OBDICNEMUS. 331 



Family CEDICNEMID^. 



(EdicnemtiB scolopax (S. Gr. Gmel.). The Stone-Plover. 



CEdicnemus crepitans, Temm., Jei-d. B. Ind. ii, p. 654. 

 QSdicnemus indicus, Salvad., Hume, Rough Draft N. S^ E. no. 859. 



The Stone-Plover breeds in the plains almost throughout India, 

 but only in suitable localities. The country must be dry, and 

 there must be patches of scrub or low jungle, or large groves or 

 dry jheels, pretty thickly studded with grass-tufts. In such 

 situations or in open wastes, or even ploughed fields near to these, 

 the Stone-Plover makes its nest, the site chosen depending a good 

 deal on the season and the period at which they lay. In this 

 latter they are very irregular. The majority no doubt lay in April, 

 but I have taken eggs myself in every month from February to 

 August, both inclusive. Of forty-seven dated eggs before me, the 

 numbers indicated below were taken in each month : — 



February. March. April. May. June. July. August. 



2 5 26 5 5 2 2 



According to my experience in Upper India, the place of all 

 others in which they love to breed is some huge old mango-tope 

 in which the trees are not very thick, surrounded by a good high 

 mud-bank, and of which the grass is thickly preserved by some 

 native gentleman for the use of his cattle towards the close of the 

 hot weather, when all other grass has disappeared. In such a 

 grove I once found thirteen nests and saw at least fifty birds, 

 many of which had not apparently yet laid. 



The nest is a mere hollow scooped out by the birds, very often 

 in the midst of a layer of dead leaves, generally quite unlined, oc- 

 casionally with a few blades of grass doing duty as lining. If the 

 nest is out in an open place, it is generally more or less concealed 

 at the base of some bush or tuft of grass ; but if a grove, it is very 

 generally not far from some large root of one of the mango-trees 

 in the midst of dead leaves, and these so harmonize with the 

 colours of the eggs that no further concealment is necessary. A 

 dozen times I have passed over, all but treading on eggs thus 

 placed, and which I was eagerly looking for. 



Two is the ordinary number of eggs laid, but I have found three 

 in a nest at least half a dozen times. I should guess that in about 

 one in ten nests three eggs occur. 



Colonel G-. !F. L. Marshall writes from the Saharunpoor Dis- 

 trict : — " This bird is by no means common everywhere ; it is very 

 locally distributed, being plentiful at the foot of the Sewaliks and 

 in the belt of Dhak jungle in the Mozuffernugger District, whilst 



