PEINTA. 289 



in the sandy bed of a river, amongst a number of tamarisk-bushes, 

 on the 8th July, 1875, in the neighbourhood of Deesa. It was 

 composed of fine dry fibrous roots and grass-stems exteriorly, and 

 lined with silky vegetable down. It was a long bottled-shaped 

 structure with a small entrance on one side. The nest, eggs, 

 situation, locality, &c. all agree so exactly with the descriptions 

 quoted by Dr. Jerdon and with Mr. Anderson's note in ' Nests and 

 Eggs,' Rough Draft, that I should have found it difficult to avoid 

 copying these two gentlemen in describing my own nest. 



" The nest contained three hard-set eggs and one young one 

 just hatched." 



Referring to its occurrence in the Eastern Narra District, Mr. 

 Doig tells us : " This little Warbler is very common. I took the 

 first nest in March and again in May ; they build in stunted 

 tamarisk-bushes ; the nest is circular dome-shaped, with the 

 entrance on one side the top, the inside being very beautifully and 

 softly lined with the pappus of grass-seeds. Tour is the usual 

 number of eggs in one nest." 



The Blackbird type of egg above described is by no means the 

 commonest one ; the great mass of the eggs have the ground 

 greyish, greenish, or pinkish white, and they are very thickly and 

 finely freckled and speckled all over, but most densely about the 

 large end, with a slightly brownish, rarely a slightly purplish grey. 

 Occasionally when the markings are very dense in a cap at the 

 large end there is a. distinct purplish-grey tinge there, and on the 

 rest of the surface of the egg the markings are somewhat less 

 thickly set, leaving small portions of the ground-colour clearly 

 visible. Typically the eggs are moderately broad ovals, a little 

 compressed towards the small end, and though none are very 

 glossy, the great majority have a fair amount of gloss. 



463. Prinia flaviventris (Deless.). The Yellow-bellied Wren- 

 Warbler. 



Prinia flaviventris (Deless.), Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 169 ; Hume, Rough 

 Draft N. $ E. no. 532. 



Of the Yellow-bellied Wren- Warbler's modification I know 

 personally nothing. 



Tickell describes the nest as pensile but quite open, being a 

 hemisphere with one side prolonged, by which it is suspended from 

 a twig. The eggs, he says, are bright brick-red without a spot. 



Mr. H. C. Parker tells me that " this bird breeds in the Salt- 

 Water Lake, or rather on the swampy banks of the principal 

 canals that intersect it. The nest is nearly always placed on 

 an ash-leaved shrub-like plant growing on the banks of the canal 

 and overhanging the water. One taken on the 26th July, 1873, 

 containing four nearly fresh eggs, was almost touching the water 

 at high tide. The male has the habit, when the female is sitting, 

 of hopping to the extreme point of a tall species of cane-like grass 



VOL. i. 19 



