Bii-ds of North-ivcst Folikien. 209 



The egg-cavity is 1^ inch deep, and the inner diameter about 

 If inch. 



The eight eggs collected are of the usual Cettia type — 

 chocolate-red, darker about the broad end. One of the four 

 eggs taken with the second nest on the 10th May has a 

 broad and very dark ring round the large end ; the other 

 three eggs have this ring less marked, and are faintly 

 freckled all over with a darker tint of chocolate-brown. The 

 texture is rather glossy. The shape is ovate. One egg 

 measures 0"71 xO'51 inch, and three are 0'70x 0'52. 



49. Cettia brunnescens (Hume). 



This little Cettia is found on Mt. David about the lower 

 border of the high forest (alt., say, 5500 to 6000 feet) and 

 breeds there. The soft parts of specimens shot in this 

 mountain are : iris dark brown ; upper mandible and tip of 

 lower mandible brownish, lower mandible and sides of upper 

 mandible yellow; legs dark yellow j claws grey. The young 

 of C. sinensis are curiously like this species, but they can 

 be at once distinguished by their large proportions. 



Our collectors found a nest on the 12th May, 1897. It 

 was placed on a small bamboo in very thick bamboo under- 

 growth, and our men had to shoot the female on the nest at 

 close range, finding it impossible to secure her otherwise. 

 Strange to say, although the nest with its four eggs was 

 blown off the twigs on which it rested, two of the four eggs 

 were found almost uninjured a yard ixova where the nest had 

 been placed. The nest was no doubt originally domed — the 

 remains consisting of a deep cup, made of coarse grass-blades 

 and bamboo-leaves, with an inner cup of fine grass and a 

 final lining of Pigeon's and ''Huamei" feathers, some of 

 which are worked into the grasses of the nest. The depth 

 of the cup is about 2 inches, with a diameter of 2 inches, 

 the outer diameter of the nest being about 2^ inches. The 

 eggs are maroon or reddish chocolate ; one of these having a 

 broad dark ring round the large end and indistinct dark 

 markings all over. The shape of the egg is a broad ovate, 

 with sharp apex; while the colour is somewhat duller than 



