356 - PAEEID^. 



others a greenish stone-colour ; in others pale cream-colour or pale 

 cafe-au-lait. The markings consist of specks, spots, blotches, and 

 streaks irregularly sprinkled over the whole surface of the egg,_but 

 most thickly so, as a rule, towards the large end. The markings 

 are black, blackish brown, and rich umber-brown. As a rule, the 

 markings are all clearly defined, and are all of much the same 

 colour. The secondary markings of pale inky purple, so charac- 

 teristic of most of the Lapwings' eggs, are normally almost entirely 

 wanting in those of the Stilts. 



In length the eggs vary from 1-5 to 1-8, and in breadth from 

 M to 1-32; but the average of sixty-four eggs taken at, random 

 out of over three hundred and carefully measured was 1-64 by 



1-21 



Family PAREID^. 



Metopidius indicus (Lath.). The Bronze-winged Jacana. 



Metopidius indicus {Lath.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 708 ; Hume, Rough 

 Ih-aft N. 8f E. no. 900. 



Dr. Jerdon tells us that the Bronze-winged Jacana is found 

 throughout India ; but as a matter of fact it is almost absolutely 

 confined to the moister portions of the country, and is very rarely if 

 ever seen in the drier portions of the North- West Provinces, in the 

 Punjab, Eajpootana, and Sindh. In the moister districts of Oudh, 

 the sub-Himalayan Terais of Eohilkund and Goruckpoor, through 

 the greater part of Bengal and Burma, it is very common, and 

 here, as also in the better-watered portions of the Central Pro- 

 vinces and the Peninsula of India generally, it breeds from June 

 to September. 



It never ascends the hills, so far as I have ascertained, and never 

 frequents rivers, but aifects exclusively large, more or less rush- 

 grown and lotus- or weed-paved, j heels or swamps. 



The nest, generally a large one, composed of rushes and water- 

 weeds twisted round and round, so as to form a circular pad, from 

 10 to 20 inches in diameter, with a central depression 2 or 3 inches 

 in depth, is commonly placed here in Bengal (where alone I have 

 myself taken it) on a bed of lotus-leaves in some secluded rush- 

 surrouaded corner ; one nest, however, was on a piece of swampy 

 ground in the midst of a clump of thick rushes, surrounded on all 

 sides by the water of the jheel. 



Of six nests none contained more than seven eggs, but the 

 boatmen averred that the birds, sometimes at any rate, laid ten. 



Mr. W. Theobald makes the following remarks on the nidifica- 

 tion of this bird in Monghyr: — 



" Lays in August. Eggs, long ovato-pyriform. Size, 1"60 by 



