Nidification of Indian Birds. 99 



Either three or four seem to be the full complement of 

 eggs laid, the former far more often than the latter, and two 

 eggs much incubated may often be met with. 



The eggs differ from those of D. tickelli only in being, on 

 the whole, smaller and rather greener on average in the tone 

 of their coloration. 



The range of variation is extremely small and the following 

 description of three clutches covers all the normal varieties. 



1. Ground-colour a pale clear green, more decidedly green 

 than the green- blue of a Thrush's egg and also rather paler. 

 The markings consist of very numerous, but very faint, grey- 

 brown freckles and tiny blotches distributed equally all over 

 the egg. The general impression of colour conveyed by this 

 clutch is pale sea-green. 



2. In the next the ground-colour is the same, but the 

 markings are rather bolder, decidedly darker and browner 

 or less grey, so that the general effect is that of a brown- 

 green egg, matched in this respect by some densely covered 

 eggs of Copsychus and Cittacincla. 



3. The third type is an exaggeration of the last. The 

 ground-colour has, perhaps, more of a brown tint in it, or, 

 I should say, it is less bright green than in either of the 

 preceding, the markings are more numerous, more confluent, 

 and more distinctly brown, and the impression given is that 

 of a brown egg. 



In one egg in my collection the markings consist in part 

 of fine bold blotches with wide clear interspaces of the green 

 ground-colour; they are principally confined to the larger 

 end, but are fairly numerous throughout. In this egg, as in 

 all the rest, secondary marks do not exist. 



In shape the eggs vary as little as they do in coloration. 

 Typically they are rather broad ovals but little compressed 

 towards the smaller end, which is blunt. Abnormal eggs 

 tend towards a rather pointed oval and sometimes to an 

 elliptical shape, but either form is very rare, especially the 

 former. I have seen no egg, out of, perhaps, a hundred 

 which have passed through my hands, which could really 

 be called pointed. 



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