3.20 Mr. P. R. Lowe o?i the Crah.Plover. 



tliey (the j'onng) come out to feed is still doubtful." Dr. 

 Brockman informs me {in lilt.) that he knows that the 

 birds in Soinaliland breed in May and June, and that the 

 specimens of the young chicks sent to me must have been 

 taken at the end of June or early in July. Hume (/. c.) 

 goes on to say that the young " seem to be able to run well 

 within ten days of hatching/' so that the question arises, 

 why should the young remain so long in the burrow? Von 

 Heuglin says that they do not leave the nest for a long time, 

 although they are well able to run. He also says that they 

 were obviously blinded by the light, "cheeped " like young 

 chickens, and would run as fast as possible to any broken 

 rocks or fragments of stone to take refuge in the shade. 

 Von Heuglin also expressly states that on the Red Sea islets 

 marauding enemies practically do not exist, but he, curiously 

 enough, overlooked the land-crabs. In tropical latitudes, 

 land-crabs wage a murderous warfai'e on the young of Terns, 

 Gulls, and Waders, and it appears to me highly probable 

 that this enforced sojourn in the burrow on the part of the 

 young, or, indeed, the laying of the egg at all in such a 

 burrow, may have been induced by the danger from the 

 multitudes of these rapacious crustaceans. It may be asked, 

 what is to prevent a land-crab crawling into the burrow 

 after the young? To this I think the answer is, the adult 

 bird, with its trenchant bill, is on guard outside. 



Description of Nestling (a few days old). 



Above. Down over occipital region, back of neck, mantle, 

 and wings smoky grey, considerably daVker over rump. 

 Over the vertex and in the loral, auricular, and circumorbital 

 regions it is dark sooty grey. 



Below. The chin and foreueck are dirty white, breast and 

 abdomen white. Across the lower part of the neck, or the 

 upper pectoral region, there is a faint indication of a dark 

 band caused by the filiform endings of the downy feathers 

 being of a dark sooty-grey coloration. 



Bill. Mandibles dark horn-colour, nearly black. Gape 

 extending backwards to a spot immediately below the inner 



