48 The Zoologist — February, 1866. 



" When an egg is to be deposited, the top is laid open and a hole 

 scraped in its centre to within two or three inches of the bottom of tlie 

 layer of dead leaves. The egg is placed in the sand just at the edge 

 of the hole, in a vertical position, with the smaller end downwards. 

 The sand is then thrown in again, and the mound left in its original 

 form. The egg which has been thus deposited is therefore completely 

 surrounded and enveloped in soft sand, having from four to six inches 

 of sand between the lower end of the egg and the layer of dead leaves. 

 When a second egg is laid it is deposited in precisely the same plane 

 as the first, but at the opposite side of the hole before alluded to. 

 When a third egg is laid it is placed in the same plane as the others, 

 but, as it were, at the third corner of the square. When the- fourth 

 egg is laid it is still ))laced in the same plane, but in the fourth corner 

 of the square, or rather of the lozenge, the figure being of this 

 form — o o ; the next four eggs in succession are placed in the inter- 

 stices, but always in the same plane, so that at last there is a circle of 

 eight eggs all standing upright in the sand, with several inches of sand 

 intervening between each. The male bird assists the female in opening 

 and covering up the mound ; and, provided the birds are not them- 

 selves disturbed, the female continues to lay in the same mound, even 

 after it has been several times robbed. The natives say that the 

 females lay an egg every day. 



" Eight is the greatest number I have heard of from good authority 

 as having been found in one nest; but I opened a mound which had 

 been previously robbed of several eggs, and found that two had been 

 laid opposite to each other in the same plane, in the usual manner; 

 and a third deposited in a plane parallel to that in which the other two 

 were placed, but 4^ inches below them. The circumstance led me to 

 imagine it was possible that there might be sometimes successive 

 circles of eggs in different planes. 



****** 

 " One of the mounds of these birds which had been robbed of its 

 eggs on the 1 1th of November, some of which were quite fresh, had 

 two fresh eggs laid in it on the 27lh of the same month, and the birds 

 were seen at the nest on the morning of the 28th, apparently for the 

 purpose of laying, when the male bird was shot. 



" Sometimes several of these mounds are constructed close to one 

 another. 1 found two within 200 or 300 yards ; and have seen five 

 within the distances of four or five miles. They were built in precisely 



