According to Mr. Hodgson’s notes, this species would appear to breed at heights of from 2000 to 8000 feet.  It lays in May and June.  On the 20th May, and again on the 6th June, Mr. Hodgson found nests of this species in thick bushes 3 or 4 feet above the ground.  They were broad saucer-shaped nests of coarse vegetable fibres, grass, and grass-roots, 7 inches or so in diameter, and the cavity, which had no lining, was about 4 inches in diameter by 2 inches in depth.  They contained three and four white eggs respectively.  One figured measures 0.98 by 0.73.  On June 8th he found two more nests at Jaha Powah, on the ground, on edges of brushy slopes close to grassy open plains, the nest a large mass of grass, oven-shaped, open at one and in one case at both ends, protected by the root of a tree.  There were two and three white eggs in the nests respectively.  The eggs of these nests are figured as measuring 1.08 by 0.73.

Mr. Gammie remarks:—­“I found a nest of this species below Rungbee, at an elevation of about 2000 feet, on the 17th June.  It was placed on, and partially in a hole in a bank, and contained two hard-set eggs.  It was a large, loose pad of fine grass and dead fern, with a few broad flag-like grass-leaves incorporated towards the base, and overhung by a sort of canopy of similar materials.  The basal portion was some 6 inches long and 5 inches broad, and about 2 inches thick in the thickest part, with a broad shallow depression for the eggs of about half that depth.”

Writing again this year (1874) he says:—­“I have only found two more nests this year, and both in the last week of April; the one contained three partially incubated eggs, the other three young birds.  These nests were at Gielle, at an elevation of about 2500 feet.  As a rule, these birds nest in open country, immediately adjoining moist thickly wooded ravines, in which they feed, and take refuge if disturbed from the nest.  The nest is usually placed on sloping ground, more or less concealed by overhanging herbage, and is composed, according to my experience, of dry grass sparingly lined with fibres.  It is large; one I measured in situ was 8 inches in height and 7 inches in diameter; the vertical diameter of the cavity was 4 inches and the horizontal 31/2 inches.  I have not yet found more than three eggs or young ones in any nest.”

Dr. Scully remarks of this bird in Nipal:—­“It lays in May and June; two nests, taken on the 30th May and 6th June, were large loosely-made pads, not domed, and with the egg-cavity saucer-shaped, each nest contained three pure white eggs.”

The eggs of this species are long, and at times narrow, ovals, pure white and fairly glossy, but occasionally almost glossless, without any marks or spottings.

In length they vary from 1.0 to 1.2, and in breadth from 0.73 to 0.85, but the average of twenty eggs is about 1.11 by nearly 0.8.

133.  Xiphorhamphus superciliaris (Blyth). The Slender-billed Scimitar Babbler.