EHOPOCICHLA. 109 



from 0-68 to 078 and in breadth from 0-53 to 0-59, but the average 

 of nine eggs is 0'75 by 0*58. 



166. Rhopocichla atriceps (Jerd.) The Black-headed Babbler. 



Alcippe atriceps (Jerd.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii r p. 19 : Hume. Hough 

 Draft N. fy E. no. 390. 



Writing from Coonoor in the Nilghiris, Mr. "Wait tells me 

 that the Black-headed Babbler breeds in his neighbourhood in 

 June and July : " It builds in weeds and grass beside the banks 

 of old roads, at elevations of from 5000 to 5500 feet. The nest is 

 placed at a height of from a foot to 2 feet from the ground, is 

 domed and loosely built, composed almost entirely of dry blades of 

 the lemon-grass, and lined with the same or a few softer grass- 

 blades. In shape it is more or less ovate, the longer axis vertical, 

 and the external diameters 4 and 8 inches. They lay two or 

 three rather broad oval eggs, which have a white ground, speckled 

 and spotted, chiefly at the large end, with reddish brown." 



Miss Cockburn sends me a nest of this species which she found 

 on the 1 7th June amongst reeds on the edge of a stream, about 2 

 or 3 feet above the water's edge. It appears to have been a glo- 

 bular mass very loosely put together, of broad reed-leaves, between 

 3 or 4 inches in diameter, and with a central unlined cavity. 



Mr. Iver Macphersou, writing from Mysore, says : " I have 

 only met with this bird in heavy bamboo-forest, and have only 

 found two nests, viz., on the 25th May and 2nd July, 1879. Both 

 nests were fixed low down (2 to 3 feet) in bamboo-clumps, and 

 each contained two eggs, which, for the size of the bird, I con- 

 sidered very large. Nest globular, and very loosely constructed of 

 bamboo-leaves and blades of grass/' 



An egg sent me from Coonoor by Mr. Wait is a moderately 

 broad, very regular oval, only slightly compressed towards the 

 smaller end. The shell is very fine and satiny, but has only a slight 

 gloss. The ground-colour is white or slightly greyish white, and 

 towards the large end it is profusely speckled with minute dots of 

 brownish and purplish red, a few specks of the same colour being 

 scattered about the rest of the surface of the eggs. 



Another egg sent me from Kotagherry by Miss Cockburn exactly 

 corresponds with the above description. 



Both are precisely the same in size, and measure 0-75 by 0'55. 

 Other eggs measure from 0-75 to 0*79 in length by 0'53 to 0'58 in 

 breadth*. 



* Mr. T. Fulton Bourdillon (S. F. ix, p. 300) gives an interesting account of 

 the nest and eggs of a species of Rhopocichla which he failed to identify satisfac- 

 torily. It may have been B. atriceps or E. bourdilloni. Most probably, judging 

 from the locality, it was the latter. As, however, there is a doubt about it, I do 

 not insert the note. ED. 



