PEINIA. 303 



composed of fine strips of blades of grass interwoven. The eggs, 

 five in number, varied much in size. In colour they were bright 

 blue, most irregularly blotched with various shades of purplish 

 brown : some of the blotches very large, some mere specks. Each 

 egg had also washed-out stains or blotches. The smaller eggs were 

 by far the brighter. 



" By reason of the roof and walls the entrance to the nest was 

 at one side, but there was nothing that could be called a bole. 

 The roof projected over the entrance, forming a porch. 



" Six or eight nests which I have seen of this species were all 

 over water. But the birds are by no means confined to marshy 

 localities. 



" Even in the middle of the rains the nests are invariably made 

 of dry yellow grass. 



" One nest found in Berar was in a babool bush, where of course 

 there could have been no leaves pierced." 



Mr. E. Aitken writes : — " I have found a good many nests in 

 Bombay, and it breeds in Poona too. My notes only mention two 

 nests with eggs, on the 22nd and 28th August, but I found some 

 much later; and I am almost certain it begins to lay much earlier, 

 if not actually at the beginning of the monsoon, like Orthotomus 

 and Prinia. 



" It builds in gardens and cultivated fields, especially in the 

 vicinity of water, and often among plants growing in water. 



" The nest is very firmly attached to the twigs of some plant 

 where long grass or other plants completely surround and conceal 

 it. It is usually about 3 feet from the ground. It varies much 

 in size and shape, some being much deeper than others, and some 

 having the top open ; others an entrance somewhat to one side. 



" I have always found three or four eggs — bright blue, with large 

 irregular purplish-brown blotches and no hair-lines. I should 

 have said that the nest is a bag, very uniformly woven, of fine 

 grass, and never with any lining — at any rate in none that I have 

 ever found. They never use the same nest twice, always building 

 a fresh one even if you only rob without injuring the first. I 

 think they have only one brood in the year, but, like Orthotomus 

 and Prinia, one or two nests are generally deserted or destroyed 

 by some accident before they succeed in rearing a brood." 



Major 0. T. Bingham informs us that this Wren- Warbler is "a 

 common breeder both at Allahabad and at Delhi from March to 

 September. Builds a neat bottle-shaped nest in clumps of surpat 

 grass, of fine strips of the grass itself, which I have repeatedly 

 watched the birds tearing off. The eggs are lovely little oval fra- 

 gile shells of a deep blue, blotched and speckled and covered with 

 fine hair-like lines, chiefly at the large end, of a deep chocolate- 

 brown." 



The eggs are a moderately long, and generally a pretty perfect, 

 oval, often pointed towards one end, sometimes globular, seldom, 

 if ever, much elongated. The shell is fine and glossy, and com- 

 paratively thick and strong. The - ground-colour is normally a 



