Colonel Legge, in his work on the birds of Ceylon, says:—­“The breeding-season of this bird is from April to July.  Full-fledged nestlings may be found abroad with the parent birds in August; and from this I base my supposition, for I have never found the nest myself.  Intelligent native woodmen, in the western forests, who are well acquainted with the bird, have informed me that it nests in April, building a large, cup-shaped nest in the fork of a bush-branch, and laying three or four dark blue eggs.  Whether this account be correct or not, future investigation must decide.”

116.  Pomatorhinus schisticeps, Hodgs. The Slaty-headed Scimitar Babbler.

Pomatorhinus schisticeps, Hodgs., Jerd.  B.I. ii, p. 29; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 402.

Speaking of the Slaty-headed Scimitar Babbler, Dr. Jerdon says:—­“A nest made of moss and some fibres, and with four pure white eggs, was brought to me at Darjeeling as belonging to this bird.”

Two nests were sent me by Mr. Mandelli as belonging to this species, the one found near Namtchu on the 3rd April containing four fresh eggs, the other near Tendong on the 15th June, containing three.  Another nest which he found on the 22nd April, near the same place as the first, contained four fresh eggs.  All were placed on or very near to the ground in brushwood and grass; all appear to have been large, rather saucer-like nests, from 5.5 to 6.5 inches in diameter externally, and 2.5 to 3 in height.  Outside and below they are composed chiefly of coarse grass, dead leaves, especially fern-leaves, while interiorly they are composed of and lined with finer—­in some cases very fine—­grass.  The cavities average, I should guess, 3.75 inches in diameter, and 1.5, or a little more perhaps, in depth.

Mr. J.R.  Cripps has the following note on the breeding of this bird in Assam:—­“A nest I got was situated at the roots of a clump of bushes, overhanging a small river.  A bridge spanning this river was within ten yards, the intervening space being open; and for such a shy bird to have chosen such an exposed situation to build in astonished me.”

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:—­“A nest of this Babbler taken on the 20th May much resembled that of P. ferruginosus, both in size and structure.  The egg-cavity had, however, a lining of at least half an inch in thickness of soft, fibrous material extracted from the bark of some tree, and a little fine grass for the eggs to lie on.  It was on the ground, among low jungle, in the Ryeng Valley, at 2000 feet of elevation, and contained four eggs, two of them hatching off and two addled.  According to my experience, nests containing so large a proportion of addled eggs are unusual.”

Eggs sent by Mr. Mandelli as belonging to this species closely resemble those of Pomatorhinus ferruginosus, but are somewhat smaller; they are oval eggs a good deal pointed towards one end, pure white, and with a high gloss.  They were obtained on the 5th and 22nd of April in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling, and measure from 0.95 to 1.04:  in length, and 0.72 to 0.73 in breadth.  Eggs sent by Mr. Gammie are precisely similar.