AEG-YA. 69

grass without lining, and woven in with the stems if in a clump
of grass, or firmly fixed in a fork if in a bush or low tree. The
interior diameter is about 3 inches, and the depth nearly 2 inches.
The eggs, four in number, are of a clear blue colour without spots
of any kind. In shape they are oval, rather thinner at one end; the
shell is smooth and thin. The eggs are of the same colour, but
considerably larger than those of Arcjya caudata. Argya earlii
breeds commonly in the Sub-Siwalik District of the Doab ; it
seems fond of water, as most of the nests I have found were
close to the canal bank. It is gregarious even in the breeding-
season ; small nocks of seven or eight' keeping together, fluttering
in and out of the low bushes, but seldom alighting on the ground,
and occasionally making a noisy chattering cry, especially when
disturbed."

From the Pegu District Mr. Gates writes :—" I found two nests
on the 24th May, one quite empty though finished, the other con-
taining three eggs.

" The nests were placed a few feet apart in an immensely thick
patch of elephant-grass, the undergrowth being fine, once tall, but
now dead, grass. It was upon this dead stuff, which in May is
much flattened down, that I found the nests. They were not
attached to anything, but simply laid in a depressed platform, about
a foot above the ground, in among the thickest of the stalks of
elephant-grass.

" The nest is a bulky structure, some 6 or 8 inches in external
diameter, and 4 inches in height, composed chiefly of coarse reeds,
becoming finer interiorly till the egg-cup is reached, where the
grasses employed are tolerably fine and neatly interwoven. The
cavity itself is more than a hemisphere, the diameter being 3
inches and the depth about 2 inches.

c< The eggs are of a beautiful blue colour, rather pointed at one
end."

Colonel Tickell has the following note on the nidificat-ion of this
species in the Asiatic Society Journal, 1848, p. 301:—

" Biwra plienga.—Nest hemispherical, of grasses rather loosely
interwoven; generally on bushes in jungle. Eggs two to four;
rather lengthened shape ; clear, full, verditer blue.—June."

Mr. J. E. Cripps writes of this bird in Eastern Bengal:—" Very
common, and a permanent resident, keeping to grass-fields in small
parties of seven to ten. Very noisy. On the 2nd December,
1877, I found a nest with three slightly-incubated eggs in a small
babool bush which stood in a esone' grass-field. The nest was a
deep cup, whose foundation was a few leaves over which sone-grass
was woven rather loosely. Lining of fine grass-roots. The nest
was placed in amongst some coarse grass which grew up in the
centre of the bush, and was three feet from the ground. External
height 4, diameter 4|, internal diameter 2|, depth 2j inches. Both
Messrs. Marshall and Hume in their works on c Birds' Nesting'
give March and September as the two periods for these birds to
lay, but the clutch I found were exceptionally late."