The eggs are short, broad ovals, very slightly compressed towards one end.  The ground-colour is white or pinkish white, and it is streaked, spotted, and speckled most thickly at the large end (where there is a tendency to form an irregular confluent cap or zone), and thinly towards the small end, with shades of red, brownish red, and reddish purple, varying much in different examples.  In some the markings are pretty bold and blotchy, in others they are small and speckly; in some they are smudgy and ill-defined, in others they are clear and distinct.  Some of the eggs are miniatures of some types of Pyctorhis sinensis, but many recall the eggs of the Titmouse.  They are much about the size of those of Parus caeruleus and P. palustris, but a trifle less broad than either of these.  The eggs have a faint gloss.

In length they vary from 0.63 to 0.7, and in breadth from 0.5 to 0.56; but the average of twenty-four eggs now before me is 0.67 by 0.53.

136.  Dumetia albigularis (Blyth). The Small White-throated Babbler.

Dumetia albogularis (Blyth), Jerd.  B. Ind ii, p. 26; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 398.

Miss M.B.  Cockburn, writing from Kotagherry, tells me that “the White-throated Babbler builds its nest in the month of June.  One was found by my nest-seekers on the 17th of that month in the year 1873.  It was constructed on a coffee-tree, and contained three eggs, which were white, profusely covered with reddish spots of all sizes.  The bird was very shy, and would not return to the nest for some hours after it had been discovered; when, however, she did so, she was shot.  This year (1874) I found another similar nest on the 9th of June, also containing three eggs.”

The nest with which she favoured me was small and nearly globular (say at most 4 inches in external diameter), composed entirely of broad flaggy grass without any lining or any admixture whatsoever of other material.  The nest was loosely put together, and had a comparatively narrow circular entrance near the top.

From Mysore Mr. Iver Macpherson writes:—­“This is an exceedingly common bird in parts of this district, and their nests are so plentiful that I never now take them.

“I send you all the eggs I have at present, but can procure you any number more next season.

“The birds are to be found in all kinds of wooded country except the heavy forests, and appear to breed from the middle of April to the end of July, and possibly later.

“The nest is a largish globular structure loosely made of either bamboo-leaves or blades of grass, and all that I have ever seen have been lined inside with a few fine fibres.

“Four appears to be the usual number of eggs, but very often there are only three.

“The nests are always built near the ground, sometimes almost touching it, and are fixed in either small bushes, tufts of grass, or young bamboo-clumps.”