68 
Mr. G. L. Bates— Field-Notes on the 
on some bush or plantain-leaf, starts with its rapid “ queek ! 
queek ! queek! 99 &c., and continues without a pause for 
breath until you would think that it must be suffocated and 
tumble from its perch from exhaustion. It must be able to 
breathe while using its voice. 
Many nests of this bird have now been found. They 
are constructed like those of the Tailor-bird (Orthotomus 
sutorius), as they are described, being set in a sort of basket 
or sack formed of large leaves sewed together. Leaves 
with an adhesive surface are preferred. They are united 
by stitches made by puncturing the leaf-edge and passing 
through it a thread of what looks like several united fibres 
of yellow-brown spider's web. The thread is often only 
passed through and knotted on the outside, but sometimes 
is brought round and passed through again, making a true 
stitch. The nest itself, set in this sack of leaves, is a deep 
cup of dry grass-blades, with the edge built higher on one side 
than on the other. Inside this cup is a lining of the fine 
brownish pappus or down from the seeds of some plant. 
Other related birds making similar nests use different 
materials. The nests of this species seem to be always 
of grass-blades, and the downy lining is brown, not white. 
The identification of the nests has been effected by shooting 
the bird on the nest, or catching it on the nest at evening. 
Usually only two eggs are found, sometimes three. My 
eggs vary in measurement thus : length 16-19 mm., 
breadth 12-13 mm. 
[In a series of eleven eggs the shape varies from a perfect 
oval form to a rather long pointed oval. The shell is 
distinctly glossy. The eggs are of two types. In the first 
the ground-colour varies from bright bluish-green to pale 
dull greenish-white, and the markings consist of rather 
large spots and blotches of pale red, reddish-lilac, and 
lilac-grey, which are either scattered over the entire shell 
or mostly concentrated round the larger end. In the 
second type the ground-colour is creamy-white, densely and 
minutely freckled all over, but especially in a zone round 
the larger end, with light red-brown and grey.—O.-G.] 
