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Show 1875.] MR. W. V. LEGGE O N T H E BIRDS OF CEYLON. 375 shell-fragments. In places these gravelly shell-wastes are worked into little mounds and hollows by the feet of cattle driven along the shore of the Leways to their feeding-grounds. In these spots I invariably found the M. cantianus nesting. On the top of a little mound 6 inches high there would be a small hollow worked out and bottomed with a number of little shell-fragments, just large enough to contain three eggs. This was the general number of eggs, and was never exceeded ; in some I found two, and in others, where the clutch was incomplete, only one. The eggs I procured were not all of the same type, differing both as regards ground-colour and character of marking. As a rule the ground was olive-grey, covered in some instances nearly uniformly with small irregular blots of dark sepia over indistinct spots of bluish grey, with here and there streaks and pencillings of a deeper hue ; in others, of the same ground, the markings were most numerous at the obtuse end and the egg covered with longer streaks and scratches. A larger type than this was stone-yellow, with the markings consisting almost entirely of streaked blotches and zigzag pencillings of rich sepia*. The largest measured 1*24 inch by 0*91, and the smallest 1-2 by 0*86. M y eggs were all taken between the 27th of June and 14th of July, and were in most instances far advanced in incubation, besides which a fair proportion of nestlings were observed, showing the early part of the former month to be the commencement of the breeding-season. All the old birds had already lost the black frontal band, which I had found perfect in birds shot the previous year in the same district as early as the 1 7th of March, thus reducing the breeding-dress to a duration of only four mouths. The plumage of the nestling (which I found running along the sand with the parent birds) is fulvous above, with black lines and spot-tings on the crown and nape, and a velvety black streak down the centre of the back, on either side of this streak the back is marked with black spots ; tail black ; the nuchal markings sweep round below the ears in a circle; beneath the down is white; bill black; legs and feet sickly olive-green. The various devices resorted to by the old birds to attract attention and draw away the intruder from the nests were most interesting to witness. They consisted in the bird flying off to the right hand in front and then circling away across me to the left and making a circuit in rear until it came round to where it rose ; this movement it would perform uttering the ordinary note, " chit-ek," " chit-ek." On alighting it would run off, supplementing this sound with a short whistle; and if successful in inducing me to follow it, it would squat on the ground for a moment and continue off with a low harsh cry. Were, however, its powers of persuasion not sufficient to draw me away in pursuit of it, it would rise and make the same circuit as be- * I should have been disposed to take these for the eggs of M, mongolicus; but I never could detect any other species in proximity to the nest but M. cantianus, whose actions and deportment on the approach of man could not be mistaken. I will not, however, undertake to pronounce positively that they were not the eggs of the former bird. |