ANASTOMUS. 225 



diameter, of sticks, among which I recognized twigs of peepul, neein, 

 her, and babool. There was a slight depression in the centre, 

 scantily lined with leaves of the peepul and neem, and grass ; this 

 lining in the sixty odd nests I examined had been wetted (most 

 likely by the birds returning wet from the neighbouring paddy- 

 fields and tanks, which furnished their food), and added by its decay 

 and fermentation to the warmth of the nests. 



" The number of eggs varied from two to five in each nest. In 

 one I found two hard-set ones, and in a second six, one (evidently 

 from its colour the last laid) very small. 



" Their colour, normally, is pure white, but as incubation proceeds 

 they get much soiled by the feet and droppings of the bird. The 

 average length and breadth of forty eggs measured (leaving out 

 the abnormally small one above mentioned) is length 2-20 inches, 

 breadth 1-49 inch. 



" As far as I know, they have only one brood in the year, and 

 use the same nests, repairing them year by year. There could not 

 have been less than from 150 to 200 pairs of the birds breeding 

 here. In one peepul-tree I counted no less than sixty-two nests, 

 and not only the nests themselves, but the branches of the tree and 

 the ground underneath were covered with the droppings of the 

 birds. 



" One or two of the Ibises made a feint of defending their nests, 

 opening and clattering their bills threateningly, but flying off when 

 my servant, whom 1 had sent up, got close to them. In one case, 

 however, ray man had to push the bird with a stick, and as it flew 

 away I shot it. It proved to be a male." 



Mr. Scrope Doig, writing from the E. Narra, Sind, says : 

 "Found this bird breeding in company with Herons, Egrets, &c., 

 in August." 



In Ceylon, according to Colonel Legge, this species breeds in 

 January, February, and March. 



The eggs are typically oval, of much the size and shape as an 

 English hen's egg, but narrow, elongated, and pointed, as weh 1 as 

 pyriform, varieties occur. In texture the shell is generally close 

 and satiny, being perceptibly smoother to the touch than those of 

 Graptocephalus papiHonu, Ibis melanocepliala, the Spoonbill, or the 

 Heron ; and in this respect, as well as in colour, closely approx- 

 imating to the larger and differently-shaped eggs of Dissura epis- 

 copus. The eggs, when freshly laid, are a sort of creamy white, 

 entirely free from markings of any kind, but as incubation proceeds 

 they become the same dirty earth or yellowish brown that the 

 eggs of the White-necked Stork, the Little Grebe, and other species 

 assume. 



In length the eggs vary from 2-0 to 2-52, and in breadth from 

 1-48 to 1-82 : but the average of fifty-seven is 2-24 by 1-6. 



VOL. III. 15 



