254

SYLVIID^E.

doubt ib is often mistaken for that species. I have invariably found
it during the rains in. grass JBlieerhs overgrown with low thorny
bushes (ZizijpJius jiyuba, &<».)• "Whether it remains the whole
year round 1 cannot say ; at all events, if it does, its close resem-
blance to A. caudata enables it to escape notice at other seasons."
Mr. Cripps, writing from Fureedpore, says :—"Very common in
long grass fields. Permanent resident. Ifc utters its soft notes
while on the wing, not only in the cold season but the year through ;
it is very noisy during the breeding-time. Breeds in clumps oh'
grass a few inches above as well as on the ground. I found five
nests in the month of May from 23rd to 28th : one was on the
ground in a field of indigo ; the rest were in clumps of ' sone ^? grass
and from, the same field composed of this grass. One nest con-
tained three half-fledged, young, and the rest had four eggs
slightly incubated in each. Although they nest in ' sone' grass
which is rarely over three feet in height, it is very difficult to
find the nest, as the grass generally overhangs and hides it. Only
when the bird rises almost from your feet are you able to discover
the whereabouts. On several occasions I have noticed this species
perching on bushes."
The eggs, which, to judge from a large series sent me by Mr.
Cripps, do iiot appear to vary much in shape, are moderately broad
ovals, more or less pointed towards one end. The shell is fine and
fragile but entirely devoid of gloss ; the ground-colour is white
with a very faint pinky or lilac tinge, and they are thickly speckled
all over with minute markings of two different shades—the one a
sort of purplish brown (they are so small that it is difficult to make
certain of the exact colour), and the other inky purple or grey. In
most eggs the markings are most dense at or about the large end,
and occasionally a spot may be met with larger than the rest, as big
as a pin's head say, and some of these seem to have a reddish tinge,
while some are more of a sepia.
The eggs vary from O75 to 0*86 in length and from O59 to 0-62 in
breadth, but the average of twelve eggs is almost exactly 0*8 by 0-6.
394. Hypolais rama (Sykes).   Sy7ces's Tree-Warbler.
Phyllopneuste rama (Sykes), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 189.
Idima caligata, Licht., Hume, Hoiujh Draft N. fy E. no. 553.
I have never myself obtained the nest and eggs of Sykes's Tree-
Warbler, P. rama, apud Jerd.* On the 1st April, at Etawah, my
friend Mr. Brooks shot a male of this species off a nest; and J saw
the bird, nest, and eggs within an hoar, and visited the spot later.
The nest was placed in a low thorny bush, about a foot from the
ground, on the side of a sloping bank in one of the large dry ravines
that in the Etawah District fringe the E/iver Jumna for a breadth
* I reproduce the note on this bird as it appeared in the * Bough Draft,' but
I think some mistake has been made, as Mr. Hume himself suggests. Full re-
liance, however, may be placed on Mr. Doig's note, which is a most interesting
contribution.—Ei>.