Nidificatiun of Indian Birds. 51 



than it would otherwise be. I liave never seen four eggs of 

 this bird in any nest, and I think two eggs or young are 

 more often met with than three. 



In colour these eggs are a very beautiful green-blue^ similar 

 to those of Garrulax moniliger, but brighter and clearer, 

 and with a totally different texture, which is of the same satiny 

 description as the eggs of Trochalopterum vlrgatum. In 

 shape they are generally rather broad ovals, but one end is 

 always considerably smaller than the other, usually blunt, 

 though sometimes rather pointed, and abnormal eggs tend to 

 have hoih ends somewhat pointed. The shell is rather more 

 fragile than that of most of the Crateropodinse. Forty-five 

 eggs average not quite 1"-14 by 0"-82. Thirty eggs taken 

 previously to 1893 average only 1"-14 by 0"'81. Fifteen 

 eggs taken in 1893 average 1"-18 x 0""83. The small average 

 for the first thirty eggs is due in great measure to four 

 abnormally small eggs, which average only 0"'99 x 0"*7G, the 

 next smallest egg I possess being 1""12 x 0""79. The longest 

 egg in my collection is 1"'26, and the broadest 0"'86. 



These birds breed throughout June and July, the 21th of 

 the latter month being the latest date on w^hich I have taken 

 eggs. 



The bird is a close sitter, and allows a person to approach 

 very close to its nest before it leaves it and hides in the ad- 

 joining cover. 



9. PoMATORHiNus PHAYiiii. {Outes, op. cit. i. p. 121.) 

 The nest of this bird differs from that of P. schisticeps 

 merely in being somewhat more compactly put together. It 

 is made, as are all Scimitar-Babblers' nests, principally of 

 bamboo-leaves, more or less mixed with fern- and bracken- 

 fronds and grass, and lined with the latter. I should, however, 

 remark that the typical nest of P. schisticeps is globular or 

 semiglobular, and not a shallow saucer like those described by 

 Hume ('Nests and Eggs,' vol. i. p. 81). I must now 

 have taken fully 200 nests of the Pomatorhini, and fully 

 three quarters of these have been completely or nearly 

 globular. This Scimitar- Babbler, unlike most of its genus, 



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