It builds on low branches of small trees or in thick shrubs, at no great elevation from the ground, say at heights of from 4 to 10 feet, a somewhat loosely woven, but yet generally neat, cup-shaped nest, composed, as a rule, chiefly of grass-roots, but often with an admixture of thin sticks and grass.  Generally there is no lining, but I have found nests scantily lined with very fine grass and even horse-hair.  Even when, as is the rule, entirely unlined, the inside is finished off very nicely and smoothly.  I have often seen ragged and untidy nests, but these are the exception.  Externally the nest is some 5 or 6 inches in diameter and 3 or 4 inches in height; the cavity is from 3 to 4 inches across and from 2 to nearly 3 inches in depth.

Four is the normal number of the eggs laid, but I have several notes of finding five.

Mr. Brooks says:—­“This species breeds in waste lands overgrown with scanty jungle.  The nest is made of sticks, roots, grass, &c., is rather bulky, and is placed in some moderate-sized bush about 7 or 8 feet from the ground.  The eggs are greenish blue, bluer and not so brightly coloured as those of C. terricolor.”

Mr. R.M.  Adam remarks:—­“Near Muttra, on the 31st October, I found a pair of birds busy lining the interior of a nest which they had built in a plum-tree.  At the Sambhur lake it is very common, and commences to breed about the end of March.”

Writing from Kotagherry (Nilghiris), Miss Cockburn remarks:—­“Their nests are built of a few twigs and roots, very loosely put together (on some low branch of a tree), and so few of even these as hardly to keep the eggs from falling through.  These Babblers lay four oval eggs of a greenish-blue colour, but I once saw a nest with eight, and as there were several of these birds close to it, I have no doubt two or three shared it together, perhaps to avoid the necessity of each pair building for itself.  Their nests are found in the months of March and April.

“It is in the nests of this species and our Common Laughing-Thrush (T. cachinnans) that I have chiefly found the eggs of the Pied Crested Cuckoo.”

Of this species Colonel G.F.L.  Marshall remarks:—­“I have taken eggs on the 20th June in Cawnpoor, the 31st July in Bolundshuhur, and the 25th August in Allyghur.  The nest is almost always in a keekur tree in a fork about halfway up, and near the end of a branch.  It is composed of keekur-twigs and lined with roots.  It is thinner in structure than that of M. terricolor, but has an outer casing of thorns which the latter wants.  They lay four blue eggs, larger and paler than those of M. canorus”

Lieut.  H.E.  Barnes writes that in Rajputana the Large Grey Babbler is “very common.  I have found nests in each month from January to December.  They have, I believe, several broods in the year; and even when nesting associate in small parties of seven or eight.”