344 CHARADRIIDjE. 



spots, and clouds thinly or thickly distributed over the whole 

 surface. The endless variety in the colour of the ground, and the 

 extent, intensity, and character of the markings, renders any more 

 exact description impossible ; but I may note that, besides the 

 primary markings, most of the eggs exhibit underlying clouds, 

 spots, and streaks of pale inky purple. The eggs have scarcely 

 any gloss. 



Taken as a body, the markings of the eggs of this species are 

 bolder and denser than in those of either L. malabarica or H. ven- 

 tralis. 



In length the eggs vary from 1*45 to 1'85, and in breadth from 

 1 P 13 to 1*3 ; but the average of sixty-four eggs is 1*64 nearly by a 

 little over 1-2. 



Lobivanellus atrinuchalis (Blyth). The Burmese Lapwing. 



Lobivanellus atronuchalis (BL), Hume, Hough Draft N. fy E. no. 

 855 bis. 



The Burmese Lapwing appears to breed in suitable localities 

 throughout British Burma from Thayetmyo on the north to the 

 Pak-Chan estuary on the south. 



Mr. Davison, writing to me from the Tenasserim Provinces, re- 

 marks : " A few miles from Ye-boo, while passing over a plain 

 covered with stunted bushes, and odd clumps of elephant-grass 

 partially burnt (for there had evidently been a jungle fire there 

 some eight or ten days previously), I noticed several pairs of Lobi- 

 vanellus atrinuchalis, which, as we approached, rose with their well- 

 known cry of ' Dick ! Did you do it ? ' but settled peaceably again 

 after we had passed on a short distance ; but one bird, instead of 

 behaving like -the others, kept running hither and thither, evidently 

 very reluctant to take wing. I of course at once began to look 

 about for a nest, making the men scatter and do the same ; the 

 bird did not at all approve of this, and became more and more dis- 

 tressed. It was not long before one of my men found the nest, if 

 it can be so called, containing one egg, quite fresh. The egg was 

 placed in a slight depression in the ground, but there was no pre- 

 tence of any nest, not even a few bite of dry grass. This was on 

 the 10th of March." 



Mr. Gates writes from Pegu : " My eggs of this species have 

 been taken between the 15th April and 15th May. After the 

 latter date few eggs are to be found. 



" They are placed on the ground in grass or paddy-land on the 

 bare soil, a few bits of hard clay disposed round the cavity marking 

 the limits of the nest. 



" The number of eggs is generally four. Ground-colour, cafe- 

 au-lait, thickly blotched, streaked, and spotted with deep blackish 

 brown ; surface marks and paler shell ones. The marks are 

 thickest at the broad end, where they often form a cap, but never 

 a ring. Average of thirteen eggs, 1*64 by 1*17." 



