SYPHEOTIS BENGALENSIS 229 



and which, when teste! in lukewarm water, proved to be fresh, were 

 eventually hatched on the 30th of that month and 2nd June, though 

 neither chick survived more than a few hours. 



In shape the eggs are typically very regular ovals, the ends being 

 equal. In proportion of length to breadth they vary considerably, 

 but remarkably little otherwise, though a few eggs may be somewhat 

 pointed at one end and in a few other instances at both ends. 

 Curiously enough the extremes of variations are often met with in 

 pairs of eggs laid by the same bird. 



In colouration this bird's egg is peculiarly constant, unlike the 

 eggs of Si/pJieotis aurita (the Lesser Florican) which vary very 

 greatly inter se. The ground-colour is an olive-green, in some cases 

 rather brighter, in some rather more brown. The very few excep- 

 tions to this ground-colour in my collection are one pair with a pale 

 olive-green, almost sea-green tint, and another pair with a pale stone- 

 grey colour. 



The markings consist of small freckles, splashes and blotches, 

 generally longitudinal in character, of brown and purple-brown, 

 rather more profuse at the larger end than elsewhere, Ijut nowhere 

 very numerous. In some eggs these markings are all reduced to 

 freckles, and in these eggs they are often very numerous, very in- 

 definite, and often equally distributed over the whole surface. In no 

 eggs are the markings at all bold in character. In a few eggs, not, I 

 think, one in ten, there are a few secondary markings of purple-grey 

 or dark lavender-grey, but they are very indistinct, and, from the 

 colour of the ground, hard to distinguish. 



The average of eighty eggs is 2'42 X 1'7(J inches ( = about 

 G2'5 mm. X 44'8 mm.), and the greatest length and breadth 2'7() 

 and 1'85 ( = about 70 mm. X 47 mm.), respectively, and the 

 smallest 2-2H and 1-67 (= 57"9 mm. X 42-5 mm.). 



When fresh the great majority of Sijpheotis hengalensis eggs are 

 decidedly a bright greenish olive-green, but very soon after being 

 blown they become somewhat paler, and in a year or two often lose 

 much of their green tint and become more of an olive-brown. The 

 gloss, also, which in newly-taken eggs is generally highly developed, 

 pales considerably with time, though some retain it for many years 

 and few lose it altogether. 



