326 Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker on the 



speckled and spotted with a very deep purplish black. If the 

 former, the blotches are of often considerable size, sometimes 

 as much as 0""15 in their longest diameter, but if the latter 

 they are always very small. The markings are seldom at all 

 numerous iu either type, and are sometimes confined almost 

 entirely to the larger end, this being, perhaps, more often 

 the case with the blotched than with the spotted eggs. The 

 grain is exceedingly close, and the surface smooth and de- 

 cidedly glossy, the shell being stout and strong for so tiny 

 an egg. In shape they are broad regular ovals, very little 

 compressed towards the smaller end, and in this, as well as 

 in their coloration, they closely resemble the eggs of the 

 Common Indian Wren- Warbler. Four is the number of 

 eggs most often laid, but I have taken five from the same 

 nest. Eighteen of my eggs average 0" 57x0"'46, and they 

 range between 0"*55 and 0"'6 in length and between 0"*45 

 and 0"-48 in breadth. 



These birds are early breeders, April and May being the 



usual months, but, where met with, they are so common that 



their nests may be found any time between the end of March 



and end of July, the first nest I ever saw having been taken 



as late as the 4th of the last-mentioned month. They are 



very difficult nests to find, and they are built on hills covered 



with a perfect sea of long grass, and the birds, moreover, 



give little or no assistance in discovering them. Unless it 



is actually raining, I do not think that the parent birds sit 



on the eggs at all during the daytime. I spent several days 



in 1891 hunting for the nests of this little Warbler, and all 



those which I obtained on fine days were discovered more or 



less by accident, for the birds were never noticed on or near 



the nests unless there were young which required feeding. 



On one day, however, when there was a continuous cold 



drizzle, the only two nests I obtained were both discovered 



owing to the bird being observed as it crept away. They 



are very cute and do not fly away straight from the nest 



itself, but creep quietly out of it and sneak through the grass 



for a few yards before taking wing, and then, when once 



they do fly, go straight away instead of staying close by and 



