224 SYLVIID^E. 



The nest is a deep pouch suspended from several twigs, with 

 the entrance at the top, and composed entirely of fine lichens 

 woven or intervened into a thick, soft, flexible tissue of from three 

 eighths to half an inch in thickness. Externally the nest was 

 about 3| to 4 inches in depth, and about 3 inches in diameter. 



Family SYLVIIDJ5. 



363. Acrocephalus stentoreus (H. & E.). The Indian 

 Great Reed-Warbler. 



Acrocephalus brunnescena (Jerd.), Jcrd. E. 2nd. ii, p. 154. 

 Calamodyta stentorea (H. fy E.), Hume, Rough Draft N. $ L\ 

 no. 515. 



Both Mr. Brooks and Captain Cock succeeded in securing the 

 nests and eggs of the Indian Great Reed- Warbler in Cashmere. 

 Common as it is, my own collectors failed to get eggs, though they 

 brought plenty of nests. 



The nest is a very deep massive cup hung to the sides of reeds. 

 A nest before me, taken in Cashmere on the 10th June, is an in- 

 verted and slightly truncated cone. Externally it has a diameter 

 of 3| inches and a depth of nearly 6 inches. It is massive, but 

 by no means ne,tt ; composed of coarse water-grass, mingled with 

 a few dead leaves and fibrous roots of water-plants. The egg- 

 cavity is lined with finer and more compactly woven grass, and 

 measures about 1| inch in diameter and 2| inches in depth. 



It breeds in May and June ; at the beginning of July all the 

 nests either contained young or were empty. Four is the full 

 complement of eggs. 



Mr. Brooks noted in epist. : " Srinuggur, 10t7i June. I went 

 out early this morning on the lake here to look for eggs of Acro- 

 cephalus stentoreus, but it came on to rain so heavily that I only 

 partially succeeded. I took three nests, two with three eggs each, 

 and one with four young ones, the latter half -hatched. The eggs 

 very much resemble large and boldly-marked Sparrows' eggs. 

 They are smaller than the eggs of A. arundinaceus, but very similar. 

 The latter have larger clear snaces without spots than those of our 

 bird. I neither saw nor heard any other aquatic warbler." 



Later, in a paper on the eggs and nests he had obtained in Cash- 

 mere, he stated that this species " breeds abundantly in the Cash- 

 mere lakes. The nest is supported, about 18 inches above the 

 water, by three or four reeds, and is a deep cup composed of grasses 

 and fibres. The eggs are four, very like those of A. arundinaceus, 

 but the markings are more plentiful and smaller." 



Captain Cock writes to me that " the Large Eeed-Warbler is very 

 common in the reeds that fringe all the lakes in Cashmere. It 

 breeds in June, builds a largish nest of dry sedge, woven round 

 five or six reeds, of a deep cup form, which it places about 2 feet 



