2 CHAEADEIID^. 



August, and the laying-season varies a good deal according to the rains." 

 According to the Khan Sahib's diary, quoted by Mr. Hume, the nests were found 

 amongst stubble, on waste and cultivated land, amongst grass, in scrub-jungle, &c. 

 Mr. Hume continues : — " The nests, he tells me, have always been small hollows, 



3 to 5 inches in diameter and at most 2 inches in depth ; generally bare, at times 

 with a slight lining of dry grass, which may have been placed there by the bird or 

 may have lodged there accidentally. Three is the greatest number he has yet 

 found in any nest, and this only exceptionally. Two he considers to be the 



usual complement The eggs vary very much in size, from 1-1 to 1-28 in 



length, and from 0-9 to 1-04 in breadth ; but the average of fifty eggs carefully 

 measured is 1'2 by 0-96." 



I have examined 24 clutches of eggs of this species, kindly lent me for the purpose 

 by Mr. H. W. Marsden, of 40 Triangle (West), Clifton, Bristol. Each clutch 

 consisted of two eggs, and they were all obtained on the island of Fuerteventura, 

 Canary Islands, in February 1891. They vary in ground-colour from pale creamy 

 buff to light stone-buff, and are mostly thickly freckled with minute " niggling " 

 spots and streaks of brown of varying intensity, sometimes distinct, but generally 

 ill-defined. On some eggs the markings are not so close and reveal the ground- 

 colour plainly, whilst on others these are so close as to almost hide it. Sometimes 

 the darker markings are clustered thickly round the larger half of the egg so as 

 to form a zone. Occasionally the markings take the form of small ill-defined 

 patches or clouds of brown colour. Nearly all the eggs have small faint 

 underlj-ing patches or streaks of bluish grey. These 48 eggs varied in length 

 from 1-52 to 1-23 inch, and in breadth from 1-15 to I'O inch, averaging 1-37 by 

 1-07 inch. The eggs obtained in India by Mr. Hume are smaller and darker 

 than those described above. 



Mr. E. G. Meade-Waldo, referring to a visit to Fuerteventiu-a (Canary 

 Islands) in 1888, Avrites*: — "The Cream-coloured Courser {Cursorius galUciis) 

 was fairly numerous and breeding ; it seemed to prefer the barest parts of the 

 desert, where the stones were mostly small. It had bred very early, for on the 

 23rd of March I saw a young bird almost able to fly, and also found a small young 

 one. The old birds did not make any fuss when I was close to their young or 

 eg2s, simply running away and, when I approached, going a little further, 

 generally creeping about 50 yards off. The eggs were very difficult to find, the 

 only guide to their whereabouts being the scratches made by the old birds before 

 finally fixing on a suitable place to lay." 



* "Notes on some Birds of the Canary Islands," ' Ibis,' 1SS9, p. 11. 



