562 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



with very hard, close and glossy shells. Abnormally shaped eggs are 

 rare, and amongst over 200 that I have taken I do not think I have 

 seen a dozen such. Those I have seen were generally long, 

 reo-ular ovals, and I have only come across one incomplete clutch of 

 three eggs which were of the pointed oval shape said by Theobald 

 to be their typical character (Gates', Humes' " J^ests and Eggs," 

 &c.) The average of 200 eggs is '86" by '76", and they vary in 

 leno'th between '81" and '93" and in breadth between "Tl" and "Sl"^. 

 These details coincide wonderfully well with those given by Gates, and 

 show how closely, in a large series of eggs, the average sizes agree. 



The birds who build in the banks of large rivers, streams, See, 

 generally commence excavating their burrows in the last few days of 

 March, and by the 10th of April most have laid their eggs. By large 

 streams and waters liable to be flooded I have never taken eggs except 

 between the 1st and 28th of April, and those taken on the latter date 

 were almost ready to hatch ; in other situations I have taken their 

 eggs as late as the 28th of June, though this was an exceptionally late 

 clutch, and I expect belonged to birds which had come to grief over 

 their first attempt to bring up a brood. 



I believe the eggs only take from seven to nine days to hatch, and 



the young birds are able to leave their nest far more quickly than most. 



This rapid incubation of the eggs and quick growth of the young bird^s 



plumage is a very necessary gift of Providence, for, were it not so, 



innumerable young ones would be drowned in the first few floods 



which come down at the end of May. As it is, an unusually early 



rainy season destroys countless eggs and young, and the whole labour 



of excavating, incubating, and rearing of the young has to be once 



more undertaken, so that in such a season the eggs may be found 



until a very late date. Thus in 1892 the heavy floods of March and 



April destroyed all the river nests, and the birds were driven to breed 



inland, and I found them so breeding in May and early June, taking 



their eggs, as already remarked, as late as the 28th of the latter month. 



On the 14th of this same month I shot some birds of the year which 



were hawking for insects with many other adult birds. 



These birds are very close sitters, and one or other of the pair is on 

 the nest nearly all day, and during the night both birds sleep in the 

 egg-chamber. They are very early risers, and even before the crow has 



