324 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL MIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXI. 



one and the exception to this rule is of the rarest. I have, how 

 ever, in my collection one pair of eggs which are said to be from 

 the same bird, bnt even here I must record the fact that they were 

 found about a foot apart, in the same small beaten down patch 

 in a field of lemon grass. The two eggs are of the rich brown 

 variety and are so exactly like one another in every detail that it 

 seems probable that they are a pair. 



My eggs, though the series is much smaller than Humes, have 

 a rather larger range of variation in colour, doubtless because 

 Mr. Harrington Bulkle3'''s series represents the variations picked 

 out of a very much greater number which passed through his 

 hands. Hume calls his eggs in ground colour typicaMy a drab : 

 I should call mine tyincally dull pale reddish brown, certainly in 

 five out of six brown is the dominant colour of the egg. I have 

 one egg which is a unicoloured sienna brown, and it is only when 

 held up to the light that the very faint markings can be seen. 

 Many eggs are a stone grey or drab in general appearance, others 

 are a yellowish stone colour or olive yellow, a few dingy olive 

 green and one a beautiful pale sea green. The markings are as 

 described by Hume, but I have none which could be said to be 

 boldly marked. 



The majority are very highly glossed and very few have no 

 gloss at all. My longest egg is 3-71 " and my broadest 2-35", 

 whilst the shortest and most narrow are respectively 3-0" and 

 3-11" and the average of 45 measured is 3-21" by 2-29," my eggs 

 therefore averaging considerably larger than Humes. 



Our Plate of Ewpodotis edwardsi is an excellent one, but the 

 colouration of the back in both male and female is too red and 

 should be more of a saXidy buff. It must also be noted that the 

 white eye-brow, as shown in the female, is not a sex difference, 

 but only an individual characteristic. 



Genus HOUBABA. 



In the species of the genus Houhara the sexes are alike, the female 

 differing only from the male in being slightly smaller. It is dis- 

 tinguished from all other Otididce by the presence of a curious crest 

 which consists, not of a collection of feathers, either few or numerous 



