68 Mr. G. L. Bates — Field-Notes on the 



on some bush or plautain-leaf, starts with its rapid " queek ! 

 queek ! queek ! " &c., and continues without a pause for 

 breath until you would think that it must be suffocated and 

 tumble from its perch from exhaustion. It must be able to 

 breathe while using its voice. 



Many nests of this bird have now been found. They 

 are constructed like those of the Tailor- bird {Orthoiomus 

 sutorius), as they are described, being set in a sort of basket 

 or sack formed of large leaves sewed together. Leaves 

 with an adhesive surface are preferred. They are united 

 by stitches made by puncturing the leaf-edge and passing 

 through it a thread of what looks like several united fibres 

 of yellow-brown spider's web. The thread is often only 

 passed through and knotted on the outside, but sometimes 

 is brought round and passed through again, making a true 

 stitch. The nest itself, set in this sack of leaves, is a deep 

 cup of dry grass-blades, with the edge built higher on one side 

 than on the other. Inside this cup is a Hning of the fine 

 brownish pappus or down from tlie seeds of some plant. 

 Other related birds making similar nests use different 

 materials. The nests of this species seem to be always 

 of grass-blades, and the downy lining is brown, not white. 

 The identification of the nests has been effected by shooting 

 the bird on the nest, or catchmg it on the nest at evening. 

 Usually only two eggs are found, sometimes three. My 

 eggs vary in measurement thus : length 16-19 mm., 

 breadth 12-13 mm. 



[In a series of eleven eggs the shape varies from a perfect 

 oval form to a rather long pointed oval. The shell is 

 distinctly glossy. The eggs are of two types. In the first 

 the oround-colour varies from bright bluish-green to pale 

 dull greenish-white, and the markings consist of rather 

 large spots and blotches of pale red, reddish-lilac, and 

 lilac-grey, which are either scattered over the entire shell 

 or mostly concentrated round the larger end. In the 

 second type the ground-colour is creamy-white, densely and 

 minutely freckled all over, but especially in a zone round 

 the larger end, with light red-brown and grey. — O.-G.] 



