252 



striatus; moderately broad ovals with a very fine compact shell, 

 with but little gloss, though perhaps rather more of this than in 

 either of the species above referred to. The ground-colour is 

 white, with perhaps a faint pinkish shade, and it is profusely 

 speckled and spotted with brownish red, almost black in some spots, 

 more chestnut in others. Here and there a few larger spots or 

 small irregular blotches occur. Besides these markings, clouds, 

 streaks, and tiny spots of grey or lavender-grey occur, chiefly about 

 the large end, where, with the markings (often more numerous 

 there than elsewhere), they form at times a more or less con- 

 fluent but irregular and ill-defined cap. 

 One egg measured O73 by O6. 



391. Acanthoptila nepalensis (Hodgs.). The Spiny Warbler. 



Acanthoptila nipalensis (Hodgs.\ Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p 57. 

 Acanthoptila pellotis, Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. 8f E. no. 431 bis. 



According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and figures, this species 

 builds, in a fork of a tree, a very loose, shallow grass nest. One 

 is recorded to have measured 4-87 in diameter and 1'75 in height 

 externally, and internally 3-37 in diameter and an inch in depth. 

 The eggs are verditer-blue, and are figured as 1*1 by O65. 



I may here note that Acanthoptila pellotis and A. leucotis are 

 totally distinct, as Mr. Hodgson's figures clearly show. Hodgson 

 published A. leucotis apparently under the name of A. nipalensis, so 

 that the two will stand as A. pellotis and A. nipalensis *. 



392. Chsetornis locustelloides (BL). The Bristled Grass- Warbler. 



Chsetornis striatus (Jerd.}, Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 72 : Hume. Rough 

 Draft N. $ E. no. 441. 



Dr. Jerdon remarks that Mr. Blyth mentions that the nest of 

 the Grass-Babbler, as he calls it, nearly accords with that of Mala- 

 cocercus, and that the eggs are blue. 



I cannot find the passage in which Blyth states this, and I 

 cannot help doubting its correctness. This bird, like the preceding, 

 is not a bit of a Babbler. I have often watched them in Lower 

 Bengal amongst comparatively low grass and rush along the 

 margins of ponds and jheels, not, as a rule, affecting high reed or 

 seeking to conceal themselves, but showing themselves freely 

 enough, and with a song and flight wholly unlike that of any 

 Babbler. 



They are very restless, soaring about and singing a monotonous 

 song of two notes, somewhat resembling that of a Pipit, but clear 

 and loud. They do not soar in one spot like a Sky-Lark, as 

 Jerdon says, but rise to the height of from 30 to 50 yards, fly 



* I do not. agree with Mr. Hume on this point. It seems to me that this 

 bird has both a summer and a winter plumage, and Hodgson's two names refer 

 to one and the same bird. ED. 



