508 
ALCIPPE NIGEIEKONS. 
is either forest, low jungle, or even scrubby copse; and the same is true of the low country, where even small 
detached woods, containing any underwood at all, are tenanted by it. In some portions of the sea-board 
which are clothed with dry, arid scrub, such as on the south-east and north coasts, it is rare ; but even m 
these it is met with in spots sheltered by tall trees from the blazing heat of a tropical sun. It is especially 
numerous in those portions of the Western and Southern Provinces in which the forests and jungle contain 
bamboo undergrowth. 
Habits. This modest but active little bird frequents underwood, thickets, and tangled jungle in little 
parties of from six to a dozen in number, feeding among fallen leaves which have become lodged among 
bushes, or about prostrate trunks of trees, and on the ground itself, subsisting entirely on various insects and 
their larva;. It keeps up a constant little rattle-note as it threads its way about in the dense undergrowth, 
dropping, perhaps, suddenly from a branch on to some large Bairoo-leaf {Sarcoclimum longifohum) with a 
startling noise, or flitting through matted bamboos across the closely begirt jungle-paths, each little member 
of the troop following its mate in true Babbler fashion. It is most active in its movements ; I ha,ve rarely 
seen it in a state of quiescence, except when, in the heat of the day, I have chanced to espy a little row 
seated in close proximity on some horizontal twig or bamboo-stalk, silently feathering themselves after their 
morning's exertions in search of food. They display much inquisitiveness, flitting round any one who may 
be standing still in thick jungle, jumping to and fro about the twigs and dead leaves, and stretching out 
their heads while they utter their shrill little rattle. 
Nidification . — ^The breeding-season in the north of the island lasts from November until March, and in 
the south, where most of our birds nest during the rains, from March until August. Mr. Parker writes me 
that in the Seven Korales they breed mostly in May. The nest, as stated in my note, ‘ Stray Peathers,' 
1875, p. 368, ‘"is generally placed in a bramble or straggling piece of undergrowth, often in a prominent 
position near a jungle-path, at a height of from 2 to 4 feet from the ground.” It is almost invariably made 
of dry leaves placed horizontally or in layers one on the other, the top being supported by the intermixture 
of a few twigs, and the opening being a wide unfinished orifice almost on a level with the bottom of the 
interior, which is composed of the same material as the outside. The structure thus formed is a shapeless, 
globular mass, sometimes of one foot in diameter at least, and from its large size and generally exposed 
situation is one of the first nests which meets the eye in the Ceylon jungles. 
The birds construct these nests with great rapidity, picking up the leaves one after the other from just 
beneath the spot in which they are building. As mentioned in my notes in the ‘ Ibis,' 1874, I have seen 
them, from a place of concealment, sticking the leaves into the structure at the rate of two or three a minute. 
From the number of these leaf-nests that one finds in the forests of Ceylon it would appear that probably 
several are constructed by the same birds before the eggs are deposited in the one finally chosen by the 
little architects. They are used as a roosting-place by the young brood, who resort to them at nights after 
they have reached their full size and are abroad with their parents. The eggs are invariably two in number, 
stumpy ovals in shape, and of smooth texture. The ground-colour, before they are blown, is a clear fleshy 
white, spotted openly all over, or in some chiefly at the large end, with rounded spots of dull red and brownish 
red underlaid by a few specks of bluish grey. They measure 0’74 to 0-75 inch by O'Sf) to 0'56inch. 
In the Plate accompanying the next article will be found two examples of this species the one from 
Nuwara Elliya, showing the olivaceous character of the hill-birds, the other from the low country, exhibiting 
the same rusty-coloured tints which characterize the lowland, form of Pomatorhinus. 
