226 SYLYIID.E. 



with minute specks, too minute for one to be able to say of what 

 colour ; over this are pretty thickly scattered fairly bold and well- 

 marked spots and blotches of greyish black, inky purple, olive- 

 brown, yellowish olive, and reddish-umber brown ; here and there 

 pale inky clouds underlay the more distinct markings. In other 

 eggs the stippling is altogether wanting, and the markings are 

 smaller and less well-defined. In some eggs one or more of the 

 colours predominate greatly, and in some several are almost entirely 

 wanting. In most eggs the markings are densest towards the 

 large end, where they sometimes form more or less of a mottled, 

 irregular, ill-defined cap. 



In length the eggs vary from 0*8 to 0*97, and in breadth from 

 O58 to 0-63 ; but the average of the only nine eggs that I measured 

 was 0-89, nearly, by rather more than 0-61. 



366. Acrocephalus dumetorum, Blyth. BlytKs Reed-WarUer. 



Acrocephalus dumetorum, J3L, Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 155. 

 Calainodyta dumetorum (Bi), Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 516. 



Blyth's Reed- Warbler breeds, I believe, for the most part along 

 the course of the streams of the lower Himalayan and sub-Hima- 

 layan ranges, and in suitable localities on and about these ranges ; 

 such at least is my present idea. They are with us in the plains 

 up to quite the end of March, and are back again by the last day 

 of August, and during May at any rate they may be heard and 

 seen everywhere in the valleys south of the first snowy range. 



Mr. Brooks remarks that " this species was excessively common 

 on the Hindoostan side of the Pir-pinjal Eange, but I have never 

 seen it in Cashmere. I think it breeds in the low valleys by the 

 river-sides, for it was in very vigorous song there at the end of 

 May." This is my experience also, and probably while many may 

 go north to Central Asia to breed, a good many remain in the 

 localities indicated. 



Captain Hutton says : " This species arrives in the hills up to 

 7000 feet at least, in April, when it is very common, and appears 

 in pairs with something of the manner of a Phylloscopus. The 

 note is a sharp tchick, tcliick, resembling the sound emitted by a 

 flint and steel. 



" It disappears by the end of May, in which month they breed ; 

 but, owing to the high winds and strong weather experienced in 

 that month in 1848, many nests were left incomplete, and the 

 birds must have departed without breeding. 



" One nest, which I took on the 6th May, was a round ball with 

 a lateral entrance ; it was placed in a thick barberry-bush growing 

 at the side of a deep and sheltered ditch ; it was composed of 

 coarse dry grasses externally and lined with finer grass. Eggs 

 three and pearl-white, with minute scattered specks of rufous, 

 chiefly at the larger end. Diameter 0*62 by 0*5." 



The late Mr. A. Anderson wrote the following note : " On the 



