ARGYA.	71
the hedges of prickly-pear, I have taken the nests in orange-trees,
the karounda, the babool, &c."
Messrs. Davidson and Wenden state that in the Deccaii it is
"very common and breeds."
Major C. T. Bingham says:—"This bird, uncommon at Alla-
habad, is plentiful here at Delhi. I found several nests between
March and June, all of the Babbler type, deep cups, rather more
firmly built than those of the preceding bird, but constructed
like them of coarse roots of grass, with liner ones for the inside*
They are never placed at any great height from the ground,
and generally in some thorny bush. I have found mostly three,
rarely four eggs in any one nest."
Mr. Benjamin Aitkin writes:—" I never saw the Common
Babbler in Poona, and it certainly does not occur in Bombay.
But it is very abundant on the arid plains of Berar, breeding in
the low babool-bushes, where large numbers of its eggs are destroyed
by lizards. I have found four eggs in a nest ot'tener than three."
Colonel Butler writes :—" The Common Babbler breeds in the
neighbourhood of Deesa principally during the monsoon; but I
have found nests occasionally at other seasons of the year, as the
following table of dates will show:—
' April 29, 1876.    A nest containing 3 fresh eggs.
' May 16, 1876.	„	„        3 fresh eggs.
'May 21, 1876. •	2 fresh eggs.
' Nov. 15, 1876.	„	„        4 young birds.
'1 found numerous nests from the middle of July to tho begin-
ning of September. On the 20th July, 1876, I saw upwards of a
dozen nests, some containing fresh eggs, and others incubated. In
many instances they contained eggs of Coccystes jaeobinus. The
nest is usually placed 3 or 4 feet from the ground in low thorny
bushes (Zizyphus jujuba preferred) or in a tussock of sarpat grass.
It is built of twigs, roots, grass, &c., loosely put together exteriorly
but closely woven interiorly, the lining being composed of fine roots
and grass-stems. The eggs vary in number from, three to five."
Lieut. H. B. Barnes, writing of Rajputana, says:—" The Striated
Bush-Babbler breeds from March to July. The nest is usually
placed in a low thorny bush, and is composed of grass-roots and
stems; it is deep cup-shaped, neatly and compactly built."
The eggs are typically of a moderately elongated oyal shape,
slightly compressed towards one end, but more or less spherical
and pyriform varieties occur; and I have one specimen, a very
long pointed egg, which, so far as size and shape go, might pass
for an egg oE Cypselus affinis; and though this is a peculiarly
abnormal shape, I have others which somewhat approach it in
form. The eggs are glossy, often brilliantly so, and of a delicate,
pure, spotless, somewhat pale blue. The shade of colour in this
egg varies very little, and I have never met with either the very
pale or very dark varieties common amongst the eggs of O.
canorus and occasionally found amongst those of A. makolmi. In
colour, size, and shape they are not very unlike those of our English