Nidificat'ion of Indian Birds. 61 



to repeat the description already given of that of Corythocichla 

 striata (see above p. 57), it differing only in being a little 

 smaller and proportionately more bulky and stoutly built. It 

 also stands a good deal more rough usage, and vrill sometimes 

 keep its form and shape for some months after its removal. 

 It is placed either on or very close to the ground, the bird 

 choosing mucli the same kind of ground as does Corytho- 

 cichla striata, and appearing to be equally careful in rendering 

 its nest invisible to prying eyes. A few of my nests have 

 been taken in patches of grass or ekra, placed amongst the 

 roots, almost oa the ground. This sort of ground is, I believe, 

 never used for nesting purposes by C. striata, bush-, tree-, 

 and bamboo-jungle forming their haunts. 



The eggs are of a type unlike those of any other genus in 

 the family, and are very like those of ^. dubius described in 

 ' Nests and Eggs." Some clutches have the ground-colour a 

 very pale creamy brown, spotted and blotched with rather 

 rich vandyke-brown, and with a few twisted hair- like lines 

 and streaks of the same, but darker, sometimes almost black ; 

 there are also numerous pale cloudy blotches of pale brown, 

 often surrounding the darker markings as with a nimbus. 

 These marks are equally and rather profusely scattered all 

 over the egg. The secondary spots are of pale lavender, 

 almost entirely confined to a ring at tlje larger end, and a 

 very few of dark neutral tint dotted here and there, but 

 mostly about the ring. Other eggs are very much like these, 

 but have a very decided greenish tinge, both in the ground- 

 colour and in the blotches, these last also being often very 

 dense and at the same time blurred and ill-defined. Other 

 eggs, again, have the ground-colour white or nearly so, tinged 

 with brown or grey ; and, in some specimens, the subordinate 

 lavender markings are equally numerous or scanty, as the 

 case may be, over the whole surface of the eg^. 



The eggs are normally very regular ovals, hardly at all 

 compressed towards the smaller end, and I have found 

 only two clutches of the long drawn-out type^ which would 

 appear to be the common form of S. dubius. The texture is 

 fine and close, and the shell strong, often showing a slight 



