96 CEATEEOPODIDJE. 



The full number of eggs is, I believe, five. I have repeatedly 

 taken nests containing this number, and have comparatively seldom 

 met with a smaller number of eggs at all incubated. 



Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall says : " I found a nest of this species 

 at Roorkee in the early part of July. It contained three eggs and 

 was beautifully made, a deep cup fixed on to an artichoke-stock, 

 and at a little distance much resembled an artichoke." 



Mr. E. C. Nunn, writing from near Agra on the 26th September 

 1867, says : " I got a Pyctorliis 1 nest yesterday, suspended between 

 two stalks of jo war (Holcus sorghum)^ the nest firmly bound with 

 strips of fibrous bark, at two opposite points of its circumference, 

 to the two stems. This is, I imagine, something out of the usual 

 order of things with these birds. The nests which I have hitherto 

 found have been situated in young mangoe-trees, rose-bushes, or 

 peach- and orange-trees." 



From Futtehgurh the late Mr. A. A. Anderson sent me the 

 following note : 



" The nest and eggs of this bird are very beautiful. A pair once 

 built in. a pumplenose-tree (Citrus decumana) in my garden, laying 

 five long eggs. The nest, still in my collection, was placed in the 

 fork of four small upright twigs ; it was composed entirely of dry 

 grass-stems (no soft material inside), and laced outwardly, in and 

 out of the twigs, with dry fibre belonging to the plantain-tree. 



" The eggs are small for the size of the bird, and scarcely so 

 large as those of the Hedge-Sparrow." 



Captain Hutton remarks : " This likewise is a Dhoon bird ; its 

 nest was found there on the 1st July, when it contained four eggs 

 of a dull white colour, thickly speckled and blotched all over with 

 ferruginous spots, forming also an open darker coloured ring at 

 the large end, and intermixed with brown. 



" The nest is a deep cup, placed in the trifur cation of the slender 

 upright branch of a low shrub, and is constructed externally of 

 coarse grass-blades held together by cobwebs and seed-down, the 

 lining being fine grass-seed stalks. Diameter of the top 2| inches ; 

 depth within 2 inches ; externally 3| inches." 



Mr. F. E. Blewitt tells us that "the Yellow-eyed Babbler 

 breeds from July to September, or, I should say, up to the middle 

 of September. Its selection of a tree for its nest is not confined 

 to any one species, but by preference the bird selects those of small 

 growth, and even frequently high-growing brushwood. The nests 

 are very neatly made, and what is singular is that, as regards build 

 and shape, they are always almost exactly alike. If I have seen 

 one, I must have seen at least fifty this year, all with the same 

 exterior material of closely interlaced vegetable fibre over grass, 

 and the inner lining of fine grass, deep cup-shaped, and in dia- 

 meter, outer and inner, varying but little. "Where it could be 

 effected, the nest was suspended to, or rather fastened between, 

 two forks ; or where these were not available, between three twigs. 

 The outer diameters of the nests were from 2-7 to 2'9 inches, inner 

 from 2'3 to 2-5. Four is the regular number of eggs, though 

 occasionally five in one nest have been obtained." 



