BUMETIA. 93 



Mr. Brooks writes : — " On the 26th June, 1867, in the broken 

 ground above Chunar, I took two nests in the foot of a thick 

 bamboo-bush about 2 feet from the ground. The nests were made 

 of bamboo-leaves rolled into a ball with the entrance at the side, 

 and no lining except a few hairs. There were two eggs in one 

 nest and three in the other. They were all fresh. The eggs in 

 the two nests varied somewhat : the ground of the one was nearly- 

 pure white, and it was finely speckled with reddish brown, which 

 at the large end was partly confluent : the other nest had the eggs 

 with a pinkish-white ground, the spots larger and less neatly 

 defined, and with a rather large confluent spot at the large end." 



Writing from Hoshungabad, Mr. E. C. Nunn remarks: — "I 

 found two nests of this species, each containing two eggs, on the 

 20th July and 6th August, 1868. Both nests were ball-shaped, 

 of coarse grass very firmly and compactly tuisted together, and 

 with numerous dead leaves incorporated in the body of the nest 

 and towards the base, forming the major portion of the material. 

 They were thinly lined inside with fine grass-roots. One was 

 placed at the root of a small thorny bush : the other on the ground 

 in a thick clump of rank grass," The nest Mr. Nunn sent to me 

 was peculiarly solidly made. The cavity was small, about 2-25 

 inches in depth and 1-5 in diameter. The bottom of the nest was 

 some 2 inches and the sides 1"25 inch thick. 



From Eaipoor Mr. Y. E. Blewitt tells us that " in July and 

 August four nests of this Babbler were taken ; in two there were 

 four eggs each, in the third, three, and in the fourth, two — thirteen 

 in all. The nests were carefully made on the ground, at the base 

 of clumps of long grass growing very near to bamboo thickets. 

 Three are made exclusively of the dry leaves of the bamboo ; the 

 fourth of coarse grass. They were nearly globular, about 4 inches 

 in diameter, and without any regular lining, although in the 

 interior of the cavity a good deal of fine grass-stems had been 

 incorporated in the nest. They were well hidden in the grass." 



Mr. Henry Wenden writes : — " On July 18th, about 15 miles 

 from Bombay, on the line of railway, I found a nest and eggs of 

 the following description : nest, a rough loose ball of soft flat 

 grasses, lined with hard but fine grass-stems, entrance at side near 

 top ; situated in a thorny bush in cactus-hedge, by a narrow lane, 

 not 4 feet wide, through which numerous people passed. The 

 nest, about 3 feet from the ground, was in no way concealed. On 

 the 18th there were two eggs, and on the 20th, when thei'e were 

 four eggs, the bird was snared and nest taken." 



The eggs are short, broad ovals, very slightly compressed towards 

 one end. The ground-colour is white or pinkish white, and it is 

 streaked, spotted, and speckled most thickly at the large end (where 

 there is a tendency to form an irregular confluent cap or zone), 

 and thinly towards the small end, with shades of red, brownish 

 red, and reddish purple, varying much in different examples. In 

 some the markings are pretty bold and blotchy, in others they are 

 small and speckly ; in some they are smudgy and ill-defined, in 



