86 CEATEKOPODIDJE.

times moderately broad, and very slightly compressed towards one
end. They are very fragile, and perfectly pure spotless white in
colour. Typically, although smooth and satiny in texture, they
have but little gloss, but occasionally a fairly glossy egg is to be
met with.

In length they vary from O9S to 1'12, and in breadth from 0-75
to 0-79 ; but the average seems to be about 1*08 by 0-77.

122. PomatorMnus ferruginosus, Blyth. The Coral-billed
Scimitar Babbler.

Poinatorhimis ferruginosus, Ittytli, Jerd. JB. Ind, ii; p. 29; Hume,
Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 401.

The Coral-billed Scimitar Eabbler, according to Mr. Hodgson's
notes, breeds in Sikhim, at an elevation of 5000 or 6000 feet. Its
nest is placed about a foot or 2 feet above the ground, in a bamboo-
clump or some thick bush, and is firmly wedged in between the
twigs'and shoots. It is composed internally'of dried bamboo-
leaves, grass, and vegetable fibres, outside which bamboo-sheaths
are bound on with creepers and fibres of different kinds. The
nest is more or less egg-shaped, with the longer diameter hori-
zontal, some 7 inches or so in length and 5 inches in height, and
with the entrance at one end, measuring some 3 inches in diameter.
Four or five eggs are laid, elongated ovals, somewhat pointed
towards the small end, pure white, and measuring about 1-08 by O7.

Prom Sikhim Mr. G-amrnie writes :—" I took a nest of this bird
on the 19th May, at an elevation of about 5000 feet. It was
placed on the ground, among low scrub, near the outskirts of a
large forest, and was neatly made, for a Pomatorhinus, of bamboo-
leaves and long grass, with a thin lining of fibry strips torn from
old bamboo-stems. In shape it was a cone laid on its side. Ex-
ternally it measured 9 inches in length by the same in height at
front, while the egg-cavity measured 3-5 inches across, and 1-75
in depth. The entrance, which was at the end, measured 3 inches
in diameter.

" Next to the lining was a layer of broadish grass-blades, placed
lengthways, i. e. from base to apex of the cone, then came a cross
layer of broad bamboo-leaves succeeded by a second layer of bamboo-
leaves placed lengthways. By this arrangement the nest was kept
perfectly water-tight. So nicely were these simple materials put
together that they held each other in their places without the assis-
tance of a single fibre.

" The nest contained four partially incubated eggs : three of them
pointed and exactly alike, but the fourth rounded, and apparently
of a different texture, so that it may have been introduced by a
Cuckoo."

Two eggs sent by Mr. Gamniie . are moderately elongated ovals,
somewhat obtuse even at the smaller end. The shell is very
fine, pure white, and has a fine gloss. They measure 1*1 by 0-83,
and 1-06 by 0*78.