Writing from Kotagherry Miss Cockburn says:—­“Spotted Babblers are exceedingly shy.  They associate in small flocks except during the breeding-season, when they go about in pairs.  I have only known them to frequent small woods and brushwood, a little higher than the elevation of the coffee-plantations.

“Three nests of these birds were found in the months of March and April 1871.  The first was placed on the ground, close against a bush.  The nest, consisting of dry leaves and grass, appeared to be merely a canopy for the eggs, which, were almost on the bare ground, having only a very few pieces of straw under them.  The eggs were three in number, and covered profusely with innumerable small dark spots, making it difficult to say what the ground-colour really was.  The nest was not easily found.  The bird left it so quietly as not to be heard, and dropped down the hill like a ball.  When the eggs were discovered the bird did not return to them for fully three hours, after which she came very cautiously, but only to meet her doom, poor thing, as she was then shot.  The second nest was built in the same way under a bush, and contained three eggs, which were put into my egg-box lined with cotton, but were hatched on the way home.  The third nest was constructed under a large stone and with the same materials, and contained two young ones.”

An egg of this species, received from Miss Cockburn, is a moderately broad and very regular oval.  The ground-colour is a slightly greenish white, and the whole surface of the egg is excessively finely freckled and speckled with lilac or pale purplish grey and a more or less rufous brown.  The egg has a slight gloss.

It measures 0.88 by 0.65.

145.  Pellorneum subochraceum, Swinh. The Burmese Spotted Babbler.

Pellorneum subochraceum, Swinh., Hume, Cat. no. 399 sex.

The Burmese Spotted Babbler breeds pretty well over the whole of Pegu and Tenasserim.  Mr. Oates writes:—­“On the 3rd May I found a nest on the ground near Pegu.  A good many bamboo-leaves had fallen and the nest was imbedded in these.  It was formed entirely of these leaves loosely put together, the interior only being sparingly lined with fine grass.  The structure in situ was tolerably firm, but it would not stand removal.  In height it was about 7 inches, and in breadth about 5, the longer axis being vertical.  Shape cylindrical with rounded top.  Entrance 21/2 inches by 11/2, placed about the centre.  The interior of the nest was a rough sphere of 4 inches diameter.

“There were three eggs, slightly incubated.  The ground-colour is pure white, and the whole surface is minutely and thickly speckled with reddish-brown and greyish-purple spots, more closely placed at the thick end, where they coalesce in places and form bold patches.

“On the 29th June, I found another nest of similar construction, placed on the ground in thick forest, at the root of a shrub.”