508 ALCIPPE NIGRIFROXS. 



is either forest, low jungle, or even scrubby copse ; and the same is true of the low country, where even small 

 detached woods, containing any underwood at all, are tenanted by it. In some portions of the sea-board 

 which are clothed with dry, arid scrub, such as on the south-east and north coasts, it is rare ; but even in 

 these it is met with in spots sheltered by tall trees from the blazing heat of a tropical sun. It is especially 

 numerous iu those portions of the Western and Southern Provinces in which the forests and jungle contain 

 bamboo undergrowth. 



Habits. — This modest but active little bird frequents underwood, thickets, and tangled jungle in little 

 parties of from six to a dozen in number, feeding among fallen leaves which have become lodged among 

 bushes, or about prostrate trunks of trees, and on the ground itself, subsisting entirely on various insects and 

 their larvae. It keeps up a constant little rattle-note as it threads its way about in the dense undergrowth, 

 dropping, perhaps, suddenly from a branch on to some large Bairoo-leaf {Sareoclinium longifolium) with a 

 startling noise, or flitting through matted bamboos across the closely begirt jungle-paths, each little member 

 of the troop following its mate in true Babbler fashion. It is most active in its movements ; I have rarely 

 seen it in a state of quiescence, except when, in the heat of the day, I have chanced to espy a little row 

 seated in close proximity on some horizontal twig or bamboo-stalk, silently feathering themselves after their 

 morning's exertions in search of food. They display much inquisitivencss, flitting round any one who may 

 be standing still in thick jungle, jumping to and fro about the twigs and dead leaves, and stretching out 

 their heads while they utter their shrill little rattle. 



Nidijication. — The breeding-season in the north of the island lasts from November until March, and in 

 the south, where most of our birds nest during the rains, from March until August. Mr. Parker writes me 

 that in the Seven Korales they breed mostly in May. The nest, as stated in my note, ' Stray Feathers/ 

 1875, p. 368, "is generally placed in a bramble or straggling piece of undergrowth, often in a prominent 

 position near a jungle-path, at a height of from 2 to 4 feet from the ground." It is almost invariably made 

 of dry leaves placed horizontally or in layers one on the other, the top being supported by the intermixture 

 of a few twigs, and the opening being a wide unfinished orifice almost on a level with the bottom of the 

 interior, which is composed of the same material as the outside. The structure thus formed is a shapeless, 

 globular mass, sometimes of one foot in diameter at least, and from its large size and generally exposed 

 situation is one of the first nests which meets the eye in the Ceylon jungles. 



The birds construct these nests with great rapidity, picking up the leaves one after the other from just 

 beneath the spot in which they are building. As mentioned in my notes in the ' Ibis,' 187-1, I have seen 

 them, from a place of concealment, sticking the leaves into the structure at the rate of two or three a minute. 

 From the number of these leaf-nests that one finds in the forests of Ceylon it would appear that probably 

 several arc constructed by the same birds before the eggs are deposited in the one finally chosen by the 

 little architects. They are used as a roosting-place by the young brood, who resort to them at nights after 

 they have reached their full size and are abroad with their parents. The eggs are invariably two in number, 

 stumpy ovals in shape, and of smooth texture. The ground-colour, before they are blown, is a clear fleshy 

 white, spotted openly all over, or in some chiefly at the large end, with rounded spots of dull red and brownish 

 red underlaid by a few specks of bluish grey. They measure 0-74 to 0-75 inch by - 55 to - 56inch. 



In the Plate accompanying the next article will be found two examples of this species — the one from 

 Nuwara Elliya, showing the olivaceous character of the hill-birds, the other from the low country, exhibiting 

 the same rusty-coloured tints which characterize the lowland form of Pomatorhinus. 



