comparison of an enormous series of good specimens of each bird.  For my part I personally have little doubts as to the identity of the two.  At the same time differences in the eggs may indicate difference of species.  Thus of the closely allied C. volitans, Swinhoe, the latter gentleman informs us that “the eggs of our bird vary from three to five, are thin and fragile, and of a pale clear greenish blue"[B].  He called it C. schoenicola when he wrote, but he really referred to the Formosan bird, which he has since separated.

[Footnote A:  The Indian and European birds are now generally allowed to be perfectly identical, notwithstanding the alleged difference in the colour of the eggs; and Mr. Hume is now, I think, of this opinion.—­ED.]

[Footnote B:  But C. volitans, or the closely allied race which occurs in Pegu, assuredly lays spotted eggs.  I found two nests of this bird, both with spotted eggs vide (p. 236).—­ED.]

The eggs of course vary somewhat.  Of one nest I wrote at the time I found it—­“The eggs are a rather short oval, slightly pointed at one end, with a white ground, thickly sprinkled with numerous specks and tiny spots of pale brownish red.  They measured .58 by .46.”  Of another I say—­“The ground had a faint pearly tinge, and there was a well-marked, though, irregular and ill-defined, zone towards the large end, formed by the agglomeration there of multitudinous specks, which in places were almost confluent.”  Of another set—­“The eggs were much glossier and had a china-white ground; but instead of a multitude of small specks over the whole surface, they had nearly the whole colouring-matter gathered together at the large end in a cap of bold, almost maroon-red spots, only a very few spots of the same colour being scattered over the rest of the egg.”

The eggs measure from .53 to .62 in length, and from .43 to .48 in breadth; but the average dimensions of a large number measured were .59 by .46.

382.  Franklinia gracilis (Frankl.). Franklin’s Wren-Warbler.

Prinia gracilis, Frankl.  Jerd.  B. Ind. ii. p. 172; Hume,
Rough Draft N. & E. no. 536. 
Prinia hodgsoni, Bl., Jerd. t.c. p. 173; Hume, t.c. no. 538.

I have never myself succeeded in finding a nest of Franklin’s Wren-Warbler, but my friend Mr. F.R.  Blewitt has sent me no less than forty nests and eggs, with the parents; so that, although the eggs belong to two, I might even say three, very different types, I entertain no doubt that he is correct in assigning them to the same species, the more so as, although the eggs vary, the nests are identical.  He has sent me several notes in regard to this species.  He says:—­“On the 1st July, three miles south of the village of Doongurgurh in the Raipoor District, I found a nest of Franklin’s Wren-Warbler, containing three fresh eggs.  It was on rocky ground between a footpath and a water-course, about 2 feet from the ground, and firmly sewn to a single leaf of a murori plant.  The nest was constructed exclusively of very fine grass, with spiders’ web affixed in places to the exterior.  It was somewhat cup-shaped, 3.3 inches in depth and 2.4 in breadth externally.  The egg-cavity was about 1.4 in diameter, and about the same depth.  The eggs were a delicate pale unspotted blue.