192 ALLEN'S NATURALISTS LIBRARY. 



standing from two to three inches above the level of the water, 

 while another had a foundation of yellow ooze. "The slight 

 hollow was about six inches across and the nest was about 

 eight inches in diameter at the surface of the water." 



Mr. A. O. Hume gives an interesting account of the 

 breeding of the Stilt in the salt-district of North-western India. 

 He writes : " The birds have their choice of sites, though 

 on what this depends I could not find out. Not one nest was 

 found in two successive seasons at Bulpoor or Kuliawas ; very 

 few at Sultanpoor. On the other hand, at Moobarikpoor (and 

 all the salt-works are exact facsimiles one of the other) the 

 nests were, in some places, crowded to an inconceivable 

 degree. On one strip, about three feet wide and one hundred 

 feet long, there were twenty-seven nests on one margin and 

 eleven on the other, besides five nests of the Red-wattled 

 Lapwing. So accustomed were the birds to the workmen 

 walking up and down the middle of this strip, that many of the 

 birds never moved, though we passed within a few inches of 

 them, and those that did move merely stalked leisurely a few 

 paces away into the salt-pans on either side." 



Eggs. Four in number, but often only three. In Ceylon, 

 Colonel Vincent Legge says that he has found many nests 

 containing three hard-set eggs, and he states, moreover, that 

 for the most part they were not placed point to point, as is the 

 usual rule with Plovers. The eggs of the Stilt have a great 

 general resemblance to those of the Avocet, but are very much 

 smaller. The colour of the eggs varies from clay-brown to 

 olive stone-colour, but a lighter type is also sometimes met 

 with, where the ground-colour is of a creamy stone-colour or 

 buff. As a rule the eggs are heavily spotted and blotched, 

 when the spots become confluent, and lightly spotted eggs are 

 less frequent than in the Avocet. In the Hume collection are 

 some which have the spots congregated at either the large or 

 the small end. Axis, i '55-1 '85 inch; diam., 1*15-1 '3. 



THE PHALAROPES. SUB-FAMILY 

 PHALAROPIN^E. 



These curious, soft-plumaged little Plovers are easily recog- 

 nised by their lobed toes, which have scalloped webs like the 



