162 GAME-BIRDS OF INDIA 



of this nest, we had to clear away much of the surrounding herbage. 

 The nest was only a slight depression measuring 8 inches across and 

 was lined with grasses and herbs pressed down around it. 



" The day I found this nest with two eggs was dull and wet with 

 heavy gusts of wind. ... It was 18th May and ... a few hours 

 later on the very same day I came across a second nest about three 

 miles from the first one. It would be hard to imagine a greater 

 contrast than it presented, for it was on a bare and open hillside, 

 fallow ground with practically no cover on it save that afforded by 

 some scattered patches of rank herbage. The nest was constructed 

 in one of these patches and was quite open to view to any passer-by, 

 as can be seen from the picture. The cup of the nest was much 

 deeper and better-finished than the cup of the first one, being well 

 lined with grasses. The adroitness of the Little Bustard is shown 

 by the fact that despite the open nature of the ground around this 

 nest, and of my keeping a sharp look-out, we never saw her leave it, 

 and she took wing from a point just twenty- three yards (measured) 

 from one side of it." 



The number of eggs laid is generally four, but five eggs have 

 been taken in the same clutch, and three are often found, whilst 

 sometimes only two have been incubated. 



Aksakoof, as quoted by Dresser, gives the number of eggs laid 

 as from eight to twelve, but this, of course, is incorrect and is probably 

 due to a mistake of some kind, as even clutches of five eggs are 

 exceedingly rare. 



Gates, in his British Museum Catalogue of Eggs, thus describes 

 the eggs of Otis tetrax : — 



" The eggs of the Little Bustard are of a short pointed oval form, 

 frequently elliptical and sometimes spheroidal. They are highly 

 glossy. The ground is dark olive-green or olive-brown, and 

 occasionally of a buff colour, and this is marked with streaks, 

 clouds and blotches of very pale reddish-brown or yellowish-brown. 

 The underlying markings are hardly separable from the ground 

 colour. Many specimens are marked so faintly that they appear to 

 be quite plain-coloured ; but when closely examined the markings 

 can always be made out. The eggs measure from 1'92 to 2'23 in 

 length, and from 1'43 to 1'6 in breadth." 



In addition to the ground-colours mentioned above, I have one 

 clutch which is a pale french-grey with the markings very pro- 

 nounced and dense, and two others again which might be termed 

 olive-blue, upon which the markings, though faint, contrast well and 

 distinctly with the ground colour. 



