, 

 Tachydromus Asiaticus. Two of them were found in a field in a 

 slight hollow of the ground in the month of April. Of the breeding 

 of this bird Dr. Jerdon says — " It breeds in the more retired spots 

 during the hot weather, laying three eggs of a pale greenish-yellow 

 colour, much blotched and spotted with black, and also with a few 



