256	SYLVIIDJE.
come to the nest and eggs, and when it did I shot it. This I also
sent to Mr. Hume to identify. Some time after I heard from Mr.
Hurae, who said that there mast be some mistake, as the birds sent
belonged to two different species,viz. Sylvia affinis and Hypolcds rama,
and were both, he believed, only cold-weather visitants. This year
I again ^c went for' these birds and again sent specimens of birds
and eggs to Mr. Hume, who informed nie that the birds now sent
were H. rama, and that the eggs must belong to this species.
Soon after this Mr. Brooks saw the eggs with Mr. Hume and iden-
tified them as being those of H. rama and identical with eggs he saw at
home collected by, I think, Mr. Seebohm, of this species in Siberia.
Only fancy a bird breeding on theNarra of all places, especially in
May, June, and July, in preference to Siberia! Locally they* are
very numerous, as I collected upwards of 90 to 100 eggs in one
field about eight acres in size. They build in stunted tamarisk
bushes, or rather in bushes of this kind which originally were cut
down to admit of cultivation being carried on, and which after-
wards had again sprouted. These bushes are very dense, and
in their centre is situated the nest, composed of sedge, with a
lining of fine grass, mixed sometimes with a little soft grass-reed.
The eggs are, as a rule, four in number, of a dull white ground-
colour with brown spots, the large end having as a rule a ring
round it of most delicate, fine, hair-like brown lines, something
similar to the tracing to be seen on the eggs of Drymcsca inornata.
The egg in size is also similar to those of that species."
The eggs of this species vary from broad to moderately elongated
ovals, but they are almost always somewhat pointed towards the
small end; the shell is fine but as a rule glossless ; here and there,
however, an egg exhibits a faint gloss. The ground-colour is
whitish, never pure white, with an excessively faint greenish,
greyish, creamy, or pinky tinge. The markings are very variable in
amount and extent, but they are always black or nearly so and pale
ink}^7 grey; perhaps typically the markings consist of a zone of
black hair-lines twisted and entangled together, in which irregular
shaped spots and small blotches of the same colour appear to have
been caught, which zone is underlaid and more or less surrounded
by clouds, streaks, and spots of pale inky grey. This zone is typically
about the large end, but in one or two eggs is near the middle of
the egg and in one or two is about the small end. Outside this
zone a few small specks and spots, and rarely one or two tiny
blotches, of both black and grey are thinly scattered; occasionally,
however, the hair-lines so characteristic of this egg are almost en-
tirely wanting, there is no apparent zone, and the markings, spots,
and specks are thinly and irregularly distributed about the entire
surface ; here and there the whole of the dark markings on the egg
are entirely confined to the zone, elsewhere only pale lilac specks are
visible. Occasionally together with a well-defined zone numerous
specks, spots, and a few hair-line scratches of black are intermingled
with faint purplish-grey spots, and pretty thinly scattered every-
where,