MEGALURUS. 249 



unable to ascertain, either Bonaparte or Verreaux figured or de- 

 scribed the specimens Tytler sent them in some French work. 



1 have only one supposed nest of this species, brought me from 

 Dacca by a native collector who worked there for me under Mr. 

 F. B. Simsou. He did not take it himself ; it was brought to him 

 with one of the parent birds by a shikaree. The evidence is, 

 therefore, very bad, but I give the facts for what they are worth. 



The nest is a rather massive and deep cup, the lower portion 

 prolonged downwards so as to form a short truncated cone. It is 

 fixed between three reeds, is constructed of sedge and vegetable 

 fibre firmly wound together and round the reeds, and is lined with 

 fine grass-roots. It measures externally 5 inches in height and 

 nearly 4 inches in diameter, measuring outside the reeds which are 

 incorporated in the outer surface of the nest. The cavity is about 

 2 1 inches in diameter and nearly 2 inches deep. It contained four 

 eggs, hard-set ; only one could be preserved, and that was broken 

 in bringing up-country ; so I could not measure it, but the shell 

 was a sort of pale greenish grey or dull greenish white, rather 

 thickly but very faintly speckled and spotted with very dull purplish 

 and reddish brown, with some grey spots intermingled. The nest 

 was obtained (no date noted) between the middle of July and the 

 middle of August. I note that the eggs were on the point of 

 hatching, so that the fresh egg w r ould probably be somewhat brighter 

 coloured. 



389. Megalurus palustris, Horsf. The Striated Marsh- Warbler. 



Megalurus palustris, Horsf., Jerd. S. Ind. ii, p. 70 ; Hume, Rough 

 Draft N. 8f E. no. 440. 



Xothing has hitherto been recorded of the nidification of the 

 Striated Marsh-Warbler, although it has a very wide distribution 

 and is very common in suitable localities. 



The Striated Marsh-Babbler, as Jerdon calls it, has nothing of the 

 Babbler in it. It rises perpendicularly out of the reeds, sings 

 rather screechingly while in the air, and descends suddenly. It has 

 much more of a song than any of the Babblers, a much stronger 

 flight, and its sudden, upward, towering flight and equally sudden 

 descent are unlike anything seen amongst the Babblers. 



Mr. E. C. Nunn procured the nest and an egg of this species 

 (which along with the parent birds he kindly forwarded to me) at 

 Hoshungabad on the 4th May, 1868. The nest was round, com- 

 posed of dry grass, and situated in a cluster of reeds between two 

 rocks in the bed of the Xerbudda. It contained a single fresh egg. 



Writing from Wau, in the Pegu District, Mr. Gates remarks : 

 "I found a nest on the 19th May containing four eggs recently 

 laid. The female flew off only at the last moment, when ray pony 

 was about to tread on the tuft of grass she had selected for her 

 home. 



" The nest was placed in a small but very dense grass-tuft about 

 a foot above the ground. It was made entirely of coarse grasses, 



