7 
a patch of dense fine-stemmed grass, from 18 inches to 2 feet in height, and, as a rule, standing 
in a moist place; in this, at the height of from 6 to 8 inches from the ground, the nest is con- 
structed; the sides are formed by the blades or stems of the grass, in situ, closely tacked and 
caught together with cobwebs and very fine silky vegetable fibre. This is done for a length of 
from 2 to nearly 3 inches, and, as it were, a narrow tube, from 1:0 to 1-5 in diameter, formed in 
the grass. To this a bottom, from 4 to 6 inches above the surface of the ground, is added, a few 
blades of the grass being bent across, tacked and woven together with cobwebs and fine vegetable 
fibre. The whole interior is then closely felted with silky down, in Upper India usually that of 
the Mudar (Calotropis hamiltoni). The nest thus constructed forms a deep and narrow purse, 
about 3 inches in depth, an inch in diameter at the top, and 1°5 at the broadest part below. 
The tacking together of the stems of the grass is commonly continued a good deal higher up on 
one side than on the other; and it is through or between the untacked stems opposite to this that 
the tiny entrance exists. Of course above the nest the stems and blades of the grass, meeting 
together, completely hide it. The dimensions above given are those of the interior of the nest; 
its exterior dimensions cannot be given. The bird tacks together not merely the few stems 
absolutely necessary to form a side to the nest, but most of the stems all round, decreasing the 
extent of attachment as they recede from the nest-cavity. It does this too very irregularly; on 
one side of the nest perhaps no stem more than an inch distant from the interior surface of the 
nest will be found in any way bound up in the fabric, while on the opposite side perhaps stems 
fully 3 inches distant, together with all the intermediate ones, will be found more or less webbed 
together. Occasionally, but rarely, I have found a nest of a different type. Of these one was 
built amongst the stems of a common prickly labiate marsh-plant which has white and mauve 
flowers. ‘There was a straggling framework of fine grass, firmly netted together with cobwebs, ° 
and a very scanty lining of down. ‘The nest was egg-shaped, and the aperture on one side near 
the top. Mr. Brooks, I believe, once found a similar one; but the vast majority of the others 
that any of us have ever got have been of the type first described, which corresponds closely with 
Passler’s account. Five is the usual complement of eggs; at any rate I have notes of more than 
a dozen nests that contain this number; and in more than half the cases the eggs were partly 
incubated. I have no record of more than five ; and though I have any number of nests containing 
one, two, three, and four eggs, yet these latter in almost all cases were fresh.” 
The eggs of the Fantail Warbler run into several varieties, two of which appear to be 
equally common in Europe—viz. pale blue spotted with rufous and pure white, also spotted with 
rufous. Besides these I possess one egg of a third variety, viz. pale blue entirely unspotted, but 
have never seen any specimens of a fourth variety which is said to occur, viz. pale pink unspotted. 
In the blue spotted eggs in my collection the spots are of a dull light-red colour, and are more 
profuse towards the larger end; and the white eggs are spotted with lighter and darker red, the 
spots being in these also more profuse at the larger end. In size the eggs of this Warbler vary 
from 24 by 42 to 23 by 3¢ inch. 
The specimens figured are a pale greyish adult male, from Smyrna, and a rufous example 
from Sardinia. 
In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens :— 
