78 chatekopodidje. 



G. griseiis are met with, but running the one iuto the other, while 

 intermediate forms between this species and G. somervillii (Sykes) 

 are also met with. 



Mr. Davison remarks : — " This bird seems to be very irregular 

 in its time of breeding. I have taken the nest in May, June, 

 October, and December. The nest is rather a loose structure of 

 dry grass and leaves, lined with fine dry grass ; it is generally 

 placed in the middle of some thick thorny bush, and cannot gene- 

 rally be got at without paying the penalty of well scratched hands. 

 The eggs, generally five in number, are of a very deep blue v^ith a 

 tiiige of green, but of not so decided a tinge as in the eggs of 

 M. (jrisLUS. It breeds on the slopes of the Kilghiris, not ascending 

 to more than about 6000 feet." 



Mr. Wait, writing from Coonoor, says : — " C. malaharicus builds 

 a cup-shaped nest in small trees and bushes, and lays from three 

 to five very round oval verditer-blue eggs." 



Captain Horace Terry says of this species : — " Eathcr rare at 

 Pulungi, but very common lower down on the slopes and in the 

 Pittur valley. I got a nest on April 5th at Pulungi with three 

 incubated eggs, and on the 6th ojie with two incubated eggs, in 

 the Pittur valley. The last was built in a hollow in the top of a 

 stump of a tree that had been broken off some ten feet from the 

 ground." 



Mr. I. Macpherson writes from Mysore : — "This bird is occasion- 

 ally found with G. yriseus in the bigger scrub forests, but its chief 

 habitat is the larger forests. Its breeding-season is much the same 

 as G. r/riseus, but unlike it, it docs not select thorny bushes for 

 building in, its nests being generally found in small trees or 

 bamboo-chmips. Pour is the usual number of eggs laid, but five are 

 often found, and the fifth I expect is frequently that of Jf. varius." 



Three eggs sent me by Mr. C arter from Coonoor, in the Nilgbi- 

 ries, are absolutely undistiiiguishable from those of Argifa malcolmi. 

 Like these they are a uniform, rather deep greenish blue, devoid 

 of spots or markings, and very glossy. I do not think that, if the 

 eggs of A. malcolmi, G. malaharicus^ and G. terricolor were once 

 mixed, it would be possible to separate them with certainty. Other 

 eggs taken by Mr. Davison are similar but slightly smaller, and, 

 talving them as a whole, I think they average rather darlier than 

 those of the two species just mentioned. 



The eggs vary in length from 0-93 to 1'02, and in breadth from 

 0'71 to 0-82 ; but the average of nine eggs is 0-97 by nearly 0*77. 



111. Crateropus griseus (Gm.). The White-headed Babbler. 



Malacocercus griseus (Gm.), Jerd. B. Bid. ii, p. GO; Hume, Bouyh 

 Draft N. c^ E. no. 433. 



I should say thnt the White-headed Babbler breeds all over the 

 plain country of Southern India, not ascending the hills to any 

 great elevation. At the same time, many people would Aery likely 



