12 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



(145) Okthotomus sutokius. — The Indian Tailor-bird. 

 Oates, No. 374 ; Hume, No. 530. 

 Common up to 3,500 feet, not above. 



(146) 0. atrigularis. — The Black-necked Tailor-bird. 

 Oates, No. 375 ; Hume, No. 530 Bis. 



I have seen about a dozen specimens of this bird, the .majority 

 females trapped on the nest. It does not appear to ascend above 

 2,500 feet, and nearly all my birds were obtained in the Jatinga 

 valley, nowhere over 1,500 or 1,600 feet. 



The female, when the feathers of the neck become abraded, shows a 

 certain amount of black on the throat, and the black bases of the feathers 

 can always be seen if turned b?,ck with the finger. All the eggs I 

 have seen have been like the pale reddish blotched type of eggs of 

 O. sutorius, but they average smaller, "67" X '44" barely, and they 

 seem to be decidedly more fragile. Dimensions of male in summer : 

 length 5*3" ; tail 2'4" ; wing 1-8"; tarsus '8'' ; bill from gape "65". 



(147) Cisticola tytleri. — The Yellow-headed Fan-tailed Warbler. 



Oates, No. 379 ; Hume, No. 541 . 



This little bird is common all over the grass plateau and grass- 

 covered hills to the north and north-west, the only place I have not 

 found it in being a large open plain close to the hot springs, where 

 I found the nest bird alone. Two kinds of nests are built by this 

 warbler ; that most commonly to be met with is a small purse about 

 3|" long by about 2^", or rather more across. It is of the most flimsy 

 construction, and is made of the flowering ends of fine grasses, the 

 tips generally inwards. The commonest situation is a tuft of coarse 

 grass, to the stems of one or more of which it is attached, the blades 

 being brought down and incorporated with the nest. The opening 

 is either quite close to, or at the very top of, the nest. The second 

 form of nest is built against a broad leaf of some sort growing quite 

 close to the ground, the leaf of a very common species of ground 

 orchid being the one generally chosen. The leaf is not sewn together 

 in any way, but the nest is merely fastened to it like a watch-pocket, 

 and so shallow and flimsy is it that it seems as if it were impossible it 

 could support a brood of young. 



