382 ON THEJ NIDIFICATION OF DROMA.S ARDEOLA. 



" No precise examination of the holes can be effected, as the 

 sand falls in directly you begin to dig. The terminal third of 

 the burrow seems generally somewhat bent towards the right 

 or left, and the cauldron-shaped nest-room is very small. In 

 most we found, (this was in July,) one, half-grown, young one. 

 In front of the passage lay the fragments of the comparatively 

 large, somewhat shortly globular, dirty white eggs, the shells 

 of which are yellowish when looked through. 



*' The young seem not to leave the nest for a long time, 

 although they are well able to run. They were obviously blind- 

 ed by the day-light, " cheeped" like young chickens, and would 

 run as fast as possible to any broken rocks or fragments of stone, 

 and take refuge in the shade or any dark place." 

 Now Captain Butler writes : — 



" I think, I am at last in a position to prove that the large 

 white eggs which I sent you last year belong to the Crab 

 Plover. 



'' In order that you may be satisfied as to their identity, I 

 will relate fully the circumstances under which they were 

 taken. 



" About the 8th June 1878, my friend Mr. Huskisson, Super- 

 intendent, Indo-European Telegraph Department, who was then 

 at Bushire, kindly sent some natives to see if there were any 

 sea birds breeding on one of the islands off Tungistan about 

 40 miles east of Bushire, Persian Grulf, and they returned with 

 a batch of large white eggs and two skins (a nestling in down 

 and an adult) of Dromas ardeola, saying that they had found 

 numbers of these birds breeding on the island, and that the 

 eggs were laid in holes in the sand hills. The nests they 

 reported as being a good deal scattered, and the eggs as a rule 

 much incubated, many being on the point of hatching. 



" On receiving these eggs, I must say, I was most incredu- 

 lous, and thought, as you suggested, that in all probability 

 they belonged to the Gulf Shearwater {Puffinus persicus, 

 Hume). However, the skins of the adult and nestling 

 Crab Plover showed that that species bred there, so I resolved 

 to make arrangements to have the island explored again about 

 May the following year. In the meantime I received another 

 letter from Mr. Huskisson saying that he had re-visited the 

 island on the 13th July himself, and dug out many of the nests 

 which were in holes in the sand hills, and that most of them 

 contained a single young bird, almost ready to leave the nest. 



*' The following year, 1879, according to arrangement, my 

 friend, Mr. Nash, of the Telegraph Department, visited an island 

 named * Montafie,' about 20 miles east of Bushire at the end 

 of May, and made the following report : ' I visited the island off 



