250 



and assimilated well with the dry and entangled stems among which 

 it lay. The nest was very deep and pnrse-shaped. It was about 

 8 inches in total height at the back, and some 2 inches lower in 

 front, the upper part of the purse being as it were cut off slantingly, 

 and thus leaving an entrance which was more or less circular. The 

 width is 6 1 inches, and the breadth from front to back 4 inches. 

 The interior is smooth, lined with somewhat finer grass, and 

 measures 4 inches in depth by 3 inches from side to side, and by 

 2 inches from front to back. 



" Megalurus palustris is very common throughout the large plains 

 lying between the Pegu and JSittang Rivers. At the end of May 

 they were all breeding. The nest is, however, difficult to find, owing 

 to the vast extent of favourable ground suited to its habits. Ev r ery 

 yard of the land produces a clump of grass likely enough to hold a 

 nest, and as the female sits still till the nest is actually touched, it 

 becomes a difficult and laborious task to find the nest." 



He subsequently remarks : " May seems to be the month in 

 which these birds lay here. The nest is very often placed on the 

 ground under the shelter of some grass-tuft." 



Mr. Cockburn writes to me : " 1 found a nest of this bird on 

 the north bank of the Bramaputra, near Sadija. One of the birds 

 darted off the nest a foot or two from me in an excited way, which 

 led me to search. The nest was almost a perfect oval, with a slice 

 taken off at the top on one side, built in a clump of grass, and only 

 9 or 10 inches from the ground. It was made of sarpat-grass, and 

 lined internally with finer grasses. The grass had a bleached and 

 washed-out appearance, while the clump was quite green. This 

 was on the 29th May. I noticed at the same time that the nest 

 was not interwoven with the living grass. I removed it easily with 

 the hand." 



Mr. Cripps says : " They breed in April and May in the 

 Dibrugarh district, placing their deep cup-shaped nests in tussocks 

 of grass wherever it is swampy, in some instances the bottoms of the 

 nests being wet. Four seems to be the greatest number of eggs in 

 a nest." 



The eggs are much the same shape and size as those of Acroce- 

 phalus stcntoreus. They have a dead-white ground, thickly speckled 

 and spotted with blackish and purplish brown, and have but a slight 

 gloss ; the speckling, everywhere thick, is generally densest at the 

 large end, and there chiefly do spots, as big as an ordinary pin's 

 head, occur. At the large end, besides these specklings, there is a 

 cloudy, dull, irregular cap, or else isolated patches, of very pale 

 inky purple, which more or less obscure the ground-colour. In 

 the peculiar speckly character of the markings these eggs recall 

 doubtless some specimens of the eggs of the different Bulbuls, but 

 their natural affinities seem to be with those of the AcrocephaUn(t\ 

 The eggs vary from 0'8 to 0'97 in length, and from 0'61 to 

 0'69 in breadth ; but the average of twelve eggs is 0'85 by 0'64. 



