256 SYLVIIDiE. 



come to the nest and eggs, and when it did I shot it. This I also 

 sent to Mr. Hume to identify. Some time after I heard from Mr. 

 Hume, who said that there must be some mistake, as the birds sent 

 belonged to two different speeies,viz. Sylvia affinis and Hypolais rama, 

 and were both, he believed, only cold-weather visitants. This year 

 I again ' went for ' these birds and again sent specimens of birds 

 and eggs to Mr. Hume, who informed me that the birds now sent 

 were H. rama, and that the eggs must belong to this species. 

 Soon after this Mr. Brooks saw the eggs with Mr. Hume and iden- 

 tified them as being those of H. rama and identical with eggs he saw at 

 home collected by, I think, Mr. Seebohm of this species in Siberia. 

 Only fancy a bird breeding on the Narra of all places, especially in 

 May, June, and July, in preference to Siberia ! Locally they are 

 very numerous, as I collected upwards of 90 to 100 eggs in one 

 field about eight acres in size. They build in stunted tamarisk 

 bushes, or rather in bushes of this kind which originally were cut 

 down to admit of cultivation being carried on, and which after- 

 wards had again sprouted. These bushes are very dense, and 

 in their centre is situated the nest, composed of sedge, with a 

 lining of fine grass, mixed sometimes with a little soft grass-reed. 

 The eggs are, as a rule, four in number, of a dull white ground- 

 colour with brown spots, the large end having as a rule a ring 

 round it of most delicate, fine, hair-like brown lines, something 

 similar to the tracing to be seen on the eggs of Drymceca inornata. 

 The egg in size is also similar to those of that species." 



The eggs of this species vary from broad to moderately elongated 

 ovals, but they are almost always somewhat pointed towards the 

 small end ; the shell is fine but as a rule glossless ; here and there, 

 however, an egg exhibits a faint gloss. The ground-colour is 

 whitish, never pure white, with an excessively faint greenish, 

 greyish, creamy, or pinky tinge. The markings are very variable in 

 amount and extent, but they are always black or nearly so and pale 

 inky grey ; perhaps typically the markings consist of a zone of 

 black hair-lines twisted and entangled together, in which irregular 

 shaped spots and small blotches of the same colour appear to have 

 been caught, which zone is underlaid and more or less surrounded 

 by clouds, streaks, and spots of pale inky grey. This zone is typically 

 about the large end, but in one or two eggs is near the middle of 

 the egg and in one or two is about the small end. Outside this 

 zone a few small specks and spots, and rarely one or two tiny 

 blotches, of both black and grey are thinly scattered ; occasionally, 

 however, the hair-lines so characteristic of this egg are almost en- 

 tirely wanting, there is no apparent zone, and the markings, spots, 

 and specks are thinly and irregularly distributed about the entire 

 surface ; here aud there the whole of the dark markings on the egg 

 are entirely confined to the zone, elsewhere only pale lilac specks are 

 visible. Occasionally together with a well-defined zone numerous 

 specks, spots, and a few hair-line scratches of black are intermingled 

 with faint purplish-grey spots, and pretty thinly scattered every- 

 where. 



