392.  Chaetornis locustelloides (Bl.). The Bristled Grass-Warbler.

Chaetornis striatus (Jerd.), Jerd.  B. Ind. ii. p. 72; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 441.

Dr. Jerdon remarks that Mr. Blyth mentions that the nest of the Grass-Babbler, as he calls it, nearly accords with that of Malacocercus, and that the eggs are blue.

I cannot find the passage in which Blyth states this, and I cannot help doubting its correctness.  This bird, like the preceding, is not a bit of a Babbler.  I have often watched them in Lower Bengal amongst comparatively low grass and rush along the margins of ponds and jheels, not, as a rule, affecting high reed or seeking to conceal themselves, but showing themselves freely enough, and with a song and flight wholly unlike that of any Babbler.

They are very restless, soaring about and singing a monotonous song of two notes, somewhat resembling that of a Pipit, but clear and loud.  They do not soar in one spot like a Sky-Lark, as Jerdon says, but rise to the height of from 30 to 50 yards, fly rapidly right and left, over perhaps one fourth of a mile, and then suddenly drop on to the top of some little bush or other convenient post, and there continue their song.

Mr. Brooks remarks:—­“On the 28th August, 1869, I observed at the side of the railway, at Jheenjuck Jheel, on the borders of the Etawah and Cawnpoor Districts, several pairs of Chaetornis.  A good part of the jheel was covered with grass about 18 inches high, and to this they appeared partial, though occasionally I found them among the long reeds.  The part of the jheel where they were found was drier than the rest, there being only about an inch of water in places, while other portions were quite dry.

“I noticed the bird singing while seated on a bush or large clump of grass, and sometimes it perched on the telegraph-wires alongside of the line of railway, continuing its song while perched.

“By habits and song it seems more nearly allied to the Pipits than the Babblers.  Males shot early in September were obviously breeding, and a female shot on the 13th of that month contained a nearly full-sized egg.”

It does not do to be too positive, but I should be inclined to believe that the eggs are not uniform coloured, blue and glossy like a Babbler’s, but dull, dead, or greenish white, with numerous small specks and spots[A].

[Footnote A:  The discovery of this bird’s eggs has proved Mr. Hume to be right in his conjecture.—­ED.]

Colonel E.A.  Butler, who was the first to discover the eggs of the Bristled Grass-Warbler, writes:—­