THE BIRDS OF NORTH CAOHAR. 11 



The nests, which are rather small for the size of the bird, average 

 some 4^" in diameter, being almost perfect spheres ; the entrances are 

 about an inch across and generally rather more vertically. All the 

 nests I have seen have had no other materials than moss used in their 

 construction, the roots alone forming the lining and, as a rule, the 

 brightest and freshest moss being outside. The earliest date on which 

 I have taken a nest was the 4th of May, but they must commence 

 breeding in the middle of April, as in early May I got some half- 

 fledged young ones. They continue to breed until about the middle of 

 June. 



The eggs differ in no way from the P. squamata. They are pure 

 white, and in shape broad regular ovals. The surface is fine and 

 smooth, but quite glossless, and the shell is very fragile. 



Twenty-one eggs average *72" X *55", and they vary in length 

 between # 70" and '75", and in breadth between "52" and '58". 



Four is, I think, the full complement of eggs, but I have seen 

 three, and once two, eggs showing signs of incubation. 



Family Sylvidce. 



(141) Locustblla certhea. — Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler. 

 Oates, No. 360 ; Hume No. 421. 

 I observed this bird, and shot two specimens, in July, 1891, about 

 the rice-fields and swampy patches of grass and ekra on the Umrung 

 Plateau at about 1,200 to 1,500 feet. An examination of the birds 

 proved that they were breeding, but a most careful search produced no 

 nests. 



(142) Aceocephalus stertoreus. — The Indian Reed Warbler. 

 Oates, No. 363 ; Hume, No. 515. 

 Not uncommon in the grass lands at the foot of the hills. 



(143) A. dumetorum. — Blyth's Reed Warbler e 

 Oates, No. 366 ; Hume, No. 516. 

 Mr. H. A. Hole found these birds fairly common along the foot of 

 the hills, haunting ekra and sun-grass. 



(144) Tribura lutciventris.— The Brown Bush- Warbler. 

 Oates, Bo. 372 ; Hume, No. 522. 

 I got a single specimen of this bird in May, 1890, shooting it whilst 

 it was flitting about in a patch of ekra on the Umrung plain. 



