142.  Pellorneum mandellii, Blanf. Mandelli’s Spotted Babbler.

Pellorneum nipalensis (__Hodgs._), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 399 bis.

This species, originally described by Hodgson as Hemipteron nipalensis, was confounded by Gray and others with P. ruficeps, Swainson, and subsequently rediscriminated and described by Blanford as P. mandellii.

Mandelli’s Spotted Babbler, according to Mr. Hodgson’s notes, begins to lay in April, the young being ready to fly in July.  They build a large, more or less oval, globular nest, laid lengthwise on the ground in some bush or clump of rush or reed, composed of moss, dry leaves, and vegetable fibres, and lined with moss-roots.  The entrance, which is circular, is at one end.  A nest measured by Mr. Hodgson was 6.75 inches in length and 5 in height.  The aperture, at one end of the egg-shaped nest, was about 2 inches in diameter, and the cavity was about 2.5 in diameter and nearly 4 inches deep.  The eggs are three or four in number, and are figured as broad ovals pointed towards the small end, measuring about 0.86 by 0.65, and having a greyish-white ground, thickly speckled and spotted with more or less bright red or brownish red, and most thickly so at the large end, where the markings are nearly confluent.

A nest said to belong to this species, and found near Darjeeling in July, at an elevation of about 4000 feet, was placed on the ground on the side of a bank—­a very dirty untidy nest, more or less cylindrical in shape, composed of dead leaves, including a good many of those of the bamboo, dead twigs, and old roots, and very sparsely lined with black moss-roots.  The nest is about 4 inches in diameter externally, and the cavity about 2-5 in diameter.

It contained three fresh eggs, very regular, moderately broad, ovals; the shell fine and compact, with a slight gloss.  The ground-colour is white, and the egg everywhere very finely speckled with chocolate- or purplish brown, the markings being by far most dense at the large end, where they form a more or less irregular, and more or less conspicuous, speckly cap.

Two eggs measure 0.86 and 0.9 in length, and 0.65 and 0.66 in breadth.

Another nest, found on the 5th June in Native Sikhim, contained four fresh eggs.  It was placed on the ground, and precisely resembled that obtained near Darjeeling in July.

In some eggs the markings are rather bolder and coarser, and in these there are generally some few pale lilac or inky-purple spots intermingled where the markings are densest.  Closely looked into, many of the spots in some eggs are rather a pale yellowish brown.

The eggs are clearly all of the same type, and vary very little.

Four eggs varied from 0.84 to 0.9 in length, and from 0.65 to 0.68 in breadth.

144.  Pellorneum ruficeps, Swains., The Spotted Babbler.

Pellorneum ruficeps, Swains., Jerd.  B. Ind. ii, p. 27; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 399.