THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 47 



passer b}^ as can be seen from the picture. The cup of the nest 

 was much deeper and better finished than the cup of the first one, 

 being well lined with grasses. The adroitness of the Little Bus- 

 tard is shewn by the fact that despite the open nature of the 

 ground around this nest and of my keeping a sharp look out, we 

 never saw her leave it and she took wing from a point just 23 

 yards (measured) from one side of it." 



The number of eggs is generally four, but five eggs have been 

 taken in the same clutch and three are often found whilst some- 

 times onljr two have been incubated. 



Aksakoof, as quoted by Dresser, gives the number of eggs laid 

 as from 8 to 12, but this, of course, is incorrect and is probably 

 due to a mistake of some kind, as even clutches of five eggs are 

 exceedingly rare. 



Oates, in his British Museum Catalogue of eggs, thus describes 

 the eggs of Otis tetrax : " The eggs of the Little Bustard are of 

 a short pointed oval form, frequently elliptical and sometimes 

 spheroidal. They are highlj^ glossy. The ground is dark olive- 

 green or olive-brown, and occasionally of a bufi" colour, and this 

 is marked with streaks, clouds and blotches of very pale reddish 

 brown or yellowish brown. The underlying markings are hardly 

 separable from the ground colour. Many specimens are marked 

 so faintly that they appear to be quite plain coloured ; but when 

 closely examined the markings can always be made out. The 

 eggs measure from 1-92 to 2-23 in length and from 1-43 to 1-6 

 in breath." 



In addition to the ground colours mentioned above I have one 

 clutch which is a pale french grey with the markings very 

 pronounced and dense, and two others again which might be 

 termed olive-blue upon which the markings, though faint, contrast 

 well and distinctly. 



I have no eggs of the shape Oates describes as " short, pointed 

 oval," mine all being spheroidal, or nearly so. 



The texture is much finer and closer than that of the eo-o- of the 

 Great Bustard and is more consistently highly glossed. 



My eggs average 1-92" x 1-44" and Dresser gives the average 

 of his eggs as 1-95" x 1-45". 



