The Oologists' Record, June i, 1921. 37 



had been taken, probably in a vain endeavour to find the eggs which 



might have been concealed beneath the soft materials. For such 



large and neatly built structures the parent birds require but very 



few days from the time when the first straw is laid till their house 



is ready to receive the eggs. 



Some external measurements in inches of nests taken in 1918^ 



afe : — 



Five eggs appear to be the normal clutch whether early or late 

 in the season, though birds frequently sit on four eggs and rarely 

 on only three, and no nests were found to contain more than five eggs. 



These eggs differ decidedly from those of the Prinia gracilis 

 of Mesopotamia and India, in the fact that the ground colour is 

 whitish, buff, pale brownish, pale chestnut and other similar shades 

 instead of pale greenish. 



In most Indian and Mesopotamian eggs the markings are 

 distinct and fairly conspicuous, which is not the case with the 

 Palestine eggs, for the surface markings are so fine and thick in the 

 majority of specimens I have seen that the eggs are really suffused 

 with the colour of the surface spots, specklings and streaks. 



These markings I have noted as pinkish, chestnut, brownish- 

 buff, yellowish-orange, yellowish-brown, huffish and pale reddish- 

 brown. 



Unblown fresh eggs, on account of the yolk showing through the 

 thin shells and thereby tinting them, often appear most beautifully 

 coloured, producing delicate shades of coral-pink, salmon-pink^ 

 nail pink, or shell pink — but these attractive colours disappear 



