THE BIRDS OF NORTH CACHAR. 184 
difference in breadth is proportionately rather greater, the limits either 
way being °63” and ‘71". The average of one hundred eggs is ‘90" 
(almost) by °675", 
“The earliest date on which I have obtained eggs was on the 4th 
of April, 1891, on which date I took a nest with two fresh eggs. 
The latest date noted is the 21st July 1888, when four hard-set egos 
were taken. Of all my nests, one-half were taken between the 15th 
April and the 25th May, one-third between the latter date and the 
25th June, and the remaining one-sixth early in April or in the last 
few days of June and the first few of July. 
“This bird isso shy and unobstrusive that, in spite of its being so com- 
mon, it is a most difficult matter to collect any materials for notes on 
its habits. Its knack of getting out of sight in a moment is something 
wonderful and has to be seen to be believed. When put up off its 
nest, a bird is just seen to slope away for a foot or two, or perhaps a 
yard or two, after which it is non est. I have used the word slope in- 
tentionally, as 1 think it describes best the bird’s mode of progression ; it 
cannot be said to be a hop, run, or flight, but seems to be a combination 
of all three in which no one mode is visible. As regards its voice, the 
only notes I have heard it utter have been the pleasant musical call 
alluded to by Oates as being the common note of P. subochraceum, 
and the chattering cries it constantly gives during the cold Season, 
when the bird goes about in company with a few others. It also uses 
this note when disturbed by an intruder,:such as a squirrel or another 
bird, but it never, I believe, utters any cry when disturbed by a human 
being or big animal, confining itself to performing the vanishing trick 
with neatness and celerity. Jerdon mentions ‘a kind of crowing laugh’ 
as being amongst the sounds they make. This, like Rider Haggard’s 
crabs, ‘they cannot do in my fiction,’ though, like the same crabs, it is 
quite possible that they may ‘do’ so in reality, although I do not 
happen to have heard them myself. It isa frequenter of low scrub 
and brush jungle or of bamboo and grass jungle mixed, and does not 
haunt the tops of high trees as so many wren babblers do in the cold 
weather. It may often be seen feeding actually on the ground, and 
this more especially when the birds are collected in flocks. At this 
time they appear rather less shy, and the few observations I have been 
able to make have nearly all been collected at this period of the year. I 
