Talking of this species, and writing from Almorah on the 17th May, Mr. Brooks said:—­“I have just taken a nest.  It was placed on a sloping bank-side near the foot of a small bush.  The bank was overgrown with grass.  The nest, which was on the ground, was a large ball-shaped one, composed of very coarse grass, moss-roots, and wool, and lined with hair and wool.  It contained four pure white glossy eggs, which were much pointed at the small end.  I shot the bird off the nest.  I had already frequently met with fully-grown young birds of this species.”

Writing from Dhurmsala, Captain Cock remarked:—­“On the 8th April I found a nest of this species containing four white eggs; it was placed on the ground, under a bush, on a steep bank.  The nest was globular, with rather a large entrance-hole, and was made of moss, with dry grass outside, then black hair of goats, and thickly lined with the softest of wool:  no feathers in the nest.  I caught the bird on the nest; it is common here.”

Colonel G.F.L.  Marshall tells us:—­“A nest found on the 22nd May at Naini Tal, about 7000 feet above the sea, contained three hard-set eggs.  The eggs were pure white.  The nest was a most beautiful little structure of moss, lined with wool; it was globular, with the entrance at one side, and placed on a bank among some ground-ivy, the outer part of the nest having a few broad grass-blades interwoven so as to assimilate the appearance of the nest to that of the bank against which it lay.  It was at the side of a narrow glen with a northern aspect, and about four feet above the pathway, close to the spring from which my bhisti daily draws water, the bird sitting fearlessly while passed and repassed by people going down the glen within a foot or two of the nest.”

The eggs are pure white, and generally fairly glossy.  In texture the shells are very fine and compact.  The eggs are moderately broad ovals, much pointed towards the small end, and vary from 0.6 to 0.65 in length, and from 0.48 to 0.52 in breadth; but the average of twenty eggs measured is 0.63 by 0.5 nearly.

435.  Cryptolopha jerdoni (Brooks). Brooks’s Grey-headed Flycatcher-Warbler.

Abrornis xanthoschistos (Hodgs.), Jerd.  B. Ind. ii, p. 202; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 572.

This Warbler breeds, according to Mr. Hodgson’s notes[A], both in Nepal and Sikhim up to an elevation of 6000 or 7000 feet.  They lay in May three or four pure white eggs.  They make their nest on the ground in thick bushes, or in holes in banks, or under roots of trees.  The nest is a large mass of moss and dry leaves, somewhat egg-shaped, with the entrance at one end, some 6 inches in length, 4 inches in breadth, and 3.5 in height externally, and with an oval entrance about 1.5 high and 2.25 wide.  Inside it is carefully lined with moss-roots.  Both sexes assist in hatching and rearing the young, which are ready to fly in July.