1922.] the Birds of Snul. 571 



Ijird from the iypiciil race from north Ben<^al, on account 

 of its longer bill and duller green and yellow coloration. 

 The type is one o£ Butler's Sukkur birds and is in th(^ 

 British Museum ; this race extends to the N.W. Frontier 

 Province. 



Prinia inornata inornata (Sykes). 



The Indian Wren- AVur bier is common enou<>li in cultivation 

 and thicker jungle, such as grass and " babool," rather less 

 so in desert scrub-jungle. I never saw it in reed-beds, where 

 P. Zfy>iWa prevails, though T have found it in tauiarisk-jungle 

 a haunt favoured by the latter s|)ccies. 



It is well distributed throughout the province, and in 

 Lower Sind, at any rate, it breeds early — at the end of 

 March, — as I have seen young on the wing on 21 A]>ril, :ind 

 young in the nest a fortnight earlier than this ; nests may 

 be found into September ; one pair I had under observation 

 brought forth three broods, a fresh nest being built each 

 time, and it built, but deserted, a fourth nest. In Sind three 

 types of nest — the globular, canopied, and the long purse — 

 are found ; the last always in high grass, was by far the 

 commonest of the three at Karachi, where these birds much 

 favoured the "' surpat '^ grass in the Sewage Farm. These 

 purse-shaped nests were rather longer than the nine inches 

 given in Hume's 'Nest and Eggs," and the entrance quite at 

 the top; in fact, they resembled much the nests of Cisticola 

 cursita}is in shape and size, but were more stoutly built of 

 grasses, with cobweb and vegetable-down woven in, and 

 attached to the nearest stems and quite hidden from sight in 

 the clump. Four eggs was the invariable number. 



The summer and winter plumage of this bird are so 

 different that it is not surprising that the older writers 

 considered them to reitresent two species, until Brooks 

 pointed out that all breeding birds were inornata and all 

 winter ones longicaudatus, and this, on the whole, is correct; 

 yet it is not absolutel}' so, as I have obtained on '11 April, 

 in full winter dress just beginning to moult, a bird which 

 was feeding young. 



