OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 115 



Nidification. — The breeding season of the Stone Curlew 

 begins in May, and the eggs are laid from about the middle of 

 that month onwards to the end, according to the state of the 

 season. This species appears never to make any nest beyond a 

 mere hollow in some part of the heath where the ground is bare 

 of vegetation, and often strewn with stones. Hume, however, 

 states that in India the hollow is sometimes lined with a few 

 scraps of grass. The eggs are two in number in this country, 

 although in India three are sometimes found. They are various 

 shades of pale huffish brown in ground colour, blotched and 

 spotted or streaked with light and dark brown, and violet-gray. 

 Some eggs are finely blotched, others have the colouring matter 

 displayed in nearly black streaks and scratches. They measure 

 on an average 2'i inches in length by i"5 inch in breadth. 

 The male assists the female in the duty of incubation, especially 

 during the day. This, according to Naumann, lasts about 

 seventeen days ; but other writers state a month. When the 

 nest is approached, the sitting bird quits the eggs at the first 

 alarm, and leaves them to the safety their eminently protective 

 colours ensure, generally running for several yards before taking 

 wing. Only one brood is reared in the season, but if the first 

 clutch of eggs comes to grief, another clutch is usually laid. The 

 young chicks are able to run almost directly they are hatched, and 

 soon follow their parents in quest of food. 



Diagnostic Characters. — (Edicnemus, with the breast con- 

 spicuously streaked, a pale and a dark wing bar across the smaller 

 wing coverts, and with the greater wing coverts tipped with white. 

 Length, 16 to 17 inches. 



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