one after another from the ground just beneath the nest.  When fresh the eggs are fleshy white, becoming pure white when emptied; they are large for the size of the bird, rather stumpy ovals, of a smooth texture, and spotted openly and sparingly with brownish red, over bluish-grey specks; in one specimen the darker markings are redder than in the other, and ran mostly in the direction of the axis.  Dimensions:  0.74 by 0.56 and 0.74 by 0.55.”

169.  Stachyrhis nigriceps, Hodgs. The Black-throated Babbler.

Stachyris nigriceps, Hodgs., Jerd.  B. Ind. ii. p, 21; Hume.  Rough Draft N. & E. no. 391.

I have never taken a nest of this species, the Black-throated Babbler, but Mr. Gammie, a careful observer, in whose neighbourhood (Rungbee, near Darjeeling) this bird is very abundant, has taken many nests, two of which he has sent me, with many eggs.

One nest, found at Rishap, on the 14th May, at an elevation of about 4000 feet, contained four nearly fresh eggs.  It was a very loose structure, a shallow cup of about 31/2 inches in diameter, composed of fine grass-stems without any lining, and coated externally with broad coarse grass-blades.

Another nest taken low down in the valley, at about an elevation of 2000 feet, on the 17th June, contained three fresh eggs.  It was placed in a bank at the foot of a shrub.  Like the previous one, it was a loose but rather deeper cup, interiorly composed of moderately fine grass, exteriorly of dead leaves.  The egg-cavity measured about 2 inches in diameter, and 11/2 inch in depth. In situ, both probably were more or less domed, the cups more or less overhung by a hood or canopy.

Mr. Gammie remarks:—­“I have seen numerous nests of this species in former years, and have found two this season, but have never seen eggs with ‘faint darker spots’ as mentioned by Jerdon.  Hodgson’s description is quite correct.  The eggs are a ‘pale fawn-colour’ before they are blown, the shells being so translucent that the yolk shows through partially.  The shell is pure white in itself.  The cavity of the cup-shaped part of one nest beside me is 2 inches deep by 2 inches wide; outer dimensions 53/4 inches deep (from top of hood) by 4 inches wide across the face of entrance.  It is loosely though neatly made of bamboo-leaves and fern, lined with dry grass.  The bird breeds in May and June, and lays four or five eggs.”

Mr. Eugene Gates tells us that he “procured only one specimen of this bird, and that was in the evergreen forests of the Pegu Hills.  I shot it off the nest on the 29th April.  The nest was on a bank of a nullah well concealed among dead leaves, about 2 feet above the bottom of the bank.  The nest is domed, about 7 inches in height and 5 inches in diameter externally, with the entrance at the side near the top.  The outside is a mass of bamboo-leaves very loose, being in no way bound together; each leaf is curled to the shape of the nest.  The inside, a thin lining only of vegetable fibres.  There were three eggs, just on the point of hatching; colour, pure white.”