250	SYLVIID-TS.
and assimilated well with the dry and entangled stems among which
it lay. The nest was very deep and purse-shaped. It was ahout
8 inches in total height at the back, and some 2 inches lower in
front, the upper part of the purse being as it were cut off slantingly,
and thus leaving an entrance which was more or less circular. The
width is 61 inches, and the breadth from front to back 4 inches.
The interior is smooth, lined with somewhat finer grass, and
measures 4 inches in depth by 3 inches from side to side, and by
2 inches from front to back.
"Meyalunis palustris is very common throughout the large plains
lying between the Pegu and fcjittang Elvers. At the end of May
they were all breeding. The nest is, however, difficult to find, owing
to the vast extent of favourable ground suited to its habits. Every
yard of the land produces a clump of grass likely enough to hold a
nest, and as the female sits still till the nest is actually touched, it
becomes a difficult and laborious task to find the nest."
He subsequently remarks:—" May seems to be the month in
which these birds lay here. The nest is very often placed on the
ground under the shelter of some grass-tuft/'
Mr. Cock burn writes to me :—" I found a nest of this bird 011
the north bank of the Bramaputra, near Sadija. One of the birds
darted on: the nest a foot or two from me in an excited way, which
led me to search. The nest was almost a perfect oval, with a slice
taken off at the top on one side, built in a clump of grass, and only
9 or 10 inches from the ground. It was made of sarpat-grass, and
lined internally with finer grasses. The grass had a bleached and
washed-out appearance, while the clump was quite green. This
was on the 29th May. I noticed at the same time that the nest
was not interwoven with the living grass. I removed it easily with
the hand."
Mr. Cripps says:—"They breed in April and May in the
Dibrugarh district, placing their deep cup-shaped nests in tussocks
of grass wherever it is swampy, in some instances the bottoms of the
nests being wet. Pour seems to be the greatest number of eggs in
a nest."
The eggs are much the same shape and size as those of Aeroce-
phalus stentoreus. They have a dead-white ground, thickly speckled
and spotted with blackish and purplish brown, and have but a slight
gloss; the speckling, everywhere thick, is generally densest at the
large end, and there chiefly do spots, as big as an ordinary pin's
head, occur. At the large end, besides these specklings, there is a
cloudy, dull, irregular cap, or else isolated patches, of very pale
inky purple, which more or less obscure the ground-colour. In
the peculiar speckly character of the markings these eggs recall
doubtless some specimens of the eggs of the different Bulbuls, bub
their natural affinities seem to be with those of the Acrocephalince.
The eggs vary from 0*8 to 0-97 in length, and from 0-61 to
0*69 in breadth ; but the average of twelve eggs is 0*85 by 0-64.