54 Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker on the 



ture, composed principally of bamboo-leaves and grasses^ and 

 lined either with grass or, very rarely, with bamboo- and 

 fern-roots. It is decidedly a neater nest than that built by 

 any other PeUorneum, and is also rather more compact and 

 well put together. I have seen one or two nests built of 

 very fine shreds of bamboo-grass exceedingly well inter- 

 twined and neatly finished off ; so much so, indeed, that at 

 first sight 1 have mistaken them for the nests of Uroloncha 

 acuticauda. In most nests the entrance is rather close to 

 the top, about one inch to tsvo inches below the roof; in 

 others it is somewhere near the middle ; whilst in a few it is 

 quite close to the bottom, merely sufficiently removed from 

 it to prevent the loss of the contents. The situation selected 

 for the nest is not, as is the almost invariable rule with other 

 birds of this genus, one on the ground, but generally in 

 some thick baml)oo-clump or else in a thick tangle of plants 

 and creepers. The favourite place is the former, undoubtedly ; 

 the position chosen being somewhere between two and four 

 feet from the ground, seldom more and seldom less, in a 

 thick cluster of twigs or amongst the clump of bamboo itself. 

 In number the eggs are three or foui', most commonly 

 the former, and I have on two occasions met with only two 

 eggs incubated. 



The most common type has the ground-colour a rather 

 bright, decided pink, profusely covered over the whole sur- 

 face with rather dark brownish-red speckles and dots, which 

 frequently form a well-defined ring about the larger end, 

 sometimes a blurred cap, but this is never so distinctly defined 

 as is the ring. 



Some eggs are much paler, not unlike those of lole icterica, 

 but more blurred and less boldly marked ; others, again, 

 have the ground-colour almost white, so that the markings 

 show up far more than they would otherwise do. In some 

 few eggs the markings are confined to the larger end, forming 

 there a ring or cap. 



One clutch in ray collection has the whole of the markings 

 blurred and .ndistinct, running one into another and merging 

 into the ground-colour. The shape of the egg is wonderfully 



