Letters, A?inouncemenis, &^'c. 85 



with some other Indian ornithological notes ; but time has not 

 sufficed for writing out the latter; and as I find P. adamsi again 

 referred to by Mr. Hume (in *Tlie Ibis' for 1870, p. 145), I 

 think it will be useful to give a fuller description of it than has 

 hitherto appeared. 



On showing the bird and its nest to Mr. Blyth, that gentle- 

 man remarked that the structure of the latter proved the builder 

 to be a Drijmoeca, aud not a Prima, the structure being of grass 

 woven together, and not of leaves, and being of a different form 

 from the nest of a Prima. The following is a description of 

 the bird. 



Drymoeca adamsi (Jerdon). The whole of the upper parts 

 are greyish brown in specimens shot in the autumn, rufescent 

 brown in those killed in the spring, the latter being perhaps 

 birds of the year ; head obsoletely striated. The quills are of the 

 same colour as the back, the inner margins isabelline. Tail 

 rather lighter in colour^ the feathers, ten in number, being still 

 paler beneath ; central rectrices not spotted at the end, but 

 subobsoletely and closely marked with transverse bands above; all 

 the others have a pale tip and a dusky spot of variable size and 

 hue close to it. Underparts silky white, with a slight isabel- 

 line tinge in autumn specimens, rufescent in those killed in the 

 spring. Bill dusky ; legs pale brown ; iris reddish bufiF. Mea- 

 surements, taken from four specimens (three males, and one with 

 the sex not determined) : — Wing 1'88 to 1-95 ; tail 2-05 to 2-25 ; 

 tarsus 0'77 to 0-82 ; bill from forehead 0'38, from gape 0*55 

 to 0'58. The first primary 0*45 in. shorter than the second, 

 which is barely 0*2 in. less than the third; the fifth is the 

 longest ; the sixth equals the fourth, and the eighth the 

 third. 



I cannot say whether the two specimens shot in the spring 

 are young birds, or whether the plumage changes with the 

 season. They are decidedly more rufescent above and below 

 than the birds (undoubted adults) shot in the autumn. 



The nest is of grass, shaped somewhat like a soda-water 

 bottle, with an entrance at the side near the top. It is suspended 

 from the leaves of the Leajri {Holcus spica), a cereal largely 

 grown in the Deccaii, and, in fact, throughout a large portion of 



