86 OEATEROPOBIDJB. 



times moderately broad, and very slightly compressed towards one 

 end. They are very fragile, and perfectly pure spotless -white in 

 colour. Typically, although smooth and satiny in texture, they 

 have but little gloss, but occasionally a fairly glossy egg is to be 

 met with. 



In length they vary from 098 to 1*12, and in breadth from 0-75 

 to 0-79 ; but the average seems to be about 1-08 by 0-77. 



122. Pomatorhinus ferruginosus, Blyth. The Coral-billed 



Scimitar Babbler. 



Pomatorhinus ferruginosus, Myth, Jerd. £. Ind. ii, p. 29 ; Hume, 

 Rough Draft N. # E. no. 401. 



The Coral-billed Scimitar Babbler, according to Mr. Hodgson's 

 notes, breeds in Sikhim, at an elevation of 5000 or 6000 feet. Its 

 nest is placed about a foot or 2 feet above the ground, in a bamboo- 

 clump or some thick bush, and is firmly wedged in between the 

 twigs and shoots. It is composed internally of dried bamboo- 

 leaves, grass, and vegetable fibres, outside which bamboo-sheaths 

 are bound on with creepers and fibres of different kinds. The 

 nest is more or less egg-shaped, with the longer diameter hori- 

 zontal, some 7 inches or so in length and 5 inches in height, and 

 with the entrance at one end, measuring some 3 inches in diameter. 

 Four or five eggs are laid, elongated ovals, somewhat pointed 

 towards the small end, pure white, and measuring about 1-08 by 0-7. 



From Sikhim Mr. G-ammie writes :— <-" I took a nest of this bird 

 on the 19th May, at an elevation of about 5000 feet. It was 

 placed on the ground, among low scrub, near the outskirts of a 

 large forest, and was neatly made, for a Pomatorhinus, of bamboo- 

 leaves and long grass, with a thin lining of fibry strips torn from 

 old bamboo-stems. In shape it was a cone laid on its side. Ex- 

 ternally it measured 9 inches in length by the same in height at 

 front, while the egg-cavity measured 3-5 inches across, and 1-75 

 in depth. The entrance, which was at the end, measured 3 inches 

 in diameter. 



" Next to the lining was a layer of broadish grass-blades, placed 

 lengthways, i. e. from base to apex of the cone, then came a cross 

 layer of broad bamboo-leaves succeeded by a second layer of bamboo- 

 leaves placed lengthways. By this arrangement the nest was kept 

 perfectly water-tight. So nicely were these simple materials put 

 together that they held each other in their places without the assis- 

 tance of a single fibre. 



" The nest contained four partially incubated eggs : three of them 

 pointed and exactly alike, but the fourth rounded, and apparently 

 of a different texture, so that it may have been introduced bv a 

 Cuckoo." J 



Two eggs sent by Mr. Gammie are moderately elongated ovals, 

 somewhat obtuse even at the smaller end. The shell is very 

 fine, pure white, and has a fine gloss. They measure 1-1 bv 0-83 

 and 1-06 by 0-78. J ' 



