394 EALLIDJE. 



Mr. Ehodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says : — " It 

 breeds in low bushes in October." 



Colonel W. Y. Legge, writing from Ceylon, remarks : — " I have 

 found the eggs of E. phceniewa in the Western Province from the 

 beginning of June to the latter part of September. On the edge of 

 Colombo Lake, a number of nests taken were constructed in a 

 variety of situations : some on the ground, of reeds and grass-stalks ; 

 others on tussocks out in the water and made of the same materials, 

 laid on the top of the tussock, the stalks of which were beaten down 

 for a foundation ; others on the branches of the screw-pine {Pan- 

 danus), one of these being at a height of ten feet from the ground. 

 These last were flat aud shallow, and made of the leaves of aquatic 

 plants and blades of rushes. As a rule, the top of the nest is 

 almost flat, without any hollow for the reception of the eggs, and the 

 materials of the interior are generally laid across each other, some- 

 what regularly. One nest, found on the branches of a Pandanus, 

 was constructed entirely of the dead stems of a creeper vsdth which 

 the screw-pine was covered."' 



Eeferring to Pegu, Mr. Oates says : — " This bird always con- 

 structs its nest in trees at heights not below 10 feet. It selects a 

 creeper-grown tree either in paddy-land or on the outskirts of 

 forest. I failed to find the nest at Thayetmyo, because I looked 

 for it on the ground. A bamboo-bush, the branches of which are 

 well entangled, is also much affected. The nest is merely an irre- 

 gular platform of dead and green leaves resting on a few twigs. One 

 nest, found on the 10th June, contained four eggs ; and another 

 found on the 24th of the same month, contained also four well- 

 incubated eggs." 



Major Bingham remarks from Tenasserim : — " Eight eggs and a 

 dead female bird of this species were brought in to me by a Karen 

 on the 29th August, 1880, at Kaukarit on the Houndraw. There 

 is no mistaking the eggs, of which I have taken numbers before 

 with my own hand, but eight seems an extraordinary number for 

 one nest." 



Taking a large series, I should say that these eggs are typically 

 moderately elongated, slightly cylindrical ovals, generally rather 

 obtuse at both ends ; the ground-coloiu" a sort of creamy stone- 

 colour ; the markings a large mottled irregular cap of slightly brown- 

 ish red at one end, with streaks and streakUy arranged strings of 

 blotches running down from this towards the other end of the egg, 

 and sundry more or less linear specks of the same red scattered 

 about the rest of the egg, in some thickly, in some thinly, and with 

 a few pale purple spots, streaks, and small blotches sparsely distri- 

 buted about the egg, chiefly in amongst and in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of the blotches of the cap, where the red is generally 

 brightest. 



The eggs vary from 1-43 to 1-7 in length, and from 1-11 to 

 1-21 in breadth ; but the average of twenty eggs is 1'57 by 1-18 

 nearly. 



