252	SYLVIIDJE.
striatus; moderately broad ovals with a. very fine compact shell,
with but little gloss, though perhaps rather more of this than in
either of the species above referred to. The ground-colour is
white, with perhaps a faint pinkish shade, and it is profusely
speckled and spotted with brownish red, almost black in some spots,
more chestnut in others. Here and there a few larger spots or
small irregular blotches occur. Besides these markings, clouds,
streaks, and tiny spots of grey or lavender-grey occur, chiefly about
the large end, where, with the markings (often more numerous
there than elsewhere), they form at times a more or less con-
fluent but irregular and ill-defined cap.
One egg measured 0-73 by 0*6.
391. Acanthoptila nepalensis (Hodgs.).    The Spiny Warbler.
Acanthoptila iripalensis (Hodgs.}, Jercl J3. Ind. ii, p 57.
Acanthoptila pellotis, Hodgs., Hume_} Hough Draft N. fy E. no. 431 bis.
According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and figures, this species
builds, in a fork of a tree, a very loose, shallow grass nest. One
is recorded to have measured 4-87 in diameter and 1-75 in height
externally, and internally 3-37 in diameter and an inch in depth.
The eggs are verditer-blue, and are figured as 1*1 by 0*65.
I may here note that Acanthoptila pellotis and A. leucotis are
totally distinct, as Mr. Hodgson's figures clearly show. Hodgson
published A. leucotis apparently under the name of A. nipalensis, so
that the two will stand as A. pellotis and A. nipalensis*.
392. Chsetornis locustelloides (Bl.).    The Bristled Grass-Warbler.
Chsetornis striatus (Jerd.\ Jerd. B_t Ind. ii. p. 72;  Hume. Roitfih
Draft N. $ E. no. 441.
Dr. Jerdon remarks that Mr. Blyth mentions that the nest of
the Grass-Babbler, as he calls it, nearly accords with that of Mala-
cocercws, and that the eggs are blue.
I cannot find the passage in which Blyth states this, and I
cannot help doubting its correctness. This bird, like the preceding,
is not a bit of a Babbler. I have often watched them in Lower
Bengal amongst comparatively low grass and rush along the
margins of ponds and jheels, not, as a rule, affecting high reed or
seeking to conceal themselves, but showing themselves freely
enough, and with a song and flight wholly unlike that of any
Babbler.
They are very restless, soaring about and singing a monotonous
song of two notes, somewhat resembling that of a Pipit, but clear
and loud. They do not soar in one spot like a Sky-Lark, as
Jerdon says, but rise to the height of from 30 to 50 yards, fly
* I do not. agree with Mr. Hume on this point. It seems to me that this
bird has both a summer and a winter plumage, and Hodgson's two names refer
to one and the same bird.—ed.