STONE-CURLEW. 599 
takes wing. These two eggs were similar in size and shape, but very 
different in style of coloration. As before, there was nothing but a 
slight hollow scratched in the black peat. Although the eggs are very 
conspicuous, and there is obviously no attempt at concealment, their very 
conspicuousness assists in their concealment. In the localities chosen for 
depositing its eggs, the Stone-Curlew selects a place where the heath is 
short. Where we found them brown stones and white flints were lying 
in all directions, and were far more conspicuous than the eggs; it was 
only when we began to look out for double stones that we found how easy 
it was to discover the eggs. The sitting bird seems to rely upon its 
powers of observation to escape enemies, and chooses a situation where it 
can see all round, regardless of whether it can be seen or not. We did not 
hear the birds utter any note, except a distant plaintive cry, like the wail 
of the Golden Plover. The actions of the birds at the nest are, however, 
most un-plover-like, and in its habits this species certainly resembles the 
Bustards. 
The eggs of the Stone-Curlew (two in number*) vary from pale buffish 
or creamy white to rich clay-buff in ground-colour, spotted, blotched, and 
streaked with light and dark brown, and with underlying markings of lilac 
or grey. Some specimens are very boldly spotted and blotched, chiefly at 
the large end ; others are evenly marked with spots and blotches, many of 
the latter being connected by streaky lines of paler brown. Two very 
handsome eggs in my collection have the large brown blotches very 
irregular, and all more or less streaky in appearance. Some specimens 
have the markings very small and distributed over the entire surface; and 
less frequently a nearly plain type occurs, with only a few blotches here 
and there, or the large end of the egg is very finely scratched and streaked, 
with one or two large grey spots. On some eggs most of the mark- 
ings are underlying ones; on others very few of these are to be seen: the 
intensity of the brown also varies considerably, some of it being almost 
black. The eggs vary in length from 2°2 to 2:0 inch, and in breadth from 
1:6 to 1°49 inch. The only eggs with which they are at all likely to be 
confused are those of the Oyster-catcher, but the eggs of the latter bird are 
larger and the markings are darker and much bolder and more decided. 
Both birds assist in the duties of incubation. Only one brood is reared 
in the year; but if the first eggs are destroyed others will be laid, and 
fresh eggs have been obtained as late as September. The young are 
clothed in down and are able to run almost as soon as they are hatched ; 
they are very pretty little creatures, and possess the habit, in common with 
* Hume says that two is the ordinary number in India, but that he has frequently 
taken three—the proportion of the latter to the former being about one nest in ten. He 
also says that the nest is sometimes lined with a few blades of grass. The places it selects 
in India for nidification are also different in many respects from those in this country. 
