181 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII. 
little is known of these and the allied birds that I reproduce my 
remarks here, as also those on the other members in their right place, 
omitting only the descriptions of the birds themselves. 
Nipirication.—lI think that I must take at least. two nests of this 
bird to every one I find of all the other wren babblers collectively. Out 
shooting I am constantly having my attention drawn by a little lark- 
like bird gliding noiselessly out of some tuft of grass and almost 
immediately after becoming invisible. Hven after the bird is seen 
to quit, it often takes some time to find the nest, for it is generally 
carefully concealed and more or less covered with fallen leaves, &c. 
Occasionally, when I have not been able to mark the exact spot from 
whence the bird has made off, I have been quite unable to find the 
nest, and have had to await the return of the bird in order to obtain 
the eggs. It is always placed on the ground, and amongst fully one 
hundred nests taken in the last four years, I have never yet met with 
‘the exception that proves the rule.’ 
“The situation most commonly chosen in which to place it is a a tuft 
of coarse grass or a thick clump of rank weeds growing either in, 
or close to, bamboo jungle. It is very remarkable how often 
these birds select seemingly dangerous positions by the side of 
some well-worn mithna, buffalo, or elephant track. On one occasion 
(24th April, 1891) I was tracking up a wounded bull that I had 
damaged the night before, and no less than four times did I disturb this 
bird from one side or the other of the track. Each time I put them 
up, a coolie, who was carrying my drinking water, looked for and found 
the nest, and at the end of the tramp he gave me them with such eggs 
as he had not managed to smash, All four nests were taken from 
beside comparatively well-worn tracks. I have often taken nests from 
amongst the masses of dead bamboo leaves collected at the foot of 
bamboo clumps or even from the open ground, where it is fairly steep, 
and dead vegetation and leaves lie thickly enough to afford protection. 
Another favourite place is just at the edge of patches of sun grass, ekra, 
or elephant grass. I do not think they ever build inside these patches 
at any distance from the edge; personally I have never seen a nest 
more than a foot or two inside. Low bushes in which the branches 
come quite down to the ground, more especially such as are thorny, 
sometimes conceal.a nest, but not one in ten will be taken from such 
