Birds of Gazaland, Southern Rhodesia. ae 
usually half hung, half supported in a shrub or in tall herbage, 
from eighteen inches to three feet from the ground, in the 
forest undergrowth. A favourite place, however, is a thorn- 
hedge on the outskirts of the forest, and I once found a 
nest in a small shrub growing in the bottom of a game-pit. 
It is usually of a neat oval shape, domed, and almost entirely 
composed externally of a thin layer of moss, strengthened 
scantily with fine grass and occasionally a very little lichen : 
it is lined throughout, including the dome, sometimes 
sparingly, at other times thickly, with fine vegetable down 
(usually from the pappi of a large latex-yielding hana common 
in Chirinda), intermixed with the seed-bearing stems of the 
“false maiden-hair” and other such fine material. An 
average nest in my collection measures 3 inches from front 
to back, 4 inches in depth, and 2°75 in width; opening 15 
wide by 1:75 deep; diameter of cup 2 inches. One nest 
had a small back entrance in addition to the usual opening. 
The eggs are of two distinct types, and this at first appeared 
to confirm my idea that there were two distinct forms of 
this bird, but I have since found two clutches which afford a 
connecting-link, and in any case more evidence is required. 
The first type of egg is pale blue with large spots of brown- 
madder, chiefly about the thicker end, and belongs, should 
there be two varieties, to the narrow-banded bird, which I 
have twice shot from the nest. The second much resembles 
the egg of the English Wren, being pure white in eround- 
colour, minutely freckled and spotted with reddish brown 
and a little purple-grey, again chiefly about the larger end. 
I have twice noted that the birds sitting on these eggs have 
the broader band. The intermediate forms to which I have 
referred were (1) pure white with the larger blotches, 
and (2) bluish white with the minute spots. Three is the 
number of the clutch, and the eggs measure from 15 to 
17 mm. in length and 12 in breadth. The birds themselves, 
measured in the flesh, vary from 4°25 inches (narrow- 
banded) to 5°15 (broad-banded) ; bill black; legs pale 
brownish pink; iris pale Naples yellow, sometimes with a 
tinge of green. The crops examined have contained grass- 
