258 SYLVIllXffi. 



form and a pale greenish white, thickly spotted in a broad zone 

 near the thicker end and smeared with very pale brown, or else 

 spotted and smeared with olive-brown over the whole of the thicker 

 end." 



The eggs are somewhat broad ovals, typically a good deal pointed 

 towards the lesser end. They vary, however, much both in size 

 and shape : some are short and broad, decidedly pointed at the small 

 end ; others are more elongated, and some are almost regular ellip- 

 soids. The eggs have little or no gloss ; the ground-colour is 

 white, with a more or less perceptible though very faint greenish 

 tinge. Typically they are very Shrike-like in their markings, the 

 majority of these being gathered together in a more or less dense 

 zone near the large end. The markings consist of small spots, 

 blotches, and specks of pale yellowish brown, more or less inter- 

 mingled with spots and specks of dull inky purple or grey ; in 

 many eggs there are very few markings, and these are mere spots 

 except in the zone, while in others full-sized markings are scattered, 

 though thinly, more or less over the whole surface of the egg. In 

 some the zone is confluent and blurred ; in others composed of 

 small sharply defined specks and spots. Here and there a pretty 

 large yellowish-brown cloud may be met with partially or entirely 

 bounded by a narrow hair-like black line. Tiny black specks now 

 and then occur, and little zigzag lines that might have been bor- 

 rowed from a Bunting's egg ; but these are not met with in probably 

 more than one out of ten eggs. 



In length the eggs vary from 06 to 0-75, and in breadth from 

 0-48 to 0-55 ; but the average of sixteen eggs is 0-66 by 05. 



406. Phylloscopus tytleri, Brooks. Tytlers Willow-Warbler. 



Phylloscopus tytleri, Brooks, Hume, Hough Draft N. $ E. no. 560 

 bis. 



Tytler's Willow-Warbler, as yet a rare bird in collections, and 

 which appears only to straggle down to the plains of Upper India 

 during the cold season, was found by Captain Cock breeding at 

 Sonamerg (9400 feet elevation) in the Sindh Valley, Cashmere, in 

 June. 



Mr. Brooks, who discriminated the bird, said of it and its nidifi- 

 cation : — " In plumage resembling P. viridanus, but of a richer and 

 deeper olive ; it is entirely without the ' whitish wing-bar,' which 

 is always present in viridanus, unless in very abraded plumage. 

 The wing is shorter, so is the tail ; but the great difference is in 

 the bill, which is much longer, darker, and of a more pointed and 

 slender form in P. tytleri. The song and notes are utterly differ- 

 ent, so are the localities frequented. P. viridanus is an inhabitant 

 of brushwood ravines, at 9000 and 10,000 feet elevation ; while 

 P. tytleri is exclusively a pine-forest Pliylloscopus. In the places 

 frequented by P. viridanus, it must build on the ground, or very 

 near it ; but our new species builds, 40 feet up a pine-tree, a compact 

 half-domed nest on the side of a branch. 



