rare Palearctic Birds’ Eggs. 323 
in the sandy river-beds in Tehri-Garhal. Four nests were 
discovered, three of which contained four hard-set eggs and 
the fourth three eggs, which were also slightly incubated; but 
I have reason to believe that the last-named was a second 
clutch, and that the usual complement would be four. The 
nests were merely hollows in the sand among shingle and 
boulders on some island or shingle-bank and were all pretty 
near the water. They were rather neatly lined with little 
round stones, chiefly of a black colour, which made them 
somewhat conspicuous, in fact my eye was caught more by 
the nests than by the eggs. They were not difficult to find, as, 
possibly owing to the eggs being hard-set, the birds betrayed 
their whereabouts by their actions, while a little watching did 
the rest. In two cases, however, the old bird, although it 
came straight back to the nest, sat down about twelve feet 
away from the eggs and fairly puzzled me for a short time. 
One nest I discovered by retracing the tracks of a bird that 
rose and flew back in a suspicious way, but there was usually 
too much shingle to do this. Later in the year I saw several 
broods of young. The parents, in their behaviour with 
regard to the nest and its location, reminded me strongly 
of Hoplopterus ventralis. They acted very much like Lap- 
wings, wheeling round quite close to my head with their 
curious twittering cry and enticing a dog away by settling 
and running in front of it till they were almost caught, but 
I did not at any time see them feign lameness or broken 
wings. ‘These birds seem to sit on their eggs with the head 
held up and the neck not drawn in at all. 
“The eggs are greenish grey in ground-colour and are 
spotted and marked, chiefly at the larger end, with reddish 
brown and pale purple. They do not vary much either 
in coloration or size; an average egg measured 1:94 by 
1°47 inch.” 
The three eggs sent to me vary little, but I may remark 
that the greenish tinge in the ground-colour has quite faded, 
and had almost done so when they arrived. The measure- 
ments of these three eggs are 1°96 by 1:45, 2:01 by 1°46, and 
2:05 by 1:49 inches. 
ye 
