ARGYA. 71 



the hedges of prickly-pear, I have taken the nests in orange-trees, 

 the karouuda, the babool, &c." 



Messrs. Davidson and Wenden state that in the Deccan it is 

 " very common and breeds." 



Major C. T. Bingham says : "This bird, uncommon at Alla- 

 habad, is plentiful here at Delhi. I found several nests between 

 March and June, all of the Babbler type, deep cups, rather more 

 firmly built than those of the preceding bird, but constructed 

 like them of coarse roots of grass, with finer ones for the inside. 

 They are never placed at any great height from the ground, 

 and generally in some thorny bush. I have found mostly three, 

 rarely four eggs in any one nest." 



Mr. Benjamin Aitkin writes: "I never saw the Common 

 Babbler in Poona, and it certainly does not occur in Bombay. 

 But it is very abundant on the arid plains of Berar, breeding in 

 the low babool-bushes, where large numbers of its eggs are destroyed 

 by lizards. I have found four eggs in a nest oftener than three." 



Colonel Butler writes : " The Common Babbler breeds in the 

 neighbourhood of Deesa principally during the monsoon; but I 

 have found nests occasionally at other seasons of the year, as the 

 following table of dates will show : 



" April 29, 1876. A nest containing 3 fresh eggs. 



" May 16, 1876. 3 fresh eggs. 



"May 21, 1876. 2 fresh eggs. 



'* Nov. 15, 1876. 4 young birds. 



" 1 found numerous nests from the middle of July to the begin- 

 ning of September. On the 26th July, 1876, I saw upwards of a 

 dozen nests, some containing fresh eggs, and others incubated. In 

 many instances they contained eggs of Coccystes jacobinus. The 

 nest is usually placed 3 or 4 feet from the ground in low thorny 

 bushes (Zizijpinis jujuba preferred) or in a tussock of sarpat grass. 

 It is built of twigs, roots, grass, &c., loosely put together exteriorly 

 but closely woven interiorly, the lining being composed of fine roots 

 and grass-stems. The eggs vary in number from three to five." 



Lieut. H. E. Barnes, writing of Rajputana, says : " The Striated 

 Bush-Babbler breeds from March to July. The nest is usually 

 placed in a low thorny bush, and is composed of grass-roots and 

 stems; it is deep cup-shaped, neatly and compactly built." 



The eggs are typically of a moderately elongated oval shape, 

 slightly compressed towards one end, but more or less spherical 

 and pyriform varieties occur ; and I have one specimen, a very 

 long pointed egg, which, so far as size and shape go, might pass 

 for an egg of Cypselus affinis ; and though this is a peculiarly 

 abnormal shape, I have others which somewhat approach it in 

 form. The eggs are glossy, often brilliantly so, and of a delicate, 

 pure, spotless, somewhat pale blue. The shade of colour in this 

 egg varies very little, and I have never met with either the very 

 pale or very dark varieties common amongst the eggs of C. 

 cniHH'H* and occasionally found amongst those of A. malcolmi. In 

 colour, size, and shape they are not very unlike those of our English 



