G12 ]\Ir. G. L. Bates on the 



greyisli-wliitc, like the plumage of the adult. No. oioQ, a 

 younger bird ^rith a short bill, has the head, throat, and 

 neck dark olive-brown, but some yellow feathers appearing 

 on the throat and sides of the head belong to the plumage 

 corresponding to No. 3180. Birds in this intermediate 

 plumage have evidently been mistaken for adult females 

 {cf. Shelley, Monogr. Nect. plate 9G). 



Ail the specimens mentioned above were caught in 

 February and the beginning of March by means of snares 

 fixed on flowering shrubs. At most times this species seems 

 to be rare. 



CisTicoLA ERYTiiRors. [Tiukwat.] (Plate XII. figs. 14, 

 and 18-23, eggs.) (Text-fig. 18, p. G13.) 



Sharpe, Ibis, 1908, p. 317; Bates, Ibis, 1907, p. Cy7. 



Nos. 31 IG, 3890, and 4143 were immature birds, and 

 No. 4527 was young with the plumage half-grown ; these 

 were all without the rusty brown colouring of the ])lumage 

 about the head, and had the lores and sides of the head 

 greyish-white. The inside of the mouth and tongue were 

 orange-coloured, and the tongue had a pair of lanceolate 

 l)lack spots near the base at the edges. The tongue-spots 

 do not entirely disappear when birds of this species become 

 adult. In text-fig. 18, fig. A (p. 613) represents the tongue 

 of a large nestliug and B that of an adult bird. These- 

 figures and all those of birds' tongues were drawn from 

 specimens preserved in spirit. 



A large number of nests of the Tinkwat have been brought 

 to me by boys, who find them in easily accessible bushes at 

 the edges of the gardens, and so catch the sitting hen-birds 

 in their nests after dark in the evening. I have already 

 described these ingenious nests, but wnll here add that the 

 felt-like lining of brown pappus varies in thickness, and is 

 found to be thin and scanty when the eggs are fresh, and 

 thick -when they are nearly ready to hatch or when the 

 nest contains nestlings. It is evident that the bird continues 

 to line the nest after sitting has begun. The number of eggs 

 is sometimes three, but more often two. About forty eggs 



