240 STXYIID.E. 



far less densely speckled, the eggs of FranHinia buchanani. These 

 are beyond all question the eggs of our Indian species, and the only 

 type of them that I have yet observed ; but the question remains 

 — Is our Indian Prinia cursitans, Franklin, really identical with 

 the European C. scTicenicola, Bonaparte ? * — and this can only be 

 settled by careful comparison of an enormous series of good speci- 

 mens of each bird. For my part I personally have little doubts as 

 to the identity of the two. At the same time differences in the 

 eggs may indicate difference of species. Thus of the closely allied 

 C. volitans, Swinhoe, the latter gentleman informs us that " the 

 eggs of our bird vary from three to five, are thin and fragile, and of 

 a pale clear greenish blue " f . He called it C. schoenicolct when he 

 wrote, but he really referred to the Formosan bird, which he has 

 since separated. 



The eggs of course vary somewhat. Of one nest I wrote at the 

 time I found it — " The eggs are a rather short oval, slightly pointed 

 at one end, with a white ground, thickly sprinkled with numerous 

 specks and tiny spots of pale brownish red. They measured - 58 

 by -46." Of another I say — " The ground had a faint pearly tinge, 

 and there was a well-marked, though irregular and ill-defined, zone 

 towards the large end, formed by the agglomeration there of 

 multitudinous specks, which iu places were almost confluent." Of 

 another set — "The eggs were much glossier and had a china- 

 white ground ; but instead of a multitude of small specks over the 

 whole surface, they had nearly the whole colouring-matter gathered 

 together at the large end in a cap of bold, almost maroon-red spots, 

 only a very few spots of the same colour being scattered over the 

 rest of the egg." 



The eggs measure from -53 to '62 in length, and from *43 to -48 

 in breadth ; but the average dimensions of a large number measured 

 were - 59 by '46. 



382. Franklinia gracilis (Frankl.). Franklin's Wren- Warbler. 



Prinia gracilis, Frankl, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 172; Hume, Sough 



Draft N. 8? E. no. 536. 

 Prinia hodgsoni, Bl., Jerd. t. v. p. 173 ; Hume, t. c. no. 538. 



I have never myself succeeded in finding a nest of Franklin's 

 Wren-"Warbler, but my friend Mr. F. E. Blewitt has sent me no 

 less than forty nests and eggs, with the parents ; so that, although 

 the eggs belong to two, I might even say three, very diiferent types, 

 I entertain no doubt that he is correct in assigning them to the 

 same species, the more so as, although the eggs vary, the nests 



* The Indian and European birds are now generally allowed to be perfectly 

 identical, notwithstanding the alleged difference in the colour of the eggs ; and 

 Mr. Hume is now, I think, of this opinion. — Ed. 



t But C. volitans, or the closely allied race which occurs in Pegu, assuredly 

 lays spotted eggs. I found two nestB of this bird, both with spotted eggs {vide 

 p. 236).— Ed. 



