NESTS AA'P EGGS OF AUSTRAL/ AN BIRDS. 771 



seconds and then had considerable difficulty in disting^shing the eggs 

 again. 



" As a rule, the eggs are laid in October ; but this year (1884), for the 

 fii-st time, I obtained them in September. Usually the bird is very shy, 

 but during the period of incubation it loses this .shyness, and both parent 

 birds will allow themselves to be approached quite closely, and seem 

 regardless of danger in their anxiety to protect their eggs or young. 

 In fact I have seen the female bird so loath to quit the eggs that it wa.s 

 only when I touched her with my hand that she would quit the nest, 

 jvocking savagely at my hand several times before she did so ; the male 

 bird, in the meantime, lying flat on the ground, with outstretched 

 wings, a few feet off, uttering the most plaintive cries.' 



595. — -Gl.^reol.^ ORiENTALis. Lcacli. — (516) 

 ORIENTAL PRATINCOLE. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of .\ustralia, fol., vol. vi., pi. 1;^. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxiv., p. 58. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Hume : Nests and Eggs Indian Birds, 

 (1875), also Oates' ed., vol. iii., p. 319 (iSqo) ; Campbell : 

 Southern Science Record (1883). 



Gei)(/r(iiiliiral Bixtril)ufiiiii . — West and North-west Australia, Nor- 

 thern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales ; also extending 

 through the Malayan Archipelago to Burmah and India. 



Nest. — A slight hollow on the bare ground. 



^(19^- — Clutch, two to three ; round oval in shape ; texture of shell 

 comparatively fine ; surface without gloss ; colour, dull yellowish-stone, 

 lieavily blotched with dark-umber, almost black, and cloudy sepia or 

 dull gi-e\-ish-black. Dimensions in inches of a pair: (1) 1-3 x 10, 

 (2) 1-25 X 1-0. According to Hume, the average measurements of a 

 considerable series are : 118 x -93. 



Ohservatinti-i. — The Oriental Pratincole wanders or migi'ates from 

 Asia to the northern parts of Australia, where it .sometimes appears 

 in countless niunbers. It has been foiuid a-s far south as New 'South 

 Wales. This Pratincole has a more chubby appearance than the other 

 species, and is a greyish creature, with an oval marking of spots on the 

 throat. 



In Hiune's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," Mr. Eugene Oates, 

 who has invaded the nesting haunts of the Oriental Pratincole in Pegu, 

 Lower Burmah, gives the following interesting information: — "I have 

 found eggs of this species from tlie 16th April to the 1st May, on which 

 latter date some eggs were fresh, but others much incubated. Three 

 appears to be the maximum number of eggs, but two only are more 



