AND NORTHERN GUZERAT. 481 



ta lives in their respective regions of Aboo and its enceinte. — 

 A. 0. H.] 



539.— Cisticola schcenicola, Bonap. 



The Rufous Grass Warbler is not very common on the hills, 

 but plentiful in the plains wherever there is long grass. It 

 breeds in the plains during the monsoon, making a long bottle- 

 shaped nest of silky white vegetable down, with an entrance at 

 the top in a tuft of coarse grass a few inches from the ground. 

 The eggs are white, slightly tinted with pink before they are 

 blown, with numerous specks, spots and small blotches of 

 reddish chestnut brown and in some instances with a few stains 

 of pale inky purple towards the large end, the whole forming a 

 well marked zone. Dr. Jerdou, in writing of this species, says 

 that " when put up it takes a short jerking flight for a few yards 

 and then drops down into the grass again" This description 

 is quite correct, but I might add that " before descending it 

 usually hovers for a few seconds in the air as if looking out for 

 a blade of grass to settle upon." It often also pauses in its 

 flight to hover, proceeding on the wing afterwards without 

 alighting. 



[Occurs throughout the entire region, Sindh, Cutch, Kattia- 

 war, Jodhpoor, being of course absent in absolute desert, and 

 less common in the semi-desert tracts. — A. 0. H.] 



543&w.— Drymoipus terricolor, Hume. 



The Earth-brown Wren Warbler is very common in the plains, 

 frequenting low scrub jungle and long grass studded with low 

 bushes (Calotropis, Zizyphus, &c.) It breeds during the monsoon, 

 commencing to build in July, during which month and August 

 in the neighbourhood of Deesa I must have examined some 

 three or four dozen nests. There are two distinct types of nests 

 and there may be two species of this genus in this part of the 

 country, but I must confess that after shooting a large number 

 of specimens of both sexes, and after examining an immense 

 series of the eggs, I have failed to make out more than one 

 species, and that Mr. Hume informs me is his D. terricolor. 

 The nests alluded to vary as follows — one type is very 

 closely and compactly woven as described of D. terricolor 

 (Nests and Eggs, Rough Draft, p. 349,) with the entrance 

 almost at the top. The other type is built of the same material, 

 with the exception that the grass is rather coarser, but is 

 more in shape like a Wren's nest, and the grass is somewhat 

 loosely put together instead of being woven, and it has the 

 entrance with a slight canopy over it upon one side. The eggs 

 four, and not uncommonly five, in number, were exactly alike 



3 N 



