AT.CIPPE. 105 



decided tendency to form a more or less perfect, and more or less 

 confluent, cap or zone at the large end. 



Two of the eggs measure 0*72 and 0-71 in length, and 0-54 and 

 0*52 in breadth. 



From Sikhim, Mr. Gaminie writes : — " I have only found this 

 Babbler breeding in May at elevations about 5000 feet, but it 

 doubtless breeds also at much lower elevations, probably down 

 to 2000 feet. The nests are placed within 2 or 3 feet of the 

 ground, between several slender upright shoots, to which they are 

 firmly attached. They are exceedingly neat and compact-built 

 cups, measuring externally about 4 inches across by 2 - 75 deep, 

 internally 2 - 15 wide by 1/6 deep. They are composed of dry 

 bamboo-leaves held together by a little grass and very fine, hair- 

 like fern-roots. The egg-cavity is lined with fern-roots. 



" The eggs are three or four in number." 



Numerous nests of this species kindly sent me by Messrs. 

 Gammie, Mandelli, and others, taken during the months of May 

 and June in British and Native Sikhim, at elevations of from 3000 

 to 5500 feet, were all of the same type and placed in the same situ- 

 ations, namely amongst low scrub and brushwood, at heights of 

 from 18 inches to 3 feet from the ground. The interior and, in 

 fact, the main body of the nests appear to be in all cases chiefly 

 composed of fine black hair-like roots, with which, in some cases, 

 especially about the upper margin, a little fine grass is inter- 

 mingled. The cavities are generally much about the same size, say 

 2 inches in diameter by 1-25 in depth : but the size of the nests as 

 a whole varies very much. The nest is always coated exteriorly 

 with dry leaves of trees and ferns, broad blades of grass, and the 

 like, fixed together sometimes by mere pressure, but generally here 

 and there held together by fine fibrous roots, and this coating varies 

 so much that one nest before me measures 5 - 5 in external diameter, 

 and another barely 4, the external covering of fern-leaves, flags, 

 and dry and dead leaves being very abundant in the former, while in 

 the other the covering consists entirely of broad dry blades of grass 

 very neatly laid together. Two, three, and four fresh eggs were 

 found in these several nests, but in no case were more than four 

 eggs found. 



Two nests taken by Mr. Gammie contained three and two fresh 

 eggs respectively. The eggs had a delicate pink ground, and were 

 richly blotched, in one egg exclusively, in the others chiefly about the 

 larger end, with chestnut, or almost maroon-red, here and there 

 almost deepening in spots to black, and elsewhere paling off into a 

 rufous haze. The markings are confluent about the large end, and 

 there in places intermingled with a purplish tinge. The other 

 eggs had a china-white ground, with more gloss than the specimens 

 previously described, with numerous small, blackish brownish-red 

 spots and specks, almost exclusively confined to the large end, 

 where they are more or less enveloped in a pinky-red nimbus. 



These eggs varied from # 75 to - 79 in length, and from 0-56 

 to 0-6 in breadth. 



