6 
especially when these latter are overgrown with creepers, and the ground is covered with dense 
grass; and it also occurs in gardens, alongside of ditches, and far from cultivation to the very 
edge of the desert. Not unfrequently several pairs inhabit a small place, which they rarely quit. 
This species lives much hidden, though it is not, strictly speaking, shy, and is usually seen in 
tangled places close to the ground, and descends not unfrequently to the ground, where it runs 
with ease amongst the grass. Only the male, when singing, will show itself on an exposed twig 
or a long grass-stem standing apart from the rest. The song is rather poor than otherwise, and 
the call-note is a harsh teck teck. During the breeding-season the male will often fly round the 
place where the nest is and ascend into the air, like the Whitethroat, describing circles, flying 
low, with a jerky fluttering flight, and continually uttering its call-note. 
The food of the present species consists chiefly of small insects and their eggs; and Brehm _ 
says that the indigestible portions of their food, which he found chiefly to consist of minute 
beetles, Diptera, caterpillars, and small snails, are cast up in the form of pellets. 
Nidification commences in North Africa in March, and in Southern Europe a little later, 
and two or even three broods are in some countries raised in one year. I have received several 
nests from Spain, all purse-shaped, neatly made of thistle-down and plant-cotton, interwoven 
with bits of grass, and closely worked to the grass stems amongst which they are built. 
Von Heuglin gives (/. ¢.) the following description of its breeding-habits in North-east 
Africa :— This bird probably breeds in wheat- and clover-fields; but I found its nests only in 
date-palm groves and low thorn-hedges; they were placed from one to two feet above the ground, 
and were from 43" to 6” high, the deep cavity of the nests being 2" to 23" in diameter. The 
entire structure is not very thick and solid; the form is governed by the locality, and more or 
less approaches that of the Reed-Warbler, but is sometimes rather more bulging in the middle. 
The nest never hangs freely, like a purse-nest, but it is interwoven with leaf-sheaths, thorns, 
twigs, and even grass-stalks, and composed of fine dry grass and rootlets. The interior is care- 
fully lined with wool, hair, and fibres. The four vividly reddish-white very thin-shelled eggs 
exhibit numerous ferruginous spots and points, which are usually brought together into the form 
of a ring at the obtuse end so closely that the ground-colour entirely disappears. ‘There are also 
some with a greenish white ground and light violet and rusty red points and spots. Their form 
is obtusely oval, their length being from 6" to 64", and their breadth only 5’. On the 27th 
June I found three nests in Central Nubia, one of which contained two young birds and two 
unincubated eggs, the second two incubated and the same number of unincubated, and the third 
two fresh-laid eggs.” 
Mr. A. O. Hume, in his work on the nests and eggs of Indian birds, has published some 
notes on the nidification of the present species, from which I transcribe the following, viz.:— 
“The Rufous Grass-Warbler, as Jerdon calls it, breeds pretty well all over India and Ceylon, 
confining itself, as far as my experience goes, to the low country, and never ascending the 
mountains to any great elevation. ‘The breeding-season lasts, according to locality, from April 
to October; but it never breeds with us in dry weather, always laying during rainy months. 
Very likely, at the Nicobars, where it rains pretty well all the year round, March being the only 
fairly dry month, it may breed at all seasons. I have myself taken several, and have had a 
great many nests sent tome. With rare exceptions all belonged to one type. ‘The bird selects 
