381 



#it tk Jtidijitation of §mm^ m'ikoh. 



Despite all that has been urged as to the various affinities 

 of this species, I am quite sure that every ornithologist who 

 has ever watched them in life will agree with me, that so far 

 as habits and manners and customs go, the Crab Plover is hard- 

 ly to be separated from (Edicnemus and j^Jsacus. 



Such being the case, it was natural to conclude that the Crab 

 Plover would lay two eggs with a brownish or yellowish stone- 

 colored ground, blotched, streaked and spotted with blackish- 

 brown, and would lay them in some small depression on an 

 open sand bank. Accordingly, when Layard sent an egg ex- 

 tremely like one of (Edicnemus scolopax as belonging to this 

 species, I saw no reason to doubt the genuineness of the egg, 

 save that it seemed to me somewhat small for the bird. 



Nothing, however, is more certain now than that the Crab 

 Plover lays one and not two eggs ; that this egg is quite abnor- 

 mally large for the bird, and pure white in color ; and, lastly, 

 that it lays this egg not in a small depression in the open, but 

 at the extreme end of a burrow running for some four feet into 

 the sand. 



These remarkable facts, which naturally again raise the ques- 

 tion as to what the real affinities of this species can be, were 

 first set forth by von Heuglin, and have now been fully con- 

 firmed by Captain E. A. Butler. 



Baron Heuglin says (Orn. JSTordost-Afrika, p. 1045) : — 



" During my second journey along the coasts of the Red 

 Sea, I had already enjoyed many opportunities of acquiring 

 information in regard to the nidification of the Crab Plover 

 {lit. Heron-courser), and four years later I was able to complete 

 this, though I never had the good fortune to find an entire 



egg- 



" The nest places are situated on lonely flat coral islets, at 

 varying distances from the shore, but always where thick lay- 

 ers of sand and fine shell debris have accumulated. 



" Grreat numbers of Crabs of various species live in these 

 same places in deep holes pierced obliquely into the ground. 

 Precisely similar are the burrows which the Crab Plovers select 

 for laying in. Whether they excavate these themselves, or take 

 possession of crab holes for this purpose, I cannot positively 

 say ; but looking to their very small diameter, I think we may 

 assume that they were originally crab burrows. A good many 

 holes are usually together ; they open commonly to the shore, 

 and have a diameter of from 5^ to 6^ inches, and an extension of 

 from 3 feet 2 inches to 4 feet 4 inches. 



