158 Letters^ Extracts^ and Notes. [Ibis, 



between them and the Brahmapootra. These swamps are 

 practically never traversed except by elephant-catchers and 

 a few of the Hill tribesmen who come down to hunt for 

 rubber and other forest produce. The waterways stretch 

 for endless weary miles through forest, swamp, and jungle 

 of the wildest description, now gorgeous green virgin forest, 

 then impenetrable cane-brake, and again every now and then 

 wide reaches of water overgrown with every conceivable 

 kind of reed, grass, and water-plant. 



Messrs. Gregerson and Nuttall were in a dugout, poling 

 along one of these waterways, when they suddenly came 

 round a sharp corner and emerged into one of these open 

 parts. As they did so a bird slid off what appeared to be a 

 small pile of dead rubbish just in front of them, diving at 

 once, but reappearing at a little distance, when it was at once 

 shot, proving to be a male Pinfoot. After the bird had been 

 recovered the " pile of weeds and rubbish " was inspected 

 and found to be a nest containing the present egg. 



The egg is a dull yellow stone-colour very faintly marked 

 with a few spots and blotches of neutral tint. The texture 

 is hard, close, and fine, and the surface smooth but with a 

 few small pimples on it. 



It measures 44"2 X 30"5 mm., and in shape is a regular 

 but blunt oval. 



It was taken on 24 July, 1904. 



I also show a box containing fourteen clutches of eggs 

 of Calandrella hr achy dactyl a longipeyinis, the Tibetan, or 

 Brooks' Short-toed Lark. There are four clutches contain- 

 ing four eggs, six containing three, and four two eggs each 

 in this series, but^ as a matter of actual fact, the number 

 of eggs met with in a clutch is most often only two, some- 

 times three, and very rarely four. I have now seen about 

 forty clutches of which seven have contained four, and 

 have records of about fifteen other clutches none of which 

 had more than three. It will be noticed that in the series 

 exhibited the extreme in each type of coloration is shown 

 in clutches consisting of but two eggs, and the next most 

 noticeable point is that in several clutches the eggs vary 



