HIMANTOPUS. 355 



The temperature of the nest at this time in the full sun probably 

 averages quite 140° Fahrenheit. 



The birds have their choice of sites, though on what this depends 

 I could not find out. Not one nest was found in two successive 

 seasons at Balpoor or KuHawas; very few at Sultanpoor. On the 

 other hand, at Moobarikpoor (and all the works are exa,ct facsimiles 

 one of the other) the nests were in some places crowded to an 

 inconceivable degree. On one strip, about 3 feet wide and 100 

 feet long, there were twenty- seven nests on one margin and eleven 

 on the other, besides five nests of the Red-wattled Lapwing. So 

 accustomed were the birds to the workmen walking up and do'wn 

 the middle of this strip that many of the birds never moved, though 

 we passed within a few inches of them, and those that did move 

 merely stalked leisurely a few paces away into the salt-pans on 

 either side. 



Major C. T. Bingham says : — " I visited the breeding-place of 

 this bird at the Sooltanpoor sal1>works in May and June last 

 year (1875). The birds were breeding simply in hundreds." 



Colonel Legge writes from Ceylon : — " Great numbers of these 

 birds were breeding at Minery and Kandelay tanks this year. At 

 the latter place I found many fresh eggs as late as the 4th of 

 August ; many others were hard-set, but no young were, up to 

 that time, to be found. In the south I have found young as early 

 as the end of June. The spot chosen to breed in, at Kandelay, is 

 an island in the tank ; the ground is partly shingly and partly 

 overlaid with soil, rock cropping out in one or two places. I 

 found the nests in all situations and very -v'ariously constructed ; 

 some were holes scooped in the ground and lined with large gravel 

 only ; some constructed amidst lumps of flood-deposit ; some 

 scraped in the ground and scantily lined with small twigs and 

 grass-stalks ; others made in depressions in rock and built entirely 

 of little sticks and other matter taken from the ' flood-wreck.' 

 The eggs were mostly four in number, though many nests con- 

 tained three hard-set ; they were for the most part not placed 

 point to point, and varied immensely in size and ground-colour. 

 .... When its breeding-grounds are approached the Stilt is 

 very clamorous, flying towards the intruder and passing to and fro 

 over his head, with loud harsh cries, but when the vicinity of its 

 nest is reached, it usually retires and alights at some little distance, 

 allowing its nest to be rifled without further manifestation." 



The eggs of this species are in shape and general appearance 

 very Lapwing-like, reminding one much of the eggs of Loiivanellus 

 incUeus. They are, however, as a rule smaller, more pointed, and 

 with less numerous, but more clearly defined, markings. In shape 

 they are moderately broad ovals, elongated, and in some pinched 

 out as it were towards one end, reminding one of eggs of the Red- 

 shank. The texture is very fine and compact, and the eggs have 

 many of thera a certain amount of gloss entirely wanting in the 

 Eed-wattled Lapwings' eggs. The ground-colour appears to vary 

 as in the Plovers'. In some it is a darker or paler olive-brown ; in 



23* 



