NESTING IN WESTERN INDIA. 7 



It does not occur in >Sind, and is absent from the south. Mr. 

 Davidson did not meet with it in Khandesh or in Nassiek. 



It is a permanent resident where found, breeding- twice a year, 

 during March and April, and again in June and July. 



It is a bold and familiar bird, and is the Shama* of Mr. Phillips, 

 {Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds) ; they frequent old buildings, forts, 

 outhouses, and such like places, in holes and crevices in the walls 

 of which they build their nests. 



The bird has a peculiar habit of heaping up a pile of small stones, 

 pebbles and broken tiles, leaving a depression in which it places its 

 nest. I had the curiosity to weigh one of these heaps, which was 

 composed entirely of broken tiles, and found it to weigh 7 lbs. 2 oz. ; 

 this was, however, much larger than usual. The nest itself is a thick, 

 saucer-shaped pad, composed of tine grass, lined with wool and hair. 

 The eggs, three in number, occasionally four, are moderately broad 

 ovals in shape, pointed at one end, and are pale blue in colour, faintly 

 speckled with pale reddish-brown. Sometimes the markings are 

 bolder and brighter, and form a well-defined ring round the larger 

 end. They measure 0'82 inches in length by about 0-62 in breadth. 



Mount Aboo, March to April and Jane to July. H. E. Barnes. 

 Neemuch, „ „ „ „ „ „ 



Saitgor, „ „ „ „ ,, „ 



515.— THE LARGE REED WARBLER, 



Acroccphalus stentorius, Hemp (Did Ehr. 



Mr. Doig appears to be the only oologist who has succeeded in 

 obtaining eggs of the Large Reed Warbler within our limits or even in 

 India, although the bird breeds abundantly in Cashmere. He says 

 {Stray Feathers, Vol. ix., p. 279) :— " On the 4th August, while my 

 man was poling along in a canoe, in a large swamp, on the look out 

 for eggs, he passed a small bunch of reeds, and in them spotted a 

 nest with a bird on it. 



" The nest contained three beautiful fresh eggs. A few days later 

 I joined him, and on asking about these eggs, he described the bird, 

 and said he had found several other nests of the same species, but all 



* The native name of this bird throughout the Central Provinces is " Shama" ; the 

 real Shama, Cercotrichas macrura, does not occur there. — H. E, B. 



