191 7"] Nidificat Ion of some Indian Falconid(E. 231 



separated except by their size, for they average a good deal 

 smaller than the eggs of that bird. 



In the series of eggs in my own collection almost every 

 type of coloration found in Peregrines' eggs is represented, 

 except the practically unicoloured egg with a brick-red 

 ground and scarcely any markings. One of the eggs in the 

 collection of the late Mr. P. L. Dodsworth, and now in the 

 Tring Museum, is a very lovely specimen of this type. This 

 pair of eggs is described by Mr. Dodsworth as follows : — 

 ''The coloration of the two eggs is entirely different. 

 One — a magnificent specimen — is a rich uniform deep brick- 

 red, the other has a ground-colour of a brownish yellow, and 

 is heavily blotched with yellowish brown.'' 



A rather quaint clutch of three taken at Lailancote has a 

 pale, rather bright pink ground, and numerous fine spots and 

 freckles of reddish brown, as well as long wide smears of 

 light reddish-clay colour running practically the full length 

 of the egg. The texture is similar to that found in the egg 

 of F. peregriims, and the shape, as in the eggs of that bird, is 

 normally a broad, very regular oval, but little compressed at 

 the smaller end. Sometimes eggs tend in shape to a long 

 narrow oval, but I have seen none which could be called 

 really abnormal. 



In size the series of eggs which have passed through my 

 hands cannot, I think, be accepted as normal, for they 

 average much bigger than those found by other field- 

 naturalists and collectors. Mine are nearly all the produce 

 of three pairs, and of these two at least seem to have laid 

 eggs above the normal in size. Forty eggs average no less 

 than 52'2 mm. x 41'2 mm., the extremes in length being 

 56*0 mm. and 49 mm., and in breadth 43'8 mm. and 

 39-2 mm. 



Of eggs other than those taken by myself and including 

 those mentioned in Hume's ' Nests and Eggs' (vol. iii. p. 184 

 et seq.), the average is decidedly smaller. 



Hume gives details of six eggs, Hopwood two, Dodsworth 

 three, and I have seen four others taken near Simla. These 

 fifteen eggs vary in length between I'SS" (47"76 mm.) and 



