GLAREOLA OEIEXTALIS. 983 



Jerdon, who refers to their crepuscular habits, remarks, " It is generally found near large rivers, 

 occasionally in very large flocks, hawking over the fields of grain or rumnahs of grass, catching insects in the 

 air, and sometimes uttering its peculiar call when flying. Now and then small parties may be seen, long after 

 sunset, flying round and round some small field or cultivated patch, pursuing moths or beetles, and now and 

 then alighting on the ground. In the middle of the day it may be seen seated in large flocks at the edge of 

 some tank, or on a sand bank in the river." 



Mr. Davison records his observations of this species in Tenasserim as follows : — " It is, as a rule, shy and 

 difficult to approach, and rises with a soft Plover-like note, to wheet, to wheet ; they run rapidly, and when 



approached run some little distance before rising I have repeatedly seen them high up in the air, hawking 



white ants and other insects ; their flight is then very rapid and graceful, and very Swallow-like." 



The nidification of this interesting bird has only of late been made known, through the researches of 

 Mr. Oates in Pegu. In writing to Mr. Hume ( f Nests and Eggs/ iii. p. 568), though up to that time unsuc- 

 cessful in finding its eggs in Pegu, he describes the birds, when their breeding-grounds were invaded, as 

 squatting on the ground with expanded wings and outstretched necks, trying to look as fierce as possible. Sub- 

 sequently he remarks :—" I have found the eggs of this species from the 16th of April to the 1st May, on which 

 latter date some eggs were fresh, but others incubated. Three appears to be the maximum number of eggs, 

 but only two are more frequently laid. The eggs are deposited on the bare ground, burnt-up sandy paddy- 

 fields being much frequented. No great number of birds breed together, nor have I ever found two nests very 

 close to each other ; the finding of eggs is consequently very laborious work. When disturbed, the sitting 

 bird flies round one's head for a short time, and then goes away ; but when the young are lying hid, then 

 the birds display great anxiety, and it is on these occasions that the bird squats on the ground with wings 

 outspread and neck outstretched. I fancy this action is meant to counterfeit lameness, and so draw the 



intruder off the scent " The eggs " are quite different from those of G. lactea. The ground is buff 



or stone-colour, and the whole shell is thickly blotched with blackish brown and underlying smears of paler 

 brown sunk into the shell ; other eggs are so thickly blotched as to appear black when viewed at a short 



distance off. They are without gloss and Plover-like ; one end of the egg is much pointed The average 



of a considerable series is T18 inch by 093." Mr. Doig, in his recent notes on this bird as observed on the 

 Eastern Narra, Sindh, corroborates Mr. Oates's experience as to its stretching itself on the ground with 

 expanded wings, but considers this habit is practised for purposes of concealment. 



