340 



back to the nest and paraded round and round, his wings extended, his head in the air, trumpeting 

 a ne pouvoir plus, clearly wishing her to believe that it was all his doing. 



" I have heard many stories of these birds showing fight in defence of their penates, but this 

 was the nearest approach to anything of the kind I ever witnessed, and, as a rule, both birds run 

 away directly you get within twenty yards of the nest. 



" With dogs it is different, and I have seen a large water-retriever so buffeted, scratched, and 

 cut in two minutes that he was fain to make off at his best pace howling and yelping, and I have 

 no doubt that foxes or jackals would fare equally ill." 



The eggs vary considerably in tone of colour and markings. Mr. Hume says that the 

 " ground-colour 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. Sometimes 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 of 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 (Grus 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 2-35 to 

 2'75 ; but the average of fifty-one eggs is 3*96 by 2 , 56." 



Five eggs in my collection from Loyah and Etawah, N.W. India, vary in ground-colour from 

 nearly white to creamy buff, and are blotched and spotted with purplish-grey underlying shell- 

 markings and brown spots ; two are very sparingly marked, whereas the other three are rather 

 more profusely blotched and spotted. In size they vary from 3 - 43 by 2*40 inches to 4 - 33 by 2*62. 



The specimen figured and described is the adult bird in the collection of the Hon. Walter 

 Rothschild, and the soft parts are taken from a live bird in the aviary at Lilford Hall. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined, besides the series in the British 

 Museum, the following specimens : — 



E Mus. Hon. W. Eothschild. 

 a, ad. Sambhur Lake, January 10th, 1889 (Dr. Lansdell). 



E Mus. E. B. Tristram. 

 a, ad. India (Rev. M. Lamert) . 



