SCIKENIOOLA. 251 



390. Schoenicola platyura (Jerd.). The Broad-tailed Grass- 

 Warbler. 

 Schcenicola platyura (Jerd.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 73. 



Colonel E. A. Butler discovered the nest of the Broad-tailed 

 Grass-Warbler at Belgaum. He writes : — 



" On the 1st September, 1880, I shot a pair of these birds as 

 they rose out of some long grass by the side of a rice-field ; and, 

 thinking there might be a nest, I commenced a diligent search, 

 which resulted in my finding one. It consisted of a good-sized 

 ball of coarse blades of dry grass, with an entrance on one side, 

 and was built in long grass about a foot from the ground. Though 

 it was apparently finished, there were unfortunately no eggs, but 

 dissection of the ten proved that she would have laid in a day or 

 two. On the 10th instant I found another nest exactly similar, 

 built in a tussock of coarse grass, near the same place ; but this 

 was subsequently deserted without the bird laying. On the 

 19th September I went in the early morning to the same patch 

 of grass and watched another pair, soon seeing the hen disappear 

 amongst some thick tussocks. On my approaching the spot she 

 flew off the nest, which contained four eggs much incubated. The 

 nest was precisely similar to the others, but with the entrance-hole 

 perhaps rather nearer the top, though still on one side. The situa- 

 tion in the grass was the same — in fact it was very similar in every 

 respect to the nest of jDrymmca insignis. The eggs are very like 

 those of Molj-iastes hcemorrhous, but smaller, having a purplish-white 

 ground, sprinkled all over with numerous small specks and spots of 

 purple and purplish brown, with a cap of the same at the large end, 

 underlaid with inky lilac. 



"These birds closely resemble Chcetornis striatus in their actions 

 and habits, and in the breeding-season rise constantly into the air, 

 chirruping like that species, and descending afterwards in the same 

 way on to some low bush or tussock of grass, sometimes even on to 

 the telegraph-wires. They are fearful little skulks, however, if 

 you attempt to pursue them, and the moment you approach disap- 

 pear into the grass like a shot, from whence it is almost impossible 

 to flush them again unless you all but tread on them. It is 

 perfectly marvellous the way they will hide themselves in a patch 

 of grass when they have once taken refuge in it ; and although 

 you may know within a yard or two of where the bird is, you may 

 search for half an hour without finding it. If you shoot at them 

 and miss, they drop to the shot into the grass as if killed, and 

 nothing will dissuade you from the belief that they are so until, 

 after a long search, the little beast gets up exactly where you have 

 been hunting all along, from almost under your feet, and darts off 

 to disappear, after another short flight of fifteen or twenty yards, 

 in another patch of grass, from whence you may again try in vain 

 to dislodge it." 



The eggs of this species, though much smaller, are precisely of 

 the same type as those of Mecjalurus yoalustris and Chcetornis 



