104 Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker on the 



vandyke-brown, many of them looking as if half washed out. 

 Above these are a few spots, specks, and scrawly lines of 

 deep vandyke-brown, often surrounded by paler blotches, as 

 if by a nimbus ; under all these are a few blotches and a 

 good many spots of pale lavender. As a rule, the markings 

 are fairly numerous everywhere, but more so towards the 

 larger end, not, however, forming anything like a ring or 

 cap. 



No. 2 is similar, but shews no green tinge, and the 

 markings consist almost entirely of brown blotches, whilst 

 the spots, specks, and lines are very few in proportion and 

 the underlying grey markings quite subordinate, so that the 

 whole egg gives a more dull brown impression than do the 

 others. Even in this clutch of four, one egg is more like the 

 first-described clutch than the other three, and looks as if it 

 ought to have been laid by a different bird. 



In No. 3 the ground-colour has the green tinge more 

 strongly developed, the lines are entirely absent, and the 

 dark brown spots are only two or three on each egg. The 

 other markings consist of grey-brown or olive-brown freckles 

 and small blotches, much mixed with the secondary grey 

 blotches, so that the total effect of the egg is grey-green. 



All my eggs are of the same shape, viz., rather broad ovals 

 with well-defined, but obtuse, smaller ends. They may vary 

 to a certain extent in comparative width, length, or com- 

 pression of the smaller end, but I have seen no egg that I 

 could call in any way abnormal. 



One hundred eggs vary in size as follows : in length 

 between '70" and '80" and in breadth between *51" and 

 •57", the average of the same number being "70" by *54". 



86. RlMATOR MALACOPTILUS. 



Blanford, F. B. Ind. i. p. 175; Stuart Baker, B. N. H. 



S. J. xiii. p. 404 ; de Niceville, ibid. p. 531. 



Two most conflicting accounts of this bird's nesting were 



published in the same number of the 'Bombay Natural 



History Journal/ one by Mr. de Niceville (quoting 



Mr. Massou) and one by myself. 



