ABGYA. 69 



grass without lining, and woven in with the stems if in a clump 

 of grass, or firmly fixed in a fork if in a bush or low tree. The 

 interior diameter is about 3 inches, and the depth nearly 2 inches. 

 The eggs, four in number, are of a clear blue colour without spots 

 of any kind. In shape they are oval, rather thinner at one end ; the 

 shell is smooth and thin. The eggs are of the same colour, but 

 considerably larger than those of Argya caudata. Argya earlii 

 breeds commonly in the Sub-Siwalik District of the Doab ; it 

 seems fond of water, as most of the nests I have found were 

 close to the canal bank. It is gregarious even in the breeding- 

 season ; small flocks of seven or eight keeping together, fluttering 

 in and out of the low bushes, but seldom alighting on the ground, 

 and occasionally making a noisy chattering cry, especially when 

 disturbed." 



From the Pegu District Mr. Oates writes : — " I found two nests 

 on the 24th May, one quite empty though finished, the other con- 

 taining three eggs. 



" The nests were placed a few feet apart in an immensely thick 

 patch of elephant-grass, the undergrowth being fine, once tall, but 

 now dead, grass. It was upon this dead stuff, which in Hay is 

 much flattened down, that I found the nests. They were not 

 attached to anything, but simply laid in a depressed platform about 

 a foot above the ground, in among the thickest of the stalks of 

 elephant-grass. 



" The nest is a bulky structure, some 6 or 8 inches in external 

 diameter, and 4 inches in height, composed chiefly of coarse reeds, 

 becoming finer interiorly till the egg-cup is reached, where the 

 grasses employed are tolerably fine and neatly interwoven. The 

 cavity itself is more than a hemisphere, the diameter being 3 

 inches and the depth about 2 inches. 



" The eggs are of a beautiful blue colour, rather pointed at one 

 end." 



Colonel Tickell has the following note on the nidification of this 

 species in the Asiatic Society Journal, 1848, p. 301 : — 



" Burra phenga. — Nest hemispherical, of grasses rather loosely 

 interwoven ; generally on bushes in jungle. Eggs two to four ; 

 rather lengthened shape ; clear, full, verditer blue. — June." 



Mr. J. R. Cripps writes of this bird in Eastern Bengal : — " Very 

 common, and a permanent resident, keeping to grass-fields in small 

 parties of seven to ten. Very noisy. On the 2nd December, 

 1877, I found a nest with three slightly-incubated eggs in a small 

 babool bush which stood in a ' sone' grass-field. The nest was a 

 deep cup, whose foundation was a few leaves over which sone-grass 

 was woven rather loosely. Lining of fine grass-roots. The nest 

 was placed in amongst some coarse grass which grew up in the 

 centre of the bush, and was three feet from the ground. External 

 height 4, diameter 4|, internal diameter 2|, depth 2| inclips. Both 

 Messrs. Marshall and Hume in their works on ' Birds' Nesting ' 

 give March and September as the two periods for these birds to 

 lay, but the clutch I found were exceptionally late." 



