402 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol, XIII, 
of P. phayrii, and amongst these was placed by mistake a specimen 
of this bird. Mr. Hartert pointed this out to me, and on my return to 
India I at last succeeded in getting one more specimen, a female, which 
I shot off its nest, but which was so greatly knocked about as to render 
preservation impossible. The nest was exactly like that of any 
other Scimitar Babbler, and the eggs might have been mistaken for 
those of P. phayrit. 
(3) PoMATORHINUS AUSTENI, = Neen s Scimitar Babbler. 
Blanford, No. 127. 
On the 25th of June, 1899, I found a Scimitar Babbler’s nest contain- 
ing five fresh eggs. I at once set nooses about it, or rather had them 
set for me by a Naga, and awaited events. Before anything was 
caught, however, the heavy, persistent rain drove us away, and when he 
returned the next morning all the Naga found was the remnants 
of a female, the ants having eaten nearly all the under parts 
from vent to throat. Fortunately tufts of feathers here and there 
remained to show me, beyond all doubt, to what species the 
Babbler belonged, and I had the pleasure of iin my first - 
P. ausient. 
The nest, which was found on the extreme summit of Hungrum 
Peak, over 6,000 feet high, was placed on the ground at the foot of a 
bush growing in mixed tree and scrub jungle. 
It was principally composed of very coarse grass-stems, roots and 
bents, lined with finer and darker-coloured materials of the same kind, 
and massed all about outside with dead bamboo leaves, broad grass blades, 
and a few dead leaves of other kinds. The materials were not badly 
put together, the nest, in fact, being rather stouter than most Scimitar 
Babblers are; but there was absolutely no finish to the nest, all the 
ends of the material, both lining and outer part, sticking straight into 
the air. In shape it wasa very deep cup, measuring—not including 
the more stragoling pieces—about 82" deep by about 6" wide near 
the base, whence it gradually, but very slightly, narrowed towards 
the top. Internally the cup was about 7” deep and about 4” in 
diameter. 
The eggs are like all other Scimitar Babbler’s eggs, white and very 
smooth, though not very glossy ; rather broad ovals with the smaller 
ends obtuse, though distinctly compressed. 
