THAMNOBIA. 79 



space level with the top of the nest. The internal dimensions are 

 about 2 1 inches diameter by \\ deep. The outer materials are 

 coarse but soft grasses of sorts, dry stems of iieem-seeds, and here 

 and there a feather. This is generally carelessly and ruggedly put 

 together ; but the lining of very fine roots, grass, hair, wool, and 

 often pieces of onion-peel and snake-skin is neatly woven. 



" The largest number of eggs I observed in any one nest was 

 three. Two was the smallest number incubated, and one nest had 

 two young ones in it. I only knew one pair of birds breed twice 

 in the same season, and they used the same nest for the second 

 occasion. They lay daily. Both parents share the labour of 

 building the nest, and also of feeding the young ; but I have 

 never seen the male bird sitting on the nest. I have for hours 

 watched a male 4 flirting ' about in front of the hole where the 

 hen was sitting, or perched close by, warbling prettily, and 

 several times he took food to her." 



Messrs. Davidson and Wenden remark of this bird in the 

 Deccan : " Abundant, and breeds from April to July." 



Mr. Gr. Yidal writes from the South Konkan : " Common 

 everywhere on the bare and rocky hill-sides and about villages. 

 Breeds in March and April, in crevices between the boulders, 

 or rocky hill-sides." 



Mr. W. T. Blanford tells us : " I found a curious nest made 

 by this bird, and in a singular position, viz. inside the bamboo of 

 a dhooly in the verandah of Captain Grlasfurd's house at Sironcha. 

 The principal material of which the nest had been composed was a 

 number of short fragments of string; with these were grass, 

 horsehair, and a snake's skin. The nest contained three eggs, as 

 usual." 



Mr. Iver Macpherson records the following note from Mysore : 

 " I have found nests of this bird in April, May, and June. The 

 nests are generally placed on the ground, under some stone, tuft 

 of grass, or small bush ; but once Major Mclnroy found the nest 

 in a small cactus-bush, a foot or so from the ground. Last year a 

 pair built their nest in an old elephant's skull lying out in my 

 compound at Mysore. Three is the usual number of eggs laid ; on 

 one occasion I found two slightly incubated." 



Mr. C. J. "W. Taylor, also writing from the same State, says : 

 "Plentiful everywhere. Breeding in April and May in the 

 vicinity of villages." 



And yet a further note from Mysore. Mr. W. Davison says : 

 " On the 23rd May last year I found a nest of this species, con- 

 taining three partially incubated eggs. The nest was placed under 

 a bush, on the very edge of the road." 



Lieutenant Burgess, in his notes on the habits of birds in 

 Southern India, tells us of this species that " it breeds during the 

 months of March. April, and May, building its nests in the holes 

 of walls and rocks, as also in hollows under tussocks of grass. I 

 subjoin some notes on the subject : 



' May 9th, 1850. When passing outside the wall of a town, 



