DEOMAS. 329 



" ' There can be no possible doubt about the identity of the bird, 

 as I saw several of them fly out of the nest-holes myself, and they 

 are those peculiar black and white birds with a black swallow-tail 

 mark on the back, a skin of which I sent you from Dernarra last 

 year to identify. I have compared the eggs now taken with some 

 of the eggs taken last year, and of which Mr. Huskisson forwarded 

 you a batch, and they correspond exactly, so that you were mis- 

 taken in supposing they were Shearwaters' eggs. I saw no 

 Shearwaters anywhere near the island, and do not think they breed 

 about here. 



" * I went on a donkey along the shore until I got opposite to 

 the island, and then at low tide waded across to it, a distance of 

 about a mile.' 



" Later on I received another letter from the same gentleman, 

 in which he says : 



" ' On the 10th June I visited another island about 40 miles 

 down the coast, named Allah. This is probably the one from 

 which Mr. Huskisson procured you the eggs last year, and in 

 addition to two species of Terns that were then breeding (Sterna 

 albiyena and Sterna ancestheta), I saw a lot of Crab-Plovers and 

 found numbers of their broken egg-shells.' 



" Mr. Xash further observes that the nests were usually ' all in 

 a heap,' by which I conclude he means that several nests are built 

 close together. 



" Xow, however incredible it may appear to ornithologists that 

 the Crab-Plover (Dromas ardeola, Payk.) burrows into the ground 

 and lays a single white egg, with the above facts before us re- 

 sulting from observations made at my request by two utterly 

 disinterested persons two years running, I cannot see how we can 

 arrive at any other conclusion." 



Taken in conjunction with Von Heuglin's account, there can 

 be no earthly doubt that these eggs are those of the Crab- 

 Plovers. 



It would seem that they begin to lay at the end of April or 

 very early in May, and that by the middle of July the young have 

 not yet permanently left the nest-holes, but are still always found 

 in these during the cZa^-time at any rate. Whether they come 

 out to feed during the night has yet to be discovered. Some old 

 birds once passed within a few yards of me about midnight, and 

 possibly they are partially nocturnal in their habits, and if so, as 

 there are no jackals or other animals on the coral islets where this 

 species breeds, and as there are no birds of prey about in these 

 places at night, it is far from improbable that, though still haunting 

 their burrows during the day-time until quite full-grown and able 

 to fly as well as their parents, they may nevertheless come out to 

 feed during the night, as soon as they are able to run well, and 

 this they seem to be within ten days of being hatched. 



The eggs of this species are extremely like those of Shearwaters 

 and are large for the size of the bird. They are rather elongated, 

 slightly pyriform ovals ; the shell is compact, but very distinctly 



