DROMAS. 327 



markings, appear perfect miniatures of some of the varieties of 

 Esacus rccuri'irostris. They have, of course, no gloss. The ground- 

 colour is pale buffer creamy stone-colour ; and the most character- 

 istic feature in the egg is the huge, dull, half-washed-out inky clouds 

 which underlie the brighter or primary markings, which latter vary 

 from black to olive- brown. 



In some eggs the secondary markings cover half or more than 

 half the surface of the egg and are sooty black ; in others they 

 are not only smaller but much less conspicuous, being a faint inky 

 purple. Typically the primary markings are very niggling in their 

 character, a combination of specks and spots and fine irregular 

 lines, some black or blackish brown, some olive-brown, thickly 

 sown over the whole surface of the egg. Not ^infrequently, how- 

 ever, some few amongst the markings are bolder and coarser, and 

 stand out more or less conspicuously from the general scratchy 

 mottled mass of markings. In some eggs the olive-brown is wholly 

 wanting, and in one egg before me the only representatives of the 

 primary markings are a number of large blotches and spots of a 

 very rich olive-brown. Occasionally the secondary and primary 

 markings are so dense that between them almost every particle of 

 the ground-colour is concealed. Some of the eggs not a little 

 resemble those of Glareola pratincola both in size and appearance, 

 but the majority are larger and have smaller and more niggling 

 markings than the eggs that 1 have seen of G. pratincola. 



The eggs vary very much in size, from I'l to 1'28 in length, and 

 from 0*9 to 1'04 in breadth ; but the average of fifty eggs carefully 

 measured is 1-2 by 0*96. 



Family DROMADID^l. 



Dromas ardeola, Payk. The Crab-Plover. 



Dromas ardeola, Payk., Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 658 ; Hume, Rough 

 Draft N. fy E. no. 861. 



Despite all that has been urged as to the various affinities of this 

 species, I am quite sure that every ornithologist who has ever 

 watched them in life will agree with me that, so far as habits and 

 manners and customs go, the Crab-Plover is hardly to be separated 

 from (Elicnemus and ^Esacu.^. 



Such being the case, it was natural to conclude that the Crab- 

 Plover would lay two eggs with a brownish or yellowish stone- 

 coloured ground, blotched, streaked, and spotted with blackish brown, 

 and would lay them in some small depression on an open sand- 

 bank. Accordingly, when Layard sent an egg extremely like one 

 of (Ediciiemns scolopax as belonging to this species, I saw no reason 

 to doubt the genuineness of the egg, save that it seemed to me 

 somewhat small for the bird. 



