ABOO AND NORTH GUZERAT. 209 



[I think all these specimens are referable to A. bengalensis. — 

 A. 0. H.] 



441.— Chsetornis striatus, Jerd. 



The Grass-Babbler is not uncommon about Deesa in the 

 rains at which season it breeds. I found a nest containing 

 four eggs on the 18th August 1876. It consisted of a round 

 ball of dry grass with a circular entrance on one side near 

 the top, was placed on the ground in the centre of a low 

 scrubby bush in a grass Bheerh, and when the hen bird flew off, 

 which was not until I almost put my foot on the nest, I mis- 

 took her for Chatarrhcea caudata. On looking, however, into the 

 bush I saw at once by the eggs that it was a species new to 

 me. I left the spot and returned again in about an hour's 

 time, when to my disappointment I fouud that three of the 

 eggs had hatched. The fourth egv being stale, I took it and 

 added it to my collection. The eggs are about the size of the 

 eggs of C. caudata, but in colour very like those of Franhlinia 

 Buchanani, namely, white speckled all over with reddish brown 

 and pale lavender, most densely at the large end. This bird has 

 a peculiar habit in the breeding season of rising suddenly into 

 the air and soaring about, often for a considerable distance, 

 uttering a loud note resembling the words " chirrup, chirrup- 

 chirrup,'" repeated all the time the bird is in the air and then 

 suddenly descending slowly into the grass with outspread 

 wings much in the style of Mirafra eryihroptera. These birds 

 are so similar in appearance when flying and hopping about 

 in the long grass to C. caudata that I have no doubt they 

 are often mistaken for that species. I have invariably fouud 

 them during the rains in grass Bheerhs over-grown with low 

 thorny bushes {Zizyphus jujuba, &c.) Whether they remain 

 the whole year round I cannot say ; at all events if they do 

 their close resemblance to C. caudata enables them to escape 

 notice at other seasons. 



483 bis. — Pratincola macrorhyncha, Stol. 



Amongst the Pratincolas forwarded to Mr. Hume in my last 

 batch of skins, there appears to have been a bird of this species. 

 Measurements as below : — 



Length. Wing. Tail. Bill at front. Bill at gape. Sex. Locality. 



5-87 3- 2-62 C 43 75 ? Deesa, 1211-75. 



Irides, very dark brown ; legs and feet, black ; bill, blackish 

 brown, horny at base of lower inaudible. 



I cannot say whether the bird is common or otherwise in 

 the district whence it was procured, as I was not aware of its 



