3G8 NOTES ON CEYLONESE ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY, 



and having come almost to the conclusion that they were built 

 as roosting places, I at last came on a newly-constructed one 

 containing two eggs, on the 5th of January last ; the bird was 

 in the nest at the time, so that my identification of the eggs was 

 certain. The nest of this Babbler is generally placed in a bram- 

 ble or straggling piece of undergrowth near a path in the jungle 

 or other open spot ; it is about 3 or 4 feet from the ground, and 

 is entirely made of dead leaves and a few twigs ; the leaves are 

 laid one over another horizontally, forming a smooth bottom or 

 interior. In external form it is a shapeless ball about 8 or 10 

 inches in diameter, and has an unfinished opening at the side. 

 The birds build with astonishing quickness, picking up the leaves 

 one after another from the ground just beneath the nest. When 

 fresh the eggs are fleshy white, becoming pure white when 

 emptied ; they are large for the size of the bird, rather stumpy 

 ovals of a smooth texture and spotted openly and sparingly with 

 brownish red, over bluish grey specks ; in one specimen the 

 darker markings are redder than in the other, and run mostly 

 in the direction of the axis. Dimensions : 074 by 0.56 

 and 0-74 by 0*55 ; this is the first record of the breeding of 

 Alc/ppe nigrifrons. 



437 bis.— Layardia rufescens, Blyth. (143) 



The nest and eggs of the Ceylon Rufous Babbler have been 

 identified this year. Mr. MacVicar of the Ceylon Asiatic 

 Society, took a nest at Bolgodde, in the Western Province, on 

 the 22nd May last ; it was placed in some creepers against 

 the trunk of a tree a few feet from the gi'ound ; it resembled the 

 nest of Malacocercus striatus, and contained two fresh eggs very 

 similar to those of this bird. They were deep greenish blue and 

 smooth in texture; oval, somewhat pointed at the small end, and 

 measured 0*92 by 074 and 0.95 by 075. 



456 bis. — Rubigula melanictera, Gmelin, (148.) 



In April 1873, I received from a friend three eggs of this 

 bird, but I was unable to identity them until lately, having had 

 an opportunity of comparing them with a Clutch taken last 

 year in the Western Province, and about which there was no 

 doubt. In the latter case the nest was fixed on the top of a 

 small stump, and was a loose structure of grass and bents ; in 

 shape rather a deep cup and contained two eggs of a reddish 

 white ground color, profusely speckled with reddish brown 

 (in one example confluent round, the obtuse end, in the other 

 distributed over the whole surface) over freckles of bluish grey. 

 Dimensions : 079' by 0'58, 078 by 0'57. My nest was made of 

 grass on a foundation of dry leaves and herbaceous stalks loosely 

 lined with fine hair-like tendrils of creepers ; the eggs were of a 



