PASSERINE BIRDS OF CEYLON. 41 



The eggs may be found almost all the year round, but it 

 breeds chiefly during the north-east monsoon. The nest is a 

 fairly compact cup made of coarse grass and plant stalks and 

 lined with finer grass. It is usually placed in the fork of a 

 shrub from 4 to 6 feet from the ground, but I have found it in 

 the branches of trees as high as 20 feet up. There are usually 

 three, rarely four eggs. The usual shape is a dumpy oval, 

 slightly pointed at the smaller end. The texture is smooth 

 and glossy, the colour greenish-blue. Average size -95 by 

 •72. 



Crateropus rufescens. 

 The Ceylonese Babbler. 



Crateropus nifescens (Oates, Vol. I., p. 114); Malacocercus 

 rufescens (Legge, p. 497). 



Description. — Upper plumage, wings, and tail rufous-brown, 

 the head slightly grayer, the outer margins of the feathers 

 slightly paler and tinged with olive ; the tail indistinctly cross- 

 rayed ; the lower plumage ferruginous-brown, the colour 

 deepening a little on the flanks, vent, and under tail coverts. 

 A specimen from Pundaluoya in the hills of the Central 

 Province is distinctly grayer on the head, and more dusky 

 elsewhere than in those from Sabaragamuwa and the Western 

 Province. 



Bill orange yellow ; iris white, at times tinged with green 

 or yellow ; eyelid and orbital skin greenish -yellow ; legs and 

 feet dull chrome yellow . 



Dimensions a little variable : length about 10 ; wing 4 • 1 ; 

 tail 4*5 ; tarsus 1*3 ; bill from gape 1. 



Distribution. — Pecidiar to Ceylon, and restricted to the 

 interior of the Island in the districts with a heavy rainfall, i.e., 

 the west and south-west sides of the main hill ranges, and the 

 country at the foot of these hills. Within these limits it is 

 found at all elevations. 



Habits. — Unlike the last species this is a jungle bird, found 

 in thickets, bamboo scrub, and deep forest. It goes about in 

 fairly large troops of about a dozen, and behaves in much the 



6 6(17)21 



