PTEBOCLUKUS SENEGALBNSI3 EBLANGERI 299 



Here we have eggs in every month but January and August, 

 but the favourite months may be said to be March to July. In 

 confirmation of this, Mr. R. M. Adam says that about the Sambhar 

 Lake they breed in great numbers in April and May. Mr. J. 

 Davidson took these eggs from January to June in the Deccan, 

 and Major Cock found them breeding at Nowshera in May and 

 June, vyhilst Mr. A. Anderson says that in the Doab they breed in 

 March, April and May, and finally Colonel Butler found their eggs 

 at Dungarwar (fifty-five miles south of Deesa) in March and May. 

 On the other hand Davidson found them breeding in Western 

 Khandesh in February, in the same month Colonel Butler found 

 their eggs in Belgaum, and Mr. Hastings took their eggs in October 

 in Etawah, South-vs^est United Provinces. 



Colonel Bingham wrote to me that he took their eggs near 

 Mhow in January, and Mr. E. G. Pythian-Adams also wrote to 

 me to the effect that he found them laying round about Poona in 

 December, January and February, and I have also eggs taken by 

 Vidal (Aligur) and by Bulkley (Sind) in the former month. 



The only conclusion one can draw is that these birds breed more 

 or less throughout the year, but that in North and Central India 

 more breed from March to July than in other months, whilst further 

 south they breed earlier, the majority in February and March. It 

 is probable also that most birds lay twice in the year at least. 



The eggs are laid in a depression in the soil, either natural or 

 scratched out by the birds themselves. In the very great majority 

 of cases there is no lining of any sort whatsoever, but Adams, 

 Anderson and one or two other observers have found a certain 

 amount of grass placed in the hollow as a sort of rough lining. 

 How rare, however, it is to find such, is shown by the fact that 

 in the enormous number of nesting-places found by Hume, Davidson 

 and the Khan Bahadur, never once did any of them ever find any 

 lining placed in the depression below the eggs. 



Three is the number of eggs almost invariably laid, but occa- 

 sionally two only are incubated. The stories however, of five and 

 four eggs being laid by the same bird are almost certainly the result 

 of two birds laying in the same nest-hole or of some mistake on the 

 part of the collector. Both sexes take part in incubation, and as 



