The full number of eggs is, I believe, five.  I have repeatedly taken nests containing this number, and have comparatively seldom met with a smaller number of eggs at all incubated.

Colonel G.F.L.  Marshall says:—­“I found a nest of this species at Roorkee in the early part of July.  It contained three eggs and was beautifully made, a deep cup fixed on to an artichoke-stock, and at a little distance much resembled an artichoke.”

Mr. E.C.  Nunn, writing from near Agra on the 26th September 1867, says:—­“I got a Pyctorhis’ nest yesterday, suspended between two stalks of jowar (Holcus sorghum), the nest firmly bound with strips of fibrous bark, at two opposite points of its circumference, to the two stems.  This is, I imagine, something out of the usual order of things with these birds.  The nests which I have hitherto found have been situated in young mangoe-trees, rose-bushes, or peach- and orange-trees.”

From Futtehgurh the late Mr. A.A.  Anderson sent me the following note:—­“The nest and eggs of this bird are very beautiful.  A pair once built in a pumplenose-tree (Citrus decumana) in my garden, laying five long eggs.  The nest, still in my collection, was placed in the fork of four small upright twigs; it was composed entirely of dry grass-stems (no soft material inside), and laced outwardly, in and out of the twigs, with dry fibre belonging to the plantain-tree.

“The eggs are small for the size of the bird, and scarcely so large as those of the Hedge-Sparrow.”

Captain Hutton remarks:—­“This likewise is a Dhoon bird; its nest was found there on the 1st July, when it contained four eggs of a dull white colour, thickly speckled and blotched all over with ferruginous spots, forming also an open darker coloured ring at the large end, and intermixed with brown.

“The nest is a deep cup, placed in the trifurcation of the slender upright branch of a low shrub, and is constructed externally of coarse grass-blades held together by cobwebs and seed-down, the lining being fine grass-seed stalks.  Diameter of the top 21/2 inches; depth within 2 inches; externally 31/2 inches.”

Mr. F.R.  Blewitt tells us that “the Yellow-eyed Babbler breeds from July to September, or, I should say, up to the middle of September.  Its selection of a tree for its nest is not confined to any one species, but by preference the bird selects those of small growth, and even frequently high-growing brushwood.  The nests are very neatly made, and what is singular is that, as regards build and shape, they are always almost exactly alike.  If I have seen one, I must have seen at least fifty this year, all with the same exterior material of closely interlaced vegetable fibre over grass, and the inner lining of fine grass, deep cup-shaped, and in diameter, outer and inner, varying but little.  Where it could be effected, the nest was suspended to, or rather fastened between, two forks; or where these were not available, between three twigs.  The outer diameters of the nests were from 2.7 to 2.9 inches, inner from 2.3 to 2.5.  Four is the regular number of eggs, though occasionally five in one nest have been obtained.”