108 cbatebopodiDjE. 



165. Alcippe phayrii, Bl. The Burmese Babbler. 

 Alcippe phayrii, BL, Hume, Cat. no. 388 bis. 



Major 0. T. Bingham writes from Tenasserim : — " In the 

 half-dry bed of one of the many streams that one has to cross be- 

 tween Kaukarit and Meeawuddy, I found on the 23rd February 

 a nest of the above species. A firm little cup, borne up some 2 

 feet above the ground on the fronds of a strong-growing fern, to 

 three of the leaf-stems of which it was attached. It was made of 

 vegetable fibres and roots, and lined interiorly with fine black hair- 

 like roots, on which rested three fresh eggs, in colour pinky white, 

 blotched and streaked with dull reddish pink, and with faint clouds 

 and spots of purple. The eggs measure - 79 x "58, - 78 x '58, and 

 •76x-59." 



Mr. J. Darling, junior, informs us that on the 9th April he 

 " took three fresh eggs of Alcippe phayrii, in heavy jungle, at a very 

 low elevation, at the foot of Nwalabo in Tenasserim. The nest was 

 built in a small bush 4 feet from the ground (hanging between 

 two forked twigs), of bamboo and other leaves, moss, and a few 

 fine twigs, and lined with moss and fern-roots, 2 inches in diameter, 

 1| deep. It was exactly like very many nests of A. phceocephala, 

 taken on the Nilgbiri Hills, though some of the latter are much 

 more compact and pretty." 



Mr. W. Davison, also writing of Tenasserim, says : — " On the 1st 

 March, in a little bush about 2 feet above the ground, I found the 

 above-mentioned bird seated on a little moss-made nest, and utterly 

 refusing to move off until I almost touched her, when she hopped 

 on to a branch a few feet off, and disclosed three little naked fledg- 

 lings struggling or just struggled out of their shells. I retired a 

 little way off, and she immediately reseated herself. The eggs, to 

 judge by the fragments, were of a vinous claret tinge, spotted and 

 streaked with a darker shade of the same." 



These eggs closely resemble those of A. nepalensis. They are 

 neither broad nor elongated ovals, often with a slight pyriform 

 tendency, always apparently very blunt at both ends. 



The ground-colour, of which but little is visible, in some eggs 

 varies from pinky white to pale reddish pink, and the egg is pro- 

 fusely smeared and clouded with pinky or purplish red, varying 

 much in shade and tint. Here and there, in most eggs, are a few 

 spots, or occasionally short, crooked or curved lines, where the 

 colour has been laid on so thick that it is almost black, and such 

 spots are generally, though not always, more or less surrounded 

 with a haze of a rather deeper tint than the rest of the smear in 

 which they occur. The markings are often deepest coloured, or 

 most conspicuous, about the large end, where occasionally a recog- 

 nizable cap is formed and there a decided purplish tinge may be 

 noticed in patches. The general character of the eggs is very uni- 

 form ; but the eggs vary to such a degree inter se, that it is hopeless 

 to attempt to describe all the variations. They vary in length 



