78 CE ATEROPODIDJE.

C. griseus are met with, but running the one into the other, while
intermediate forms between this species and 0. somervillii (Sykes)
are also met with.

Mr. Davison remarks :—" This bird seems to be very irregular
in its time of breeding. I have taken the nest in May, June,
October, and December. The nest is rather a loose structure of
dry grass and leaves, lined with fine dry grass; it is generally
placed in the middle of some thick thorny bush, and cannot gene-
rally be got at without paying the penalty of well scratched hands.
The eggs, generally five in number, are of a very deep blue with a
tinge of green, but of not so decided a tinge as in the eggs of
M. griseus. It breeds on the slopes of the Nilghiris, not ascending
to more than about 6000 feet."

Mr. Wait, writing from Coonoor, says :—" C. malabaricus builds
a cup-shaped nest in small trees and bushes, and lays from three
to five very round oval verditer-blue eggs/7

Captain Horace Terry says of this species:—" Rather rare at
Pulungi, but very common lower down on the slopes and in the
Pittur valley. I got a nest on April 5th at Pulungi with three
incubated eggs, and on the 6th one with two incubated eggs, in
the Pittur valley. The last was built in a hollow in the top of a
stump of a tree that had been broken off some ten feet from the
ground."

Mr. I. Macpherson writes from Mysore:—"This bird is occasion-
ally found with C. griseus in the bigger scrub forests, but its chief
habitat is the larger forests. Its breeding-season is much the same
as C. griseus^ but unlike it, it does not select thorny bushes for
building in, its nests being generally found in small trees or
bamboo-clumps. Eour is the usual number of eggs laid, but five are
often found, and the fifth I expect is frequently that of //. varius"

Three eggs sent me by Mr. Carter from Coonoor, in the Mlghi-
ries, are absolutely undistinguishable from those of Argya malcolmi.
Like these they are a uniform, rather deep greenish blue, devoid
of spots or markings, and very glossy. I do not think that, if the
eggs of A. malcolmi, C. malabaricus, and C. terricolor were once
mixed, it would be possible to separate them with certainty. Other
eggs taken by Mr. Davison are similar but slightly smaller, and,
taking them as a whole, I think they average rather darker than
those of the two species just mentioned.

The eggs vary in length from 0*93 to 1*02, and in breadth from
0*71 to 0-S2; but the average of nine eggs is 0-97 by nearly 0*77.

111. Crateropus griseus (Grin.). The White-headed Balller.

Malacocercus griseus (6rw.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii; p. 60; Hume, Rough
Draft N. $ E. no. 433.

I should say that the "White-headed Babbler breeds all over the
plain country of Southern India, not ascending the hills to any
great elevation. At the same time, many people would very likely