56 



the attempt sometimes fails, in far more cases successfully hides 

 from the enemy the situation of the eggs or young. 



This bird lays its eggs on the bare earth. 



They are two or three in number, olive brown in their ground 

 colour, numerously spotted with darker brown. They are of 

 a regular shape, and not much pointed. 

 . The young are hatched in the latter end of July. 



Male; length, one foot and nearly an inch; bill, black tipped 

 with yellow, the inside of the mouth bright vermilion; iris, 

 dark brown surrounded by a rim of vermilion red: under the 

 eye is a small white speck. Head, crown, neck on the back, 

 sides, and front, dark slate-colour, below which is a collar of 

 deep black, followed by the white o~ the lower part of the 

 neck and nap chin arid throat, dark slate-colour; breast, 

 white; back, pale bluish grey. 



The wings extend rather more than an nch beyond the end 

 of the tail; greater and lesser wing coverts, bluish grey; the 

 first five primaries are black, tipped and edged on the inner 

 webs, nearly to, and sometimes quite to, the tips, with white, 

 namely, the first and second black or white at the ends; the 

 third, fourth, and fifth white; the sixth with a white shaft, 

 having the web more or less black, but principally white, with 

 sometimes a black spot near the end, the other primaries white, 

 the shafts black; secondaries and tertiaries, white; greater and 

 lesser under wing coverts, white. Tail, white; the feathers 

 twelve in number, the outer ones narrower than the centre 

 ones, and about an inch longer, upper and under tail coverts, 

 white. The legs, feathered nearly to the knee, and the toes, 

 black; claws, black. 



The young, in the autumn the first year has the bill 

 black at the base, the tip yellowish white; the space between 

 the eye and the bill, excepting a narrow line o. greyish black 

 around the lower part and in front of the eye, is white; fore- 

 head, white crown, mottled with blackish grey; neck on the 

 sides, white nape, darker blackish grey, shaded off into the 

 other tint; chin and throat, white; breast above, pale grey 

 white; back, blackish grey tinged with yellowish brown, the 

 extremity of every feather varying from greyish white to white 

 as it approaches the tail. Greater and lesser wing coverts, 

 blackish grey tinged with yellowish brown, broadly tipped with 

 white the first five primaries have the shafts brownish black 

 at the base, becoming gradually darker towards their ends, 

 which in the first three are black tipped with dull white, but 



