ACKOCEPHALUS. 225 



above the water. It lays four or five eggs, rather blunt ovals, 

 equally blunt at both ends, blotched with olive and dusky grey on 

 a dirty-white ground." 



Mr. S. B. Doig, who found this bird breeding in the Eastern 

 Narra in Sind, writes : " On the 4th August, while my man was 

 poling along in a canoe in a large swamp on the lookout for eggs, 

 he passed a small bunch of reeds and in them spotted a nest with 

 a bird on it. The nest contained three beautiful fresh eggs. A 

 few days later 1 joined him, and on asking about these eggs he 

 described the bird and said he had found several other nests of the 

 same species, but all of them contained young ones nearly fledged. 

 I made him show me some of these nests, all of which were 

 situated in clumps of reed, in the middle of the swamp, and in 

 these same reeds I found and shot the young ones which, though 

 fledged, were not able to fly. These I sent with one of the eggs 

 to Mr. Hume, who has identified them as belonging to this species. 

 The nests were composed of frayed pieces of reed-grass and fine 

 sedge, the latter being principally towards the inside, thus forming 

 a kind of lining. The nests were loosely put together, were about 

 3 inches inner diameter, 1J inch deep, the outer diameter being 

 6 inches. They were situated about a foot over water-line in the 

 tops of reeds growing in the water." 



Colonel Legge says: "This species breeds in Ceylon during 

 June and July. Its nest was procured by me in the former month 

 at the Tamara-Kulam, and was a very interesting structure, built 

 into the fork of one of the tall seed-stalks of the rush growing 

 there ; the walls rested exteriorly against three of the branches of 

 the fork, but were worked round some of the stems of the flower 

 itself which sprung from the base of the fork. It was composed 

 of various fine grasses, with a few rush-blades among them, and 

 was lined with the fine stalks of the flower divested, by the bird I 

 conclude, of the seed-matter growing on them. In form it was a 

 tolerably deep cup, well shaped, measuring 2j inches in internal 

 diameter by 2 in depth. The single egg which it contained at the 

 time of my finding it was a broad oval in shape, pale green, boldly 

 blotched with blackish over spots of olive and olivaceous brown, 

 mingled with linear markings of the same, under which there were 

 small clouds and blotches of bluish grey. The black markings 

 were longitudinal and thickest at the obtuse end. It measured 

 0-89 by 0-67 inch." 



The eggs of this species, as might have been expected, greatly 

 resemble those of A. arundinaceus. In shape they are moderately 

 elongated ovals, in some cases almost absolutely perfect, but gener- 

 ally slightly compressed towards one end. The shell, though fine, 

 is entirely devoid of gloss. 



The ground-colour varies much, but the two commonest types 

 are pale green or greenish white and a pale somewhat creamy stone- 

 colour. Occasionally the ground-colour has a bluish tinge. 



The markings vary even more than the ground-colour. In one 

 type the ground is everywhere minutely, but not densely, stippled 



VOL. i. 15 



