Nidificatiun of Indian Birds. G3 



measured 5''"2 high by 2"'^ broad, the inner diameter about 



Many nests have the dark, damp appearance of the nests of 

 Schoeniparus, but others are quite light-coloured, the bamboo- 

 leaves being of the usual yellow colour, and not in a damp, 

 rotten stage of decomposition. They are generally placed in 

 bamboo-clumps either low down or some two or three feet 

 from the ground in the thick bunches of twigs which grow 

 out of the first few nodes. In 1891, however, I took two 

 nests in evergreen- forest which were both placed in amongst 

 the roots of a quantity of plants, though not resting actually 

 on the ground itself. The dark colour of these nests was 

 very noticeable. The eggs vary very much in coloration. 

 One clutch of them in my collection has the ground- 

 colour a very pale stone, and is marked rather profusely 

 throughout, and especially so at the larger end, with small 

 blotches of pale sienna-brown, there being faint indications 

 of a cap in one e^^, and, equally faint, of a ring iu another. 

 A second clutch differs in having nearly all the blotches 

 confined to the larger end, where they form very distinct rings, 

 and where also they are mixed with a few specks and blotches 

 of brown, so dark as to appear almost black. A third has a 

 white ground, with a dense ring of very dark brown and pale 

 sienna specks and blotches, which are sparse everywhere else. 

 Underlying the ling, but very plainly visible, are a few spots 

 of dark neutral tint. Yet a fourth clutch differs iu havino- 

 no underlying marks at all and the specks of brown still 

 darker, whilst the sienna ones are almost wanting. In 

 shape most of the eggs are rather long ovals, somewhat com- 

 pressed, though blunt, towards the smaller end; but others, 

 again, are very broad, not at all compressed, and one clutch 

 is both broad and also pointed at the small end. 



Ten eggs vary in length between 0"*68 and Q"-7^, and in 

 breadth between 0''-49 x 0"-57. The average of the san)e 

 number is under O"'!! by over 0"-o2. 1 have taken eggs 

 hard-set as late as the 25th of July, and a single fresh one as 

 late as the 13th of the same month ; on the other hand, I 



