90 The Oologists' Record, December i, 192 1. 



three chambers, one each on the right and left and one in the centre, 

 and all about a foot in. The nest was constructed with a little 

 dead grass lined with feathers, and when new must have been a 

 pad of material with a shallow cup in the centre, but was now in a 

 filthy state on account of two or three weeks' droppings from the 

 young birds. There were three fully fledged 3'oung, and two bad 

 eggs which were clotted with congealed filth. The ? parent bird 

 came out of the mouth of the cistern on our arrival and flew away. 

 The cry of the ? was a prolonged twittering, if anything rather 

 harsh ; it reminded me on occasions of the alarm note of the Peewit, 

 though, of course, not so voluminous. She also uttered a very 

 Finch-like chirrup. The eggs differed very considerably in size, 

 colour, shape and degree of badness. One was hard set, stinking 

 and quite impossible to clean, of the usual shape, but reminded 

 me more of a Tree Pipit's egg ; the ground colour was a pinkish- 

 purple, very thickly speckled, and marked all over with purple 

 and purplish-brown, shell spots of a greyer hue ; measured -86 X -66 

 (inches). The other was unfertile and easily cleaned, small and 

 round, measuring -77 x -62 ; whitish ground colour, speckled all 

 over with grey-brown shell spots, the larger end being stained and 

 heavily blotched with brown and sepia surface markings. Out 

 of the same nest two fresh eggs were taken on the 7th June, 191.S, 

 and another couple on the 8th June. Not much attempt had been 

 made to clean up or rebuild the nest, though a little fresh dry grass, 

 some bents and feathers had been added, but the nesting hole 

 was still in a filthy state. The ? bird was always very careful 

 to leave the cistern before anyone could get down to the nest, 

 and while one was yet several yards away she would come out 

 and perch on a rock near by. Then she would go through a regular 

 display to try and draw one away from the nest, and was an adept 

 at playing the wounded bird and going through various noisy antics 

 in order to attract attention to herself and draw the intruder away 

 from the nest. This nest was again visited on the 19th June, when 

 six fresh eggs were taken, all of a beautiful reddish-purple colour, 

 finely speckled, streaked and spotted all over with reddish-purple 

 on the surface and with finer purplish shell markings. This nest 

 of hair, etc., and full of fleas, has been previously described." 

 The measurements of 14 eggs are as follc^ws : — 



•86 X •66\ / 2, and 3 fully \„, , j , j o 



r r ^n , J >Staleandbad... 31. 5. 18 2,500 



•77 X -62 j L fledged young. J ^ ^ ^ 



