GLAEEOLA. 321 



without uttering a sound wh en we got near, and only one or two 

 of them, the sitting birds, returned (when we drew off apart to 

 watch them) to look after their nests. Moreover, whilst we were 

 actually collecting their eggs, they were flying about busily hunting 

 flies and other insects, ju^t as if they had no concern with the eggs. 

 Like the Terns, they lay in a little cup -like cavity which they scoop 

 in dry sand. There seems never to be the least trace of any kind 

 of lining, nor any decided attempt at concealment. There were 

 plenty of tiny bushes of jhao (Tamarix dioica) and herbs scattered 

 sparsely here and there, but they took no advantage of any of these. 

 I suspect that in the case of these and other birds the warmth 

 generated by the sun on the white sand has a good deal to do with 

 hatching the eggs, and makes up for the irregular way in which the 

 parent birds seem to sit." 

 Again I have noted : 



" I found an enormous number of the eggs of this species on the 

 28th April on a sandbank in the Chenab near Wuzeerabad. On 

 the 6th I had examined the same bank and found only one single 

 egg. On the 28th, besides eggs, I found numerous young ones. 

 This species, like the Terns <fcc., which breed more or less in com- 

 pany with it, lays much later in the Upper Punjab than in the 

 North- West Provinces, but in both places the Swallow-Plover is 

 first to lay. 



" Although many of the eggs were placed in tiny depressions in 

 the bare sand, open to the view from all sides, by far the majority 

 were placed at or near the roots of tiny jhao bushes {Tamarix 

 dioica), a foot or two only in height and diameter, which partially 

 concealed them. 



" Plover-like, four seemed the full number of eggs, but in several 

 cases three, and even two, were found to be much incubated. The 

 birds in no instances sat on their eggs, though one of the pair 

 usually sat near them. I was searching the bank at about 2 P.M., 

 and then the glittering white sands were too hot to allow the hand 

 to be kept on them, while even the boatmen complained that the 

 hardened horny soles of their feet were blistered by the heat. 



"The strange antics played by these little birds, at least those of 

 them that had young or hard-set eggs, whenever we approached their 

 treasures, were very remarkable : flying past one, they would come 

 fluttering down on to the sand a few paces in front of one, and 

 there gasp and flutter as if mortally wounded, hobbling on with 

 draggled wings and limping legs as one approached them, and 

 altogether simulating entirely helpless and completely crippled 

 birds. Xo one unacquainted with the habits of this class of birds 

 could have believed, to see them napping along on the sands on 

 their stomachs, every now and then falling head over heels and 

 lying quite still for an instant, as if altogether exhausted, that this 

 was all a piece of consummate acting intended to divert our atten- 

 tion from their nests. I have seen Peewits and other Plovers 

 behave somewhat similarly, but these little Pratincoles seemed 

 to me to be cleverer performers than any birds I had ever seen. 



TOL. III. 21 



