suTA, 285 



firmly felted together. It is liued pretty thickly everywhere with 

 the excessively tine stalks which bear this down. 



Taking a large series, I should describe the eggs as typically 

 regular but somewhat elongated o\'als, often fairly glossy, at times 

 almost glossless. The ground varies from pale piuky white to 

 pale salmon-colour. A dense, more or less mottled, zone or cap 

 at the large end, varying in different specimens from reddish pink 

 to almost brick-red, and more or less of speckling, mottling, or 

 freckling of a somewhat lighter shade than the zone spreads in 

 some thinly, in some densely over the rest of the egg. 



In length they vary from 0-63 to 0-75, and in breadth from 0-46 

 to 0-55 ; but the average of sixty-five eggs is 0'69 by 0'52. 



459. Suya atrigularis, Moore *. The Blade-throated 

 Hill- Warbler. 



Suya atrogularis, Moore, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 184 : Hume, Hout/h 

 Draft N. S^ E. uo. 549. 



The Black-throated Hill- Warbler breeds in Kumaon and the 

 Himalayas eastwards from thence, at elevations of 4000 to 6000 

 feet. 



The breeding-season lasts from April to July, but the birds 

 mostly lay in May and June. Open grassy hillsides dotted about 

 with scrub, thin forests, or gardens are the localities it aifects. 

 The nest is placed at times in some low bush surrounded with and 

 grown through by grass, more commonly in clumps of grass, and 

 never at any great lieight from the ground. It is more or less 

 egg-shaped, and placed with the longer diameter vertical, the 

 entrance being on one side above the middle. It is composed ex- 

 teriorly sometimes of fine grass-roots, sometimes of the finest 

 possible grass, loosely but sutticiently firmly interwoven, a little 

 moss being often incorporated in the upper portion, and internally 

 always, I think, exclusively of fine grass. 



Four is perhaps the usual number of the eggs, but I have found 

 five. 



Mr. Gammie, writing from Sikhim, says : — " I have found four 

 nests of this species this year in the Chinchona reserves, at eleva- 

 tions of from 4500 to 5500 feet, during the mouths of May and 

 June. The nests were all in open grassy country, in grass by the 

 sides of low banks, and not above a foot off the ground. Tliey 

 are globular, with a lateral entrance, composed of grass, and with 

 a little moss about the dome. One I measured was 5-5 high, and 



* I reproduce this article nearly as it appears in the ' Eough Draft ;' but I 

 have great doubts as to the occurrence of this bird in Kumaon, and I further 

 doubt the identification of Hodgson's notes with this species. It is quite clear, 

 from his specimens in the British Museum, that Hodgson confounded S. atri- 

 gularis in winter plumage with S. crinigera, and his plate of the former in 

 summer plumage contains no note on nidification. — Ed. 



