Dr. Jerdon says that “it makes its nest of fine grass and withered stalks, large, very loosely put together, globular, with a hole near the top, and lays three or four eggs of an entirely dull Indian-red colour.”  This undoubtedly is a mistake; the eggs he refers to are, I think, those of Neornis flavolivaceus.  He gave them to me, but was not certain of the species they belonged to.

The eggs of the present species are of much the same shape as those of the preceding, and there is a certain similarity in the colour of both; but in these eggs the ground-colour instead of being pink or pinky white, is a pale, delicate, sometimes greyish, green.  Then though there is the same kind of zone round the large end, it is a purple or purplish, instead of a brick-red, and it is manifestly made up of innumerable minute specks, and has not the cloudy confluent character of the zone in S. crinigera.  Outside the zone minute specks of the same purplish red are scattered, in some pretty thickly, in others sparsely, over the whole of the rest of the surface.  As a body the eggs have a faint gloss, decidedly less, however, than those of S. crinigera, but some few are absolutely glossless.

In length the eggs vary from 0.63 to 0.79, and in breadth from 0.46 to 0.43; but the average of forty-five eggs is 0.68 by 0.5.

460.  Suya khasiana, Godw.-Aust. Austen’s Hill-Warbler.

Suya khasiana, Godw.-Aust., Hume, cat. no. 549 bis.

I found this bird high up in the eastern hills of Mauipur, frequenting dense herbaceous undergrowth of balsams and the like in forest.  On the 11th of May I caught a female on her nest, containing four well-incubated eggs.  The nest was placed in a wild ginger-plant, about two feet from the ground, in forest at the very summit of the Makhi hill.

462.  Prinia lepida, Blyth. The Streaked Wren-Warbler

Burnesia lepida (Blyth), Jerd.  B. Ind. ii, p. 185. 
Burnesia gracilis, Ruepp., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 550.

I have never happened to meet with the nest of the Streaked Wren-Warbler, and all the information I possess in regard to its nidification I owe to others.

The late Mr. Anderson remarked:—­“Although this species was far from uncommon, I found it very local and confined entirely to the tamarisk-covered islands and ‘churs’ along the Ganges.

“The first nest was taken on the 13th March last, and contained three well-incubated eggs; of these I saved only one specimen, which is now in the collection of Mr. Brooks.  The second was found on the following day, and contained two callow young and one perfectly fresh egg.

“The nest is domed over, having an entrance at the side; and the cavity is comfortably lined, or rather felted, with the down of the madar plant.  It is fixed, somewhat after the fashion of that of the Reed-Warbler, in the centre of a dense clump of surpat grass, about 2 feet above the ground.  On the whole the structure is rather large for so small a bird, and measures 6 inches in height by 4 inches in breadth.