198 timaliid.^:. 



Nidification. Breeds principally during the rains but at 

 different places at dift'erent times and in some, as in Assam and 

 Bengal, at almost any time of the year. It prefers marshy land, 

 where it makes its nest in the reeds, like that of a large Keed- 

 Warbler, or it makes a larger, more untidy nest of grasses and 

 reed-blades in a low busb or thicket of grass. The eggs are either 

 three or four in number, of the usual bright, rather deep bhie-greeu 

 typical of the genus, in shape a rather broad oval with tine texture 

 and considerable gloss. Sixty eggs average 22-8 x 17"G mm. 



Habits. This Babbler is a bird of wide grass-plains, marshy 

 tracts and sub-montane grass-covered hills ; wherever conditions 

 are suitable it is sure to be abundant. It is very gregarious^ 

 according to Marshall, being found in flocks even in the breeding 

 season. They are very noisy birds and have the same follow-my- 

 leader style of clambering through grass and bushes and fluttering 

 from one patch of cover to another as have the better-known 

 species. On the other hand, probabl^y on account of their semi- 

 aquatic habits, they do not descend as much to the ground as do 

 the other birds. They are chiefly insect feeders. 



(192) Argya caudata caudata. 



The Common Babbler. 



Cossyphus caiidatus Dumont, Diet. Sci. Nat., xxix, p. 266 (1823). 

 Arc/ya caudata. Blanf. & Gates, i, p. 106. 



Vernacular names. Dnmri (Yi\n<X\ in the South); i/?nu'(Tara.); 

 Ueddo^wdi Lailo (Sind); Chil -chll {Hmd. in the N.W.P.); Peng 

 or Cliota-pewja (Hindi); /S'or (in the N.W.) ; Chinna sida (Tel.). 



Description. Whole upper plumage fulvous-brown, each feather 

 with a dark brown shaft-streak ; wing and tail-coverts with only 

 the shafts dark; quills brown, lighter on the outer webs; tail olive- 

 brown, cross-rayed and the shafts very dark; chin and throat 

 fulvous-white; lores brown; ear-coverts rufescent; lower plumage 

 pale fulvous, albescent on the abdomen and the sides of the breast 

 faintly streaked. 



Colours of soft parts. Bill light brown, yellow at base below ; 

 legs and feet yellow ; claws fleshy-brown ; iris brown or yellow • 

 (^Biwjliam) ; iris red-brown (Jerdon). 



Measurements. Total length about 230 mm.; wing 78 to 81: 

 mm. ; tail about 120 to 125 mm. ; tarsus about '2S mm. ; culmeii 

 about 19 to 20 mm. 



Distribution. Every portion of India proper, from Sind to 

 E. Bengal and Calcutta ; from the foot of the Himalayas to the 

 Palni Hills ; the Laccadives and in Rameswaram Island. IVot 

 Burma. 



Nidification. This Babbler breeds practically throughout the 

 year, certainly having two broods and sometimes possibly three. 



