CISTICOLA. 239 



Colonel E. A. Butler writing from Deesa says : — " The Rufous 

 Fantail-Wai'bler breeds in the plains during the monsoon, making 

 a long bottle-shaped nest of silky-white vegetable down, with an 

 entrance at the top, in a tuft of coarse grass a few inches from the 

 ground. I have taken nests on the following dates : — 



" July 29, 1875. A nest containing 4 fresh eggs. 



" Aug. 1, 1876. „ „ 5 fresh eggs. 



4 fresh eggs. 



3 fresh eggs. 

 ,, „ 4 fresh eggs. 



5 fresh eggs. 

 5 fresh eggs. 



4 fresh eggs." 



And he adds the following note : — " Belgaum, 22nd July, 1879. 

 Four fresh eggs. Same locality, numerous other nests in August 

 and September." 



Major C. T. Bingham notes : — " I have not yet observed this 

 bird at Delhi. At Allahabad I procured one nest in the beginning 

 of March, shooting the birds. The nest was made of very fine dry 

 grass, and contained four small white eggs, speckled thickly with 

 minute points of brick-red. The average of the four eggs is 0*60 

 by 0-41 inch." 



Mr. Cripps informs us that in Eastern Bengal this bird is very 

 common and a permanent resident. Eggs are found from the 

 beginning of May to the end of June, in grass-jungle almost on 

 the ground. The nest is a deep cup, externally of fine grasses, 

 internally of the downy tops of the sun-grass. 



In the Deccan, Messrs. Davidson and Weuden state that it is 

 " common in all grass-lands. It breeds in the rainy season." 



Mr, Oates, writing on the breeding of this bird in Pegu, says : — 

 " The majority of birds begin laying at the commencement of 

 June, and probably nests may be found throughout the rains. I 

 procured a nest on the 2nd of November, a very late date I imagine. 

 It contained four eggs." 



I have taken the eggs of this bird myself on many occasions. I 

 have had them sent me with the nest and bird by Mr. Brooks from 

 Etawah, and Mr. E. R. Blewitt from Jhansi. From first to last I 

 have seen fully fifty authentic eggs of this species. All were of 

 one and the same type, and that type widely different from any 

 one of those that Dr. Bree, following European ornithologists, 

 figures. Dr. Bree's three figures all represent a perfectly spotless 

 egg — one pink, the other bluish white, and the third a pretty dark 

 bluish green. Our eggs, on the contrary, are spotted; the ground 

 is white with, when fresh and unblown, a delicate pink hue, due 

 not to the shell itself, but to its contents, which partially show 

 through it. Occasionally the white ground has a faint greenish 

 tinge. 



Every egg is spotted, and most densely so towards the large end, 

 with, as a rule, excessively minute red, reddish-purple, and pale 

 purple specks, thus resembling, though smaller, more glossy, and 



