336 (EDICKEMID.E. 



markings are comparatively sparse. Both eggs in any nest have 

 generally the same character of marking. 



" By 6th April all seem to have hatched off ; not one single egg 

 was found between Oodee and Sheregurh. The stomachs of 

 several that I dissected contained the still-undigested claws of 

 crabs. 



" I found two pairs of eggs of this species, the one perfectly 

 fresh, the other slightly incubated, on a sandbank in the Chenab, 

 near Wuzeerabad, on the 28th of April, 1870. I saw a good many 

 of these birds early in the month in the Jhelum, but they had not 

 then laid. Usually in the North-West Provinces, wherever these 

 are seen, Hoplopterus ventralis are sure to be common, and one 

 finds a dozen eggs of this species to one of the Great Stone-Plover, 

 but neither in the Chenab nor the Jhelum did I notice a single 

 specimen of H. ventralis" 



Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall writes : " I found -two eggs of this 

 bird on the bare ground in a ploughed field about eight miles from 

 the nearest river, and three-fourths of a mile from the canal, on the 

 12th June ; they were quite fresh, of the ordinary nankeen colour, 

 thickly covered with large blotches of brown. I had two more 

 similar eggs brought me on the 7th June. The bird is by no means 

 common in this (Saharunpoor) district." 



But he subsequently wrote : " The note given on my authority 

 as to eggs of this bird being found in a ploughed field is erroneous. 

 The eggs belonged to (Edicnemus scolopav. I have taken many eggs 

 of E. recurvirostris, all were laid on the bare sand on banks of rivers 

 or on islands. They lay from the middle of March to the end of 

 April in the Doab." 



Major Bingham writes : " Common at Allahabad, where I once 

 found two eg^s in a slight hollow on the edge of a ploughed field 

 close to the Ganges, on the 3rd April, 1874." 



Colonel Swinhoe asks : " Have you any note of the nidification 

 in Sind of Esacus recurvirostris ? On the Queen's birthday, when 

 massir-fishing at the Hubb, near Minad Khan's place, I found one 

 solitary egg lying in the sand in the river-bed ; no nest of any kind. 

 The egg is now in the museum here." 



Mr. J. Davidson informs us that he obtained several eggs of this 

 species at Kukurmoonda, in Western Khandesh, in March. 



Mr. Gates found a nest in Pegu. He says : " Nest on May 1st 

 with two fresh eggs in fallow-land." 



Colonel Legge tells us that he found the bird breeding in the 

 Jaffna peninsula, near Pootoor, and at Aripu in Ceylon in March. 



Typically the eggs are broad ovals, very slightly pointed towards 

 one end. In this respect they resemble those of the Stone-Plover. 

 The ground-colour varies from pale cream-colour through an earthy 

 drab-colour, which is the commonest, to a somewhat pale olive- 

 brown, and the markings consist of all possible combinations of 

 blotches, streaks, lines, &c., in some cases thickly sown over the 

 whole egg, in others sparsely distributed, of every shade of olive- 

 and umber-brown, ia some becoming almost black. Besides these, 



