DRYMOICINvE. 219 



resident throughout the distrit, breeding during July and August ; 

 it usually constructs a rather pretty nest, composed of fine strips 

 torn from blades of green grass which are plaited together like 

 those of the Baya, but the strips are much finer and the nest 

 altogether neater ; it is usually fastened to the thorny twigs of 

 acacia bushes, at no great height from the ground, and the shape 

 depends largely on the position of these twigs. According to my 

 experience the nest is never lined. 



v Another type of nest is composed of the same material, but 

 is much coarser, and more loosely woven. 



Nests of this latter description are built in clumps of 

 sarpat, guinea, or other rank-growing grass, or even in stand- 

 ing corn ; they are purse-shaped, with the entrance on one side, 

 the opposite side being prolonged and projecting over, so 

 as to form a canopy. The eggs, four or five in number, are 

 moderately long ovals, of a glossy pale greenish-blue color, 

 boldly spotted and blotched with chocolate and reddish-brown, 

 with a delicate tracery of interlaced hair-like lines at the larger 

 end, but occasionally these lines are absent, the small end being 

 usually spotless. The ground color is also subject to variation, 

 eggs having been taken of a dull olive-green tint, and still more 

 rarely of a clear reddish- white. They measure 0'61 inches in 

 length by 0*45 in breadth. D. inornate also equals D. tern- 

 color. 



Drymoipus rufescens, Hume. 



544to. Butler, Guzerat ; Stray Feathers, Vol. Ill, p. 484 ; 

 Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 407. 



THE GKEAT KUFOUS WEEN WARBLER. 



Length, 6'45 to 7'2 ; expanse, 71 to 8 ; tail, 3'3 to 3'9 ; wing, 

 2-3 ; tarsus, 0'9 to 0'95 ; bill at front, 0'5 to 0*53. 



Bill blackish-horny, fleshy at base of lower mandible ; irides 

 from brown to deep yellow ; legs fleshy to reddish-brown. 



Whole upper surface, including tail, and greater median- 

 coverts, tertiaries, and outer webs of primaries and secondaries, 

 rich rufous-brown in full' plumage, dull, or earthy-brown, more or 

 less tinged or overlaid with rufous in young birds ; tail very 

 distinctly and finely, but obsoletely barred, much less distinctly 

 however in some specimens than in others ; all the feathers, except 

 the central ones, narrowly tipped with fulvous- white, with a more 

 or less distinct penultimate dusky bar ; the young birds with a 

 good deal of white on the inner webs of the lateral feathers, 

 which is entirely wanting in adults. 



In some of the adults, the dark subterminal bar becomes 

 almost obsolete ; lores and a stripe over the eye fulvous white ; 

 ear-coverts, sides of neck, and breast, and sometimes some 

 of the lesser wing-coverts about the carpal joint, a greenish 

 or greyish-brown ; the ear-coverts at times more or less mottled 

 with ful vous- white ; lower parts pale fulvous, or buffy, albescent on 



