Mr. S.B.  Doig, who found this bird breeding in the Eastern Narra in Sind, writes:—­“On the 4th August, while my man was poling along in a canoe in a large swamp on the lookout for eggs, he passed a small bunch of reeds and in them spotted a nest with a bird on it.  The nest contained three beautiful fresh eggs.  A few days later I joined him, and on asking about these eggs he described the bird and said he had found several other nests of the same species, but all of them contained young ones nearly fledged.  I made him show me some of these nests, all of which were situated in clumps of reed, in the middle of the swamp, and in these same reeds I found and shot the young ones which, though fledged, were not able to fly.  These I sent with one of the eggs to Mr. Hume, who has identified them as belonging to this species.  The nests were composed of frayed pieces of reed-grass and fine sedge, the latter being principally towards the inside, thus forming a kind of lining.  The nests were loosely put together, were about 3 inches inner diameter, 11/4 inch deep, the outer diameter being 6 inches.  They were situated about a foot over water-line in the tops of reeds growing in the water.”

Colonel Legge says:—­“This species breeds in Ceylon during June and July.  Its nest was procured by me in the former month at the Tamara-Kulam, and was a very interesting structure, built into the fork of one of the tall seed-stalks of the rush growing there; the walls rested exteriorly against three of the branches of the fork, but were worked round some of the stems of the flower itself which sprung from the base of the fork.  It was composed of various fine grasses, with a few rush-blades among them, and was lined with the fine stalks of the flower divested, by the bird I conclude, of the seed-matter growing on them.  In form it was a tolerably deep cup, well shaped, measuring 21/2 inches in internal diameter by 2 in depth.  The single egg which it contained at the time of my finding it was a broad oval in shape, pale green, boldly blotched with blackish over spots of olive and olivaceous brown, mingled with linear markings of the same, under which there were small clouds and blotches of bluish grey.  The black markings were longitudinal and thickest at the obtuse end.  It measured 0.89 by 0.67 inch.”

The eggs of this species, as might have been expected, greatly resemble those of A. arundinaceus.  In shape they are moderately elongated ovals, in some cases almost absolutely perfect, but generally slightly compressed towards one end.  The shell, though fine, is entirely devoid of gloss.

The ground-colour varies much, but the two commonest types are pale green or greenish white and a pale somewhat creamy stone-colour.  Occasionally the ground-colour has a bluish tinge.