316 LAEID^. 



species, but with this exception the description already given of 

 the eggs of the one will answer perfectly for those of the other. 



My specimens varied in length from 1-9 to 2-26, and in breadth 

 from 1-33 to 1-46 ; but the average of eight is 2-08 nearly by 

 1-38. 



Rhynchops albicollis, Swains. The Indian Shimmer. 



Rhynchops albicollis, Swains., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 847 ; Hume, Bough 

 Draft N. ^ E. no. 995. 



The Indian Skimmer or Scissor-bill breeds throughout the 

 Empire on bare sandbank islands in the larger rivers. In the 

 Ganges and its affluents the majority seem to lay in March ; in the 

 Indus and its tributaries in April. 



It makes no nest, only scrapes a small hollow in the bare sand, 

 from a foot to three feet above the water-level, and there it iays 

 its eggs, the full complement of which is four. I have nothing to 

 add beyond what will be found in the two old notes that I 

 reproduce : — 



" These birds were breeding on the 12th and 13th March, on low 

 bare, water-surrounded sandbanks in the Jumna, near Sheregurh. In 

 one nest we found three eggs, and on this the old bird was sitting ; 

 but in every other case (and we found something like twenty eggs) 

 only one had as yet been laid. The eggs are laid in a circular 

 depression, which may be 1| inch deep and 4 inches broad, in the 

 bare, dry, white sand. In all cases several pairs were breeding 

 close to each other, and generally the Large River and Black- 

 bellied Terns were also breeding somewhere near. Judging from 

 the eggs, this bird lays a little later than either of these species. 

 Whilst we were robbing their nests, they flew about in the neigh- 

 bourhood uneasily, pretty often uttering shrill cries, but not on 

 the whole seeming so much put out by, or so ready to resent, our 

 interference and intrusion as S. seena. Compared with those of 

 these latter, their eggs are somewhat small. Compared with those 

 of both S. seena and S. melanogastra, their eggs are long and narrow. 

 They vary somewhat in ground-colour, this being in some greyer, 

 some greener, and some more buffy. A faint, almost pinky, tinge 

 is noticeable in some. Of course in this and other similar eggs 

 (I am writing with the fresh unblown ones before me) when 

 blown and old, all the dehcate shades fade and the eggs lose half 

 their beauty. The character of the markings on all are very 

 similar, pretty large bold chocolate-brown blotches, with a few 

 smaller spots of the same colour, and a few faint purplish blotches 

 and secondary markings of a quasi subsurface character. In some 

 the blotches are numerous, but they are never very thickly set, 

 and I have specimens with so few of them, that on one side at 

 least the egg is nearly unicolorous. 



" By 6th to 8th of April all seemed to have hatched ofi except 

 second layings, where we had robbed the nests before. 



