' 8 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1890. 



of them contained young ones, nearly fledged. I made him show me 

 some of these nests, all of which were situated in clumps of reeds in the 

 middle of the swamp, and in these same reeds I found and shot the 

 young one, whieh though fledged was unable to fly. This I sent 

 with one of the eggs to Mr. Hume, who has identified them as belong- 

 ing to this species. 



" The nests were composed of frayed pieces of reed-grass and fine 

 sedge, the latter being principally towards the inside, thus forming 

 a kind of lining. The nests were loosely put together and were 

 about three inches inner diameter, one and a quarter inches deep, 

 the outer diameter being six inches ; they were situated about a foot 

 over the water, in the tops of reeds growing in the water." 



Mr. Hume, in Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, page 327, writing of 

 eggs received from Cashmere, described them as follows : — "The eggs 

 of this species, as might have been expected, greatly resemble those 

 of A. turdoides. In shape they are moderately elongated ovals, in 

 some cases almost absolutely perfect, but generally slightly com- 

 pressed towards one end. The shell, though fine, is entirely devoid 

 of gloss. 



" The ground colour varies much, but the two commonest t}'pes 

 are pale green or greenish-white, and a pale, somewhat creamy, stone 

 colour. Occasionally the ground colour has a bluish tinge. 



" The markings vary even more than the ground colour. In one 

 type the ground is everywhere minutely, but not densely, stippled 

 with minute specks, too minute for one to be able to say of what 

 colour ; over this are pretty thickly scattered fairly bold and well 

 marked spots and blotches of greyish-black, inky -purple, olive-brown, 

 and reddish-umber-brown ; here and there pale inky clouds underlay 

 the most distinct markings. 



" In other eggs the stippling is altogether wanting, and the 

 markings are smaller and less well defined. 



" In some eggs, one or more of the colours predominate greatly, 

 and in some several are almost entirely wanting. 



" In most eggs the markings are densest towards the large end, 

 where they sometimes form more or less of a mottled, irregular, 

 ill-defined cup. 



" In length the eggs vary from 0*8 to 0*97, and in breadth from 



