CTANODEEMA. — MIXOENIS. 115 



and they are thinly speckled and spotted, the markings being 

 much more numerous about the large end, where they have a 

 tendency to form an ill-defined cap or zone with brownish red or 

 pinky brown. 



In length they vary from 062 to 0-69, and in breadth from 0-5 

 to 0-52. 



175. Cyanoderma erythropterum (Blyth). The Red-winged 

 Babbler. 

 Cyanoderma erythropterum, Bl., Hume, Cat. no. 396 bis. 



Mr. ~W. Davison found the nest of the Eed-winged Babbler at 

 Bankasoon on the 23rd April, just when he was leaving the place. 

 Unfortunately the birds tad not yet laid. The nest was a ball 

 composed of dry reed-leaves, about 6 inches in diameter. Extern- 

 ally, with a circular aperture on one side, very like that of Mixornis 

 rubricapillus and of Dumetia, and again not at all unlike that of 

 Ochromela nigrorufa, but placed in a bush about 4 feet high and 

 not on the ground. 



176. Mixornis rubricapillus (Tick.). The Yellow-breasted Babbler. 



Mixornis rubricapilla (Tick.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 23; Hume, Rough 

 Draft N. $ E. no. 395. 



This, though said to occur also in Central India, is a purely 

 Indo-Burmese form, found chiefly in the Eastern sub-Himalayan 

 jungles, Assam, Cachar, Burma, aud Tenasserim. 



It is only from this latter province that I have any information 

 as to the nidification of the Yellow-breasted Babbler. 



Mr. Davison writes to me : — " At a small village, called Shy- 

 mootee or Tsinmokehtee, about 7 miles from the town of Tavoy, 

 and very slightly above the sea-level, say 50 feet, I found on the 

 6th of May, 1874, a nest of this species. The nest was placed in a 

 dense clump of a very thorny plant (somewhat like a pineapple 

 bush) about a foot from the ground ; it was not particularly well 

 concealed. The nest was built of bamboo-leaves, and in general 

 appearance was not at all unlike that of Ochromela nigrorufa ; but 

 the egg-cavity was very shallow, so that by moving aside an over- 

 hanging leaf the eggs were distinctly visible. There were three 

 partially incubated eggs in the nest, a somewhat dull white, spotted 

 with pinkish clots." 



The nest is more or less egg-shaped, the longer axis vertical, 

 with a circular aperture on one side near the top. 



The exterior diameters are 5 and nearly 4 inches. The aperture 

 about 1-5 in diameter. The cavity is barely 2 inches in diameter, 

 and only 1-25 deep below the lower edge of the entrance. 



Both nest and eggs strongly recall those of Dumetia hyperi/thra. 

 The former is composed of the broad, grass-like leaves of the 



8* 



