SCIKEXICOLA. 251 



390. Schcenicola platyura (Jerd.). The Broad-tailed Graxs- 

 WaMer. 

 Sclicenicolfi platyura {Jerd.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 73. 



Colonel E. A. Biitlei" discovered the nest o£ the Broad-tailed 

 Grass- Warbler at Beloauin. He writes : — 



" On the 1st September, 1880, I shot a pair of these birds as 

 they rose out of some long grass by the side of a rice-field ; and, 

 thiniiing there might be a nest, I commenced a diligent search, 

 which resulted in my finding one. It consisted of a good-sized 

 ball of coarse blades of dry grass, with an entrance on one side, 

 and was built in long grass about a foot from the ground. Though 

 it was apparently finished, there were unfortunately no eggs, but 

 dissection of the hen pro\'ed that she would have laid in a day or 

 two. On the 10th instant I found another nest exactly similar, 

 built in a tussock of coarse grass, near the same place ; but this 

 was subsequently deserted without the bird laying. On the 

 19th September I went in the early morning to the same patch 

 of grass aud \\atched another pair, soon seeing the hen disapjjear 

 amongst some thick tussocks. On my approaching the spot she 

 flew off the nest, which contained four eggs much incubated. The 

 nest ^^'as precisely similar to the others, but with the entrance-hole 

 perhaps rather nearer the top, though still on one side. The situa- 

 tion in the grass was the same — in fact it was very similar in every 

 respect to the nest of Drymoeca ins'ujnis. The eggs are very like 

 those of MoJpastes licemorrlwus,h\xt- smaller, having a purplish-white 

 ground, sprinkled all over with numerous small specks aud spots of 

 purple and purplish bro\^u, with a cap of the same at the large end, 

 underlaid \\\t\\ inky lilac. 



"These birds closely reseuible Chcetornis striatus in their actions 

 and habits, and in the breeding-season rise constantly into the air, 

 chirruping like that species, and descending afterwards in the same 

 way on to some low bush or tussock of grass, sometimes even on to 

 the telegraph-\\ires. They are fearful little skulks, however, if 

 you attempt to pursue them, and the moment you approach disap- 

 pear into the grass like a shot, from whence it is almost impossible 

 to flush them again unless you aU but tread on them. It is 

 perfectly mar\ellous the way they will hide themselves in a patch 

 of grass when they have once taken refuge in it ; and although 

 you may know within a yard or two of where the bird is, you may 

 search for half an hour without finding it. If you shoot at them 

 and miss, they drop to the shot into the grass as if killed, and 

 nothing will dissuade you from the belief that they are so until, 

 after a long search, the little beast gets up exactly where you have 

 been hunting all along, from almost under your feet, and darts off 

 to disappear, after another short flight of fifteen or twenty yards, 

 in another patch of grass, from whence you may again try in Aain 

 to dislodge it." 



The eggs of this species, though much smaller, are precisely of 

 the same type as those of Meijalurus ^:>«Zi<siWs and Chatornis 



