OP THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 115 



by themselves until the young are hatched, when they rejoin their mates and 

 assist in rearing the offspring. The date of laying varies considerably. In the 

 Canary Islands (vfhere in the spring of 1891 Mr. Meade-Waldo states that about 

 a thousand eggs v^ere taken) young birds are said to have been obtained towards 

 the end of March ; in Algeria the breeding season is given by authorities as May 

 and June ; in Egypt, Von Heuglin says that it is in March and April ; and Hume 

 informs us that in the Punjaub district the bird lays principally in July ; but, 

 var3ring with the state of the rains, eggs may be obtained from March to August. 

 The first authentic eggs of this bird were obtained by Canon Tristram, on the 

 Sahara. In Africa the nest is said to be merely a hollow in the sand, which is 

 either selected ready made or scratched out by the parent bird ; but in India it is 

 sometimes made amongst stubble, under a bush, or amongst jungle, and is a small 

 hollow, about five inches across and two inches deep, sometimes lined with a 

 little dry grass. The nests are extremely difficult to find, the birds slipping off at 

 the first alarm and going right away, leaving the eggs to the safety which their 

 decided protective colours ensure. The eggs are two or three in number, 

 according to Hume the former number being the regular clutch. They are pale 

 buff in ground-colour, spotted, blotched, and freckled with buffish-brown and 

 marbled with underlying markings of grey. Those from the Punjaub are 

 much smaller and darker than those from the deserts of North Africa. They 

 measure on an average 1'2 inch in length by 10 inch in breadth. The period of 

 incubation and the number of broods are unknown. 



Diagnostic characters. — Cursorius, with no black patch on the belly, 

 with the axillaries and under-wing coverts nearly black, and the outer web of the 

 secondaries buff. Length, 9 to 10 inches. 



