JiATICILLA. 247 



" The eggs measured 0-62 by 0-44. 



" The nest was found hanging on a large-leafed annual shrub 

 growing in the Dhoon, and was placed about 2 feet from the 

 ground. It was taken on 22nd July." 



386. Laticilla burnesi (BL). The Long-tailed Grass-Warbler. 

 Eurycercus burnesii, Bl, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 74. 



Mr. S. B. Doig appears to be the only ornithologist who has 

 found the nest of the Long-tailed Grass-Warbler. Writing of the 

 Eastern Narra District, in Sind, he says : — 



" This bird is in certain localities very numerous, but invariably 

 confines itself to dense thickets of reed and tamarisk jungle. The 

 discovery of my first nest was as follows : 



" On the 13th March, while closely searching some thick grass 



along the banks of a small canal, I heard a peculiar twittering which 



I did not recognize. After standing perfectly still for a short 



while, I at length caught sight of the bird, which I at once identified 



as L. burnesi. Leaving the bed of the canal in which I was walking 



and making a slight detour, I came suddenly over the spoil- bank 



of the canal on to the place where the bird had been calling. 



My sudden appearance caused the bird to get very excited, and it 



kept on twittering, approaching me at one time until quite close 



and then going away again a short distance ; I at once began 



searching for its nest, and out of the first tussock of grass I touched, 



close to where I was standing, flew the female, who joined her mate, 



after which both birds kept up a continuous and angry twittering. 



On opening out the grass, I found the nest with three fresh eggs 



in it, placed right in the centre of the tuft and close to the ground. 



The eggs were of a pale green ground-colour, covered with large 



irregular blotches of purplish brown, and not very unlike some of 



the eggs of Passer flavicollis. After this I found several nests, but 



they were all building, and were one and all deserted, though in 



many instances I never touched the nest, often never saw it, as on 



seeing the birds flying in and out of the grass with building material 



in their bilis I left the place and returned in ten days' time, but 



only to find the nest deserted. In one case where a single egg had 



been laid, I found that the bird before deserting the nest had broken 



the egg. In July I again got a nest and shot the parent birds ; 



the eggs in this nest were quite of a different type, being of a very 



pale cream ground-colour, with large rusty blotches, principally 



confined to the larger end. The nests of this bird are composed 



of coarse grass, the inside being composed of the finer parts ; they 



are 4 to 5 inches external diameter and 2| inches internal diameter, 



the cavity being about 1| inches deep. The months in which they 



breed are, as far as I at present know, March, June, and September. 



The eggs vary in size from *65 to "80 in length and from -50 to -55 



in breadth. The average of seven eggs is -72 in length and -54 



in breadth." 



