482 ]\Ir. W. Jesse on the 



although I have taken it on sheshum and pepul trees. 

 Five is the full clutch, though three and four incubated eggs 

 are almost as common. I have a most lovely series varying 

 enormously in shape, size, and colour. The commonest 

 variety is leaden white pi'ofusely blotched with red ; but 

 I have pure white examples with red, bluish green with 

 reddish and yellowish brown, green with profuse yellow- 

 brown blotches (like very spherical and miniature Crow's), 

 and pale yellowish green absolutely without a mark. With 

 regard to' these last, had I not — as, indeed, I have with 

 every clutch of the Tree-Pie — observed the bird not once, 

 but several times on the nest, and seen the eggs lifted 

 out from under her, I would not have believed in their 

 parentage. 



Of sixteen Lueknow eggs the average is 1"'\\ x •82'^ 



No. 105. Argya caudata. Common Babbler. 



Hedge-Sparrow; Bush-Sparrow [Anglo-Indian boys]. 



" The striated Bush- Babbler is a common and permanent 

 resident, very abundant in dhak and thorn jungle, less so 

 in patches of thatching-grass which it also frequents, and is 

 seen, though not habitually, in hedgerows and about 

 gardens, and is not uncommon in the large, grass-hedged, 

 guava-groves about Lueknow." — G. R. 



My own experience is that this bird is not common just 

 round the station, its favourite jungle having been cleared 

 away to a great extent for cultivation during the last decade. 

 It is found in small parties in the tamarisk-jungle along the 

 river, but is commoner some miles from Lueknow. 



I once found its nest on March 25th, shooting the bird oft' 

 three eggs, in a stunted bush near the butts on the La Mar- 

 tiniere rifle-range. Another nest, in which there were two 

 eggs, was robbed — apparently by crows — some days before. 

 Both nests were neat cups, something like those of 

 A. malcolmi, but were very much smaller, deeper, and lined 

 with fine grass. 



Mr. George Eeid took eggs, seemingly in corounda and 

 dhak jungle, on the following dates : — 



