92 Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker on the 



11,000 feet on the Singalila Ridge between Sikhim and 

 Nepal, and were placed in rhododendron and viburnum 

 bushes from five to eight feet from the ground. Two 

 eggs seem to be the full complement laid, and those of 

 Mr. Osmaston averaged 1*15" by •82". 



77. Argya longirostris. 



Blanford, F. B. Ind. i. p. 109. 



This bird is such a skulker that it probably appears to be 

 even more rare than it is ; so far, however, I have succeeded 

 in taking only one nest and have had two others with single 

 eggs brought to me. 



The nest found by myself was a very deep cup, the internal 

 depth exceeding the diameter by over an inch, the dimensions 

 being internally about 3^" deep by about 2 - 4" across : 

 externally it was 4-2" deep by 3'2" across the top. It was 

 placed about a foot from the ground in a low thorny bush 

 growing in thatching-grass, my attention being drawn to 

 it by the parent bird leaving it as I approached. The 

 materials consisted of leaves, scraps of grass-blades, stems of 

 plants, and a few twigs, the whole being bound together Avith 

 fibres, roots of ferns, and long pliant weed-stems, and lined 

 Avithfine dark grasses and fern-roots. The lining was neat, 

 but the outer part of the nest was decidedly rough, especially 

 where the materials were wound round the twigs which 

 supported it. It contained three eggs, very hard-set, of the 

 usual Argya and Crateropus type, i. e., of a rather deeper blue 

 than those of the Hedge-Sparrow, the texture being very fine 

 and close and decidedly glossy. In shape they were broad 

 ovals, very nearly elliptical, and measured "88" by *7", "86" 

 by -69", and -86" by 69". 



Another nest brought to me with a single egg was much 

 the same as the former and was taken in the same kind of 

 situation. The egg was decidedly paler and less glossy and 

 also rather larger, measuring "91" by - 72". It was somewhat 

 less elliptical, one end being decidedly smaller than the other. 

 The third nest and the egg it contained were facsimiles iu 

 appearance of those first described, but the nest was said to 



