EUPODOTIS. 375 



The eggs are invariably elongated ovals, and are usually a good 

 deal pointed towards one end ; but lono; cylindrical varieties, 

 narrower and more elongated than even similar varieties of the 

 Great Bustard, are not uncommon. The sliell is very hard and 

 strong, very rarely almost devoid of gloss, generally, fairly, and 

 sometimes highly glossy. The shell is in most eggs pitted with 

 small pores, set rather wide apart, and in some specimens very 

 conspicuous owing to the bottoms of the pores being coloured 

 differently to the rest of the shell of the egg, and thus producing 

 a speckled effect. Usually, however, the pits are only noticeable 

 on close inspection, and not uncommonly they are so fine and 

 minute as to be scarcely noticeable at all. The ground-color varies : 

 in some it is pure white, in some clear pale sea-green, in others a 

 sort of pinky cream-colour, and numerous intermediate shades are 

 observable. 



Some few eggs are entirely spotless and devoid of markings, but 

 they are commonly more or less profusely studded with blotches and 

 clouds of pale yellowish brown, purple or purplish pink. Some- 

 times the markings are all large, in others (but more rarely) 

 they are small and speckly. As a rule, the markings are, I think, 

 most numerous at the large end. In some they are conspicuously 

 so, and in some they are entirely confined to that part of the egg. 

 As I notice when speaking of the eggs of the Great Bustard, the 

 eggs of this species very frequently exhibit pimples, warts, creases, 

 and wrinkles ; indeed, after examining a large series, I should say 

 that not one in twenty was entirely free from such imperfections : 

 but of the hundreds ot specimens that I have at one time or another 

 taken of this bird's eggs, I have never met with one anything like 

 so richly coloured as those of the Common Crane (Orus cinerea), 

 which latter, by the way, have always appeared to me, though larger 

 and longer, to approximate somewhat in appearance to those of 

 Otis tarda. 



The eggs vary excessively in size, in length from 3'6 to 4-48, 

 and in breadth from 2"3o to 2-75 ; but the average of fifty-one eggs 

 is 3-96 bv 2-56. 



Order FULICARIiE. 



Family OTIDID^. 



Eupodotis edwardsi (J. E. Gray). The Great Indian Bustard. 



Eupodotis edwardsii (Gray), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 607 ; Hume, Rough 

 Draft N. 8f E. no. 836. 



The Indian Bustard lays mostly in July and August, but the 

 breeding-season varies a good deal according to the rainfall, and 

 we have found eggs as early as the first half of March and as late 



