192 
allen’s naturalists lirrary. 
standing from two to three inches above the level of the water, 
while another had a foundation of yellow ooze. “The slight 
hollow was about six inches across and the nest was about 
eight inches in diameter at the surface of the water.” 
Mr. A. O. Hume gives an interesting account of the 
breeding of the Stilt in the salt-district of North-western India. 
He writes : — “ 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 Bulpoor or Kuliawas ; very 
few at Sultanpoor. On the other hand, at Moobarikpoor (and 
all the salt-works are exact facsimiles one of the other) the 
nests were, in some places, crowded to an inconceivable 
degree. On one strip, about three feet wide and one hundred 
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 down 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.” 
Eggs. — Four in number, but often only three. In Ceylon, 
Colonel Vincent Legge says that he has found many nests 
containing three hard-set eggs, and he states, moreover, that 
for the most part they were not placed point to point, as is the 
usual rule with Plovers. The eggs of the Stilt have a great 
general resemblance to those of the Avocet, but are very much 
smaller. The colour of the eggs varies from clay-brown to 
olive stone-colour, but a lighter type is also sometimes met 
with, where the ground-colour is of a creamy stone-colour or 
buff. As a rule the eggs are heavily spotted and blotched, 
when the spots become confluent, and lightly spotted eggs are 
less frequent than in the Avocet. In the Hume collection are 
some which have the spots congregated at either the large or 
the small end. Axis, i'55-i'8s inchj diam., i'i 5 -i' 3 . 
THE PHALAROPES. SUB-FAMILY 
PHALAROPIN^. 
These curious, soft-plumaged little Plovers are easily recog- 
nised by their lobed toes, which have scalloped webs like the 
