300 STLTIIDJE. 



" Aug. 13. A nest containing 5 fresh eggs. 



16. 4 young birds fledged. 



>5 1' M J> 



)> 11 J> " 



19. 4 



>J )? " J5 



,, 30. 5 



Sept. 3. 5 



"In addition to the above, I found nests in the same neigh- 

 bourhood in 1875. One on the 14th August containing four 

 young birds almost ready to leave the nest. It was placed in the 

 middle of a tussock of coarse grass on the side of a nullah on a 

 bank overgrown with grass and bushes, and my attention was 

 attracted h'rst of all to the spot by the incessant chattering and 

 uneasiness of the two old birds, one of which had a large grass- 

 hopper in its mouth. After hiding behind a bush for a few 

 minutes, I saw the hen bird fly to the nest, which led to its dis- 

 covery. The nest was dome-shaped, with an entrance upon one 

 side, composed exteriorly of blades of rather coarse dry grass (green, 

 however, as a rule when the nest is first built), and interiorly of 

 similar, but finer, material. It is an easy nest to find when once the 

 locality in which the birds breed is discovered, as it is a conspicuous 

 ball of grass, smeared over, often more or less, exteriorly with a silky 

 white vegetable-do vvn or cobweb, and many of the blades of Ihe 

 tussock in which it is placed are often drawn down and woven into 

 the nest, which at once attracts attention. Then, again, the cock 

 bird is almost always to be found on the top of some low tree 

 near the nest, uttering his peculiar ventriloquistic note ' tissip, 

 tissip, tissip,' etc. All the above nests were exactly alike and in 

 similar situations, viz. fixed in the centre of a tussock of coarse 

 grass on the banks of some deep nullahs running through a large 

 grass ' Beerh.' The eggs remind me more of the English Robin's 

 eggs than those of any other species I know. The ground-colour 

 is dull white, sometimes tinted with pale green, and the markings 

 reddish fawn. In some cases the eggs are peppered all over with 

 a conspicuous zone at the large end, sometimes a dense cap instead 

 of a zone. In other cases the markings, though always present, 

 are almost invisible, as also the zone or cap. They are about the 

 size of the eggs of the Spotted Flycatcher. I found a few other 

 nests besides those 1 have mentioned during July and August 

 1875." 



Captain Cock informed me that this species is " common in the 

 jungles around Seetapore. Nest is largish, dome-shaped, and 

 placed low down in a thorny bush. The bird lays in August five 

 eggs, the fao-simile of the eggs of Pratincola ferrea, perhaps of a 

 more elongated type than the eggs of that bird." 



Mr. H. Parker, writing on the birds of North-west Ceylon, refers 

 to this bird under the titles D. jerdoni and D. valida, and informs 

 us that it breeds from January to May. 



