198 TIMALIID®. 
Nidification. Breeds principally during the rains but at 
different places at different times and in some, as in Assam and 
Bengal, at almost any time of the year. It prefers marshy land, 
anes it makes its nest in the reeds, like that of a large Reed- 
Warbler, or it makes a larger, more untidy nest of grasses and 
reed-blades in a low bush or thicket of grass. The eggs are either 
three or four in number, of the usual bright, rather deep blue-green 
typical of the genus, in shape a rather broad oval with fine texture 
and considerable gloss. Sixty eggs average 22°8 x 17°6 mm. 
Habits. This Babbler is a eal 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, probably 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. 
Tue Common BABBLER. 
Cossyphus caudatus Dumont, Dict. Sci. Nat., xxix, p. 266 (1823). 
Argyacaudata. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. LOG. 
Vernacular names. Dumri (Hind! in the South); Hun? (Tam.); 
Heddo and Lailo (Sind); Chil-chil (Hind. in the N.W.P.); Peng 
or Chota-penga (Hindi); Sor (in the N.W.); Chinna sida (Tel.). 
Description. Whole upper plumage fulvous-brown, each feather 
with a dark brown shaft-streak ; wing and tail- coyerts 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 
ale 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 
(Bingham) ; iris red-brown (Jerdon). 
Measurements. Total length about 230 mm.; wing 78 to 84 
mm. ; tail about 120 to 125 mm.; tarsus about 28 mm.; culmen 
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 Laeccadives and in Rameswaram Island. Not 
Burma. 
Nidification. This Babbler breeds practically throughout the 
year, certainly having two broods and sometimes possibly three. 
