PEINIA. 287 



like in forest. On the Hth of May I caught a female on her nest, 

 containing four well-incubated eggs. The nest was placed in a 

 wild ginger-plant, about two feet from the ground, in forest at the 

 very summit of the Makhi hill. 



462. Prinia lepida, Blyth. The Streaked Wren-Warble* 



Burnesia lepida (Blyth), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 185. 



Burnesia gracilis, Riipp., Hume, Rough Draft N. Sf JB. no. 550. 



1 have never happened to meet with the nest of the Streaked 

 Wren-Warbler, and all the information I possess in regard to its 

 nidifieation I owe to others. 



The late Mr. Anderson remarked : " Although this species was 

 far from uncommon, I found it very local and confined entirely to 

 the tamarisk-covered islands and ' churs ' along the Ganges. 



" The first nest was taken on the 13th March last, and contained 

 three well-incubated eggs ; of these I saved only one specimen, 

 which is now in the collection of Mr. Brooks. The second was 

 found on the following day, and contained two callow young and 

 one perfectly fresh egg. 



" The nest is domed over, having an entrance at the side ; and 

 the cavity is comfortably lined, or rather felted, with the down of 

 the rnadar plant. It is fixed, somewhat after the fashion of that 

 of the Reed- Warbler, in the centre of a dense clump of surpat 

 grass, about 2 feet above the ground. On the whole the structure 

 is rather large for so small a bird, and measures 6 inches in height 

 by 4 inches in breadth. 



" But while the nest corresponds exactly with Canon Tristram's 

 description * of those taken by him in Palestine, there are dif- 

 ferences, oologically speaking, which induce me to hope that our 

 Indian bird may yet be restored to specific distinction t. In the 

 first place, my single eggs from each nest have a green ground- 

 colour, and are covered all over with reddish-brown spots. Now 

 Mr. Tristram describes his Palestine specimens as ' richly coloured 

 pink eggs, with a zone of darker red near the larger end, and in 

 shape and colour resembling some of the Prinia group.' Is it 

 possible for the same birds to lay such widely different eggs ? If 

 I had taken only one specimen, it might have been looked upon as 

 a mere variety. Again, our Indian bird lays three eggs, and I have 

 never seen the parent birds feeding more than this number of 

 young ones, occasionally only two. Mr. Tristram, per contra, 

 mentions having met with as many as five and six. The egg is 

 certainly the prettiest, and one of the smallest, I have ever seen ; 

 indeed, I found it too small to risk measurement." 



He adds : " Since writing the above, which appeared in ' The 

 Ibis,' I have discovered that this species breeds in September and 



* Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine, P.Z.S. 1864, p. 437; Ibis, 

 865, pp. 82, 83. 

 t The two birds are now considered distinct by all ornithologists. ED. 



