“It was composed of coarse dry grass externally, with fine roots and fibres towards the inside of the nest, and was profusely lined with feathers.  It was large for the bird, being 7 or 8 inches in external diameter, of a globular form, with the entrance at the side.  I don’t remember the size of the cavity of the nest, but its walls were very thick.

“In external appearance it was rough and clumsy, and looked more like a Sparrow’s nest than that of a small Sylvine bird.  The entrance was about 13/4 inch in diameter, and was with the interior of the nest neat and strong. Horornis pallidus occurs at from 5600 feet elevation up to 7000 and even 8000 feet.  It was abundant at Suki up the Bhagirutti Valley, and I heard of one even at Grangootree.”

The shape of the egg is peculiar, being rather flattened in outline at the sides and then suddenly rounded at the smaller end.  There is a considerable amount of gloss on the surface, which is of a dull purple-brown, rather darker in tint at the large end.  There are a very few indistinct cloudy markings of brown scattered here and there over the egg.  In general appearance the egg puts one in mind of a Prinia’s.

The egg measured 0.64 by 0.49.

451.  Horornis pallidipes (Blanf.). Blanfords Bush-Warbler.

Horeites pallidipes (Blanf.), Hume, cat. no. 527 quat.

Mr. Mandelli sent me two nests of this species.  The one was found on the 24th May at Ging, near the Rungnoo River, Sikhim, and contained four fresh eggs; it was placed on the ground amongst coarse grass.  The other, which was similarly placed, was found on the 29th June below Lebong at an elevation of about 4000 feet, and contained three fresh eggs.  Both nests are rather coarse untidy little cups, some 3 inches in diameter, and 1.75 in height exteriorly, lined and mainly composed of very fine grass, but coated exteriorly everywhere with dry flags, bits of bamboo spathes, and with one or two dead leaves incorporated at the bottom of the structure.

452.  Horornis major (Hodgs.). The Large Bush-Warbler.

Horeites major, Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 529 (err. 629).

A nest said to belong to the Large Bush-Warbler was sent in with one of the parent birds in July from near Lachong in Native Sikhim, where it was found at an elevation of about 14,000 feet.  It was placed at a height of about a foot from the ground in a stunted thorny shrub common at these high elevations.  It was a very warm little cup, about 3 inches in diameter, composed of the finest fern and moss-roots, tiny fern-leaves, wool, and numbers of the coarse white crinkly hairs of the burhel.  It contained three fresh eggs, regular, slightly elongated ovals, a little pointed towards the small end; the shell fine and compact, but with scarcely any gloss.

The ground-colour is white with a faint greenish-blue tinge, and on the larger half of the egg excessively minute specks of brownish red are thinly sprinkled, except just at the crown of the egg, where the specks are denser and exhibit a tendency to form a tiny cap.  On the smaller half of the egg very few, if any, specklings are to be traced.