304 STLVIID^. 



beautiful pale greeuisli blue, most richly niarived \\'ith various shades 

 of deep chocolate and reddish brown. Nothing can exceed the 

 beauty or variety of the markings, which are a combination of bold 

 blotches, clouds, and spots, with delicate, intricately interwoven 

 lines, recalling somewhat, but moi-e elaborate and, I think, finer 

 than, those of our early favourite — the Yellow Ammer. The mark- 

 ings are invariably most conspicuous at the large end, where there 

 is very comn\only a conspicuous confluent cap, and the delicate 

 lines are almost without exception confined to the broader half of 

 the egg. 



Very commonly the smaller end of the egg is entirely spotless, 

 and I have a beautiful specimen now before me in which the only 

 markings consist of a ring of delicate lines round the large end. 

 Some idea of the delicacy and intricacy of these lines may be formed 

 when I mention that this zone is barely one tenth of an inch 

 broad, and yet in a good light between twenty and thirty interlaced 

 lines making up this zone may be counted. 



The intricacy of the pattern is in some cases almost incredible, 

 and, what with the remarkable character of the patterns and the 

 rich and varying shades of their colours, these little eggs are, I 

 think, amongst the most beautiful known. 



Occasionally tlie ground-colour of the eggs, instead of being a 

 bright greenish blue, is a pale, rather dull, oli\e-green, and still 

 more rarely it is a clear pinkish white. These latter eggs are so 

 rare that I have only seen six in about as many hundreds. 



In size the eggs vary from 0'53 to 0'7 in length, and from 0'42 

 to 0*5 in breadth ; but the average of one hundred and twenty 

 eggs measured was 0-61 by 0"45. 



467. Prinia jerdoni (Blyth). The Sov.tJwn Wren-WarUer. 

 Drymceca jerdoni (Bli/th), Iltime, Cat. no. 544 ter. 



Mr. Davison says : — " The Southern Wren- Warbler breeds chiefly 

 on the slopes of the Xilgiris about the Badaga cultivation. The 

 nest is entirely composed of fine grass, and is generally placed 

 about 2 or 3 feet from the ground, either in a clump of long grass 

 or attached to the branch of a small bush. It is often suspended, 

 domed, and with the opening near the top. The eggs, generally 

 three, are blue, spotted and lined with deep red-brown." 



From Kotagherry Miss Cockburn tells us that " the Common 

 Wren-Warbler has no song, but is loud and frequent in its repeti- 

 tion of a few notes during the breeding-season. Its nest, which is 

 globular, is built in the same shape as that of P. socialis, with ilv. 

 entrance at one end, on some low bush, but it only uses one mate- 

 rial, namely fine long grass, and does not add any soft lining. The 

 colour of its eggs, however, is totally different, of a light bluish 

 gi'een, and having a number of spots and streaks like dark threads 

 carried round and through the spots, which are mostly at the thick 

 end. The breeding-season lasts from April to July.'' 



