478 THE LACCADIVES AND THE WEST COAST. 
the lesser scapulars have appeared, blackish brown with broad 
white tips. A good deal older, almost completely fledged bird, with 
the primaries about two inches in length, has the entire upper 
surface, sides of the neck and breast, and upper abdomen, a deep 
sooty brown, almost black on the head and scapulars ; all the 
scapulars and the longest tertiaries, and the tail feathers, tipped 
with white, and those of the interscapulary region and all the 
wing and upper tail coverts, tipped with rufescent buff. The 
colour of these tippings, however, varies greatly ; being in some, 
all white, in some, all buffy or rufous buffy, but in the majority, 
as in the specimen described. The feathers, immediately above 
and behind the eye, are in this specimen still those of the nest- 
ling, dusky speckled with buff, or pale buff speckled with 
dusky ; the middle of the throat, greyish white, as are also 
the centre of the abdomen and vent; flanks and lower tail 
coverts, ashy, tipped with pale rufous. 
The eggs of this species are very variable, both in size, 
colour and markings. Typically they are moderately elongated, 
rather regular ovals, somewhat pointed, asa rule, towards the 
smaller end, but some are of the ordinary hen’s egg shape, 
and a few are markedly elongated. 
The shell is very fine and compact, but has no gloss. The 
ground colour varies from white, to pinky white, and from this 
latter, toa yellowish pinkish stone colour. The primary mark- 
ings consist of large blotches, spots, streaks and specks, of a 
very rich brown, which on the pinkish eggs, is often decidedly 
red, and on the rest isa sienna brown, (burnt or raw). The 
secondary markings, which look more or less as if they were 
beneath the shell, consist of spots and blotches of pale purple, 
lilac, purplish brown, or grey, the shade varying in different 
specimens. 
The extent and character of the markings vary much. In 
some eggs, all the markings, are small and spotty, in others, the 
majority are large and bold; in some, they are scattered evenly 
over the whole egg, in the majority, they are most numerous 
about the large end; in some, the markings are pretty densely 
set, in others, they are very sparse. 
In length the 23 eggs, I was able to preserve, varied from 
1’°86 to 2-03, and in breadth, from 1:26 to 1°45, but the 
average of the lot is 196 nearly by 1°34 
992.—Anous stolidus, Lin. 
We found this species breeding in great numbers on the 
Cherbaniani reef, but saw it nowhere else in the group. When 
we visited the reef in the second week of February the birds 
had only just begun to lay and we only procured a few quite 
