119.  Pomatorhinus melanurus, Blyth. The Ceylonese Scimitar Babbler.

Pomatorhinus melanurus, Blyth, Hume, Cat. no. 404 bis.

Colonel Legge writes of the nidification of this bird in Ceylon:—­“This Babbler breeds from December until February.  I have observed one collecting materials for a nest in the former month, and at the same period Mr. Mac Vicar had the eggs brought to him; they were taken from a nest made of leaves and grass, and placed on a bank in jungle.  Mr. Bligh has found the nest in crevices in trees, between a projecting piece of bark and the trunk, also in a jungle-path cutting and on a ledge of rock; it is usually composed of moss, grass-roots, fibre, and a few dead leaves, and the structure is rather a slovenly one.  The eggs vary from three to five, and are pure white, the shell thin and transparent, and they measure 0.96 to 0.98 in length, by 0.7 in breadth.”

120.  Pomatorhinus horsfieldii, Sykes. The Southern Scimitar Babbler.

Pomatorhinus horsfieldii, Sykes, Jerd.  B. Ind. ii, p. 31; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 404.

The Southern Scimitar Babbler breeds throughout the hilly tracts of Southern India, up to an elevation of fully 7000 feet.  They are common in Ootacamund, and even on Dodabet as high up as it is wooded.  They seem to breed less plentifully about Kotagherry than they do at Ootacamund itself, Coonoor, Neddivattam, &c.

They lay from February to May, building a largish globular nest of grass, moss, and roots, placed on or very near to the ground in some bush or clump of fern or grass.  They lay five eggs.

A nest of this species which I owe to Mr. Carter, and which was found at Coonoor on the 7th April, 1869, is a huge globular mass of moss and fine moss-roots some 7 inches in diameter, with, on the upper side, an entrance to a small egg-cavity some 31/2 inches in diameter, and 2 inches in depth.  It is a most singular nest, a great compact ball of soft feathery moss and very fine moss-roots, which latter predominate in the interior of the cavity, and so form a sort of lining to it.  The great body of the nest is below the cavity, the overhanging dome-like covering of the cavity being comparatively thin.

Mr. Davison remarks:—­“The nest of this bird is very peculiar in structure, more like the nest of a field-mouse than of a bird, being in fact merely a ball of grass rather loosely put together, the grass on the exterior being intermingled with dry leaves and other rubbish.  The nest is generally placed either in a clump of fern, or at the roots of some grass-grown bush.  The eggs are pure white, very elongated, and with a remarkably thin and delicate shell.  The normal number appears to be five.  The breeding-season is, I think, the latter end of April and May.”

Later, he writes:—­“It must, I think, breed twice, as I found a nest on the 10th March with fully-fledged young, and late in April another nest with perfectly fresh eggs.”