HTPOLAIS. 255 



of from a mile to four miles. The nest was nearly egg-shaped, with 

 a circular entrance near the top. It was loosely woven with coarse 

 and fine grass, and a little of the fibre of the "sun" (Crotalaria 

 juncea), and very neatly felted on the whole interior surface of 

 the lower two thirds with a compact coating of the down of 

 flowering-grasses and little bits of spider's web. It was about 5 

 inches in i f s longest and 3g inches in its shortest diameter. It 

 contained three fresh eggs, which were white, very thickly speckled 

 with brownish pink, in places confluent and having a decided ten- 

 dency to form a zone near the large end. Three or four days later 

 we shot the female at the same spot. 



A similar nest and two eggs, taken in Jhansi on the 12th August, 

 were sent me with one of the parent birds by Mr. F. E. Blewitt, 

 and, again, another nest with four eggs was sent me from Hosh- 

 ungabad. 



There ought to be no doubt about these nests and eggs, the more 

 so that I have several specimens of the bird from various parts 

 of the North- Western Provinces and Central Provinces killed in 

 August and September, but somehow I do not feel quite certain 

 that we have not made some mistake. Beyond doubt the great 

 mass of this species migrate and breed further north. I have never 

 obtamed specimens in June or July ; and if these nests really, as 

 the evidence seems to show, belonged to the birds that were shot on 

 or near them, these latter must have bred in India before or after 

 their migration, as well as in Northern Asia. 



Though one may make minute differences, I do not think either 

 of the three nests or sets of eggs could be certainly separated from 

 those of Franlclinia buchanani, which might well have eggs about 

 both in April and August ; and I am not prepared to say that in 

 each of these three cases Hypolais rama, which frequents pre- 

 cisely the same kind of bushes that F. bucJianani breeds in, may 

 not accidentally have been shot in the immediate proximity to a 

 nest of the latter, the owner of which had crept noiselessly away, 

 as these birds so often do. 



Dr. Jerdon says : — " I have obtained the nest and eggs of this 

 species on one occasion only at Jaulnah in the Dekban ; the nest 

 was cup-shaped, made of roots and grass, and contained four pure 

 white eggs." 



I do not attach undue weight to this, for Dr. Jerdon did not care 

 about eggs, and was rather careless about them ; but still his state- 

 ment has to be noted, and the whole matter requires careful inves- 

 tigation. 



Mr. Doig found this species breeding on the Eastern Narra in 

 Sind. He writes : — "I first obtained eggs of this bird in March 

 187'.'. The first nest was found by one of my men, who afterwards 

 showed me a bird close to the place he got the eggs, which he said 

 was either the bird to which the nest and eggs belonged or one of 

 the same kind. This I shot and sent to Mr. Hume with one of the 

 eggs to identify. Some time after I again came across a lot of 

 these birds breeding, and this time lay in wait myself for the bird to 



