48 



four pale greenish -blue eggs, minutely speckled with reddish 

 brown, the dots forming a very distinct zone at the larger end. 

 The nest is constructed of moss, pieces of old rag, frayed bits of 

 grass, &c., and is lined with feathers and the dried droppings of 

 the wild cat (Felis c7iaus\ which, being principally composed of 

 rat's fur, are very soft ; the nest in consequence is often rather 

 odorous. An egg measured '78 inch by *6." 



The eggs are typically broad ovals, slightly pointed towards, but 

 somewhat obtuse at, the small end, and with but little gloss ; they 

 are, though closely resembling them in character, conspicuously 

 larger and slightly more elongated than those of P. caprata. The 

 doubts as to the distinctness of the two species, which must exist, 

 are a good deal weakened by the very marked difference in the 

 size of the eggs a difference far more apparent to the eye than 

 might be expected from a comparison of their respective linear 

 measurements. The ground-colour is a delicate, very pale, bluish 

 green, and they are more or less thickly freckled, speckled, and 

 streaked with somewhat brownish red. The markings are most 

 dense in all cases towards the large end, where they form in most 

 an ill-defined mottled cap, and in some a broad, conspicuous, though 

 irregular zone. Their style of coloration closely resembles those 

 of the eggs of the Black, Black-eared, Russet, and Pied Wheatears, 

 as figured by Bree; but the ground-colour is far paler and bluer 

 than in his figures, and the markings are brighter and redder. I 

 ought to notice that a faint purple mottling often underlies, or is 

 intermingled with, the red or brownish-red cap or zone. The eggs 

 vary in length from 072 to O82, and in breadth from 0-53 to 

 O63 ; but the average of forty eggs measured was a trifle less than 

 0*77 by rather more than 0*6, so that, as a body, the eggs are full 

 one third larger (taking cubic * contents) than those of P. caprata. 



610. Pratincola maura (Pall.). The Indian Bush- Chat. 



Pratincola indica, BlytJi, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 124. 



Pratincola ruhicola (Linn.), Hume, Rouyh Draft N. fy E. no. 483. 



The Indian Bush-Chat breeds throughout the lower ranges of 

 the Himalayas (south of the first snowy range) at almost any ele- 

 vation not exceeding 5000 feet, from Afghanistan to Assam. 

 Occasionally, too, they breed in the Salt Eange, in the Suleiman 

 Hills, in the plains districts of the Punjab which skirt the bases of 

 these lower hills, and we have one instance on record of the nest 

 being taken at the extreme south of the Saharunpoor district. 



All about the valley of the Sutlej below Kotegurh, and again in 



* To calculate the actual cubic contents of an egg is a rather complicated 

 problem ; but the cubic contents of different sized, similarly shaped eggs are 

 proportional to their lengths multiplied by the squares of their diameters. So, 

 taking the eggs of P. caprata as averaging 0'67 by 0'55, and those of P. bicolor 

 as averaging 077 by 0*6, their respective volumes are as 201 to 277, those of P. 

 bicolor being thus more than one third more massive than those of P. caprata. 



