PTOTOUHI8. 95

or in date-palms, or in arrowroot in the jungle up to heights of
3 feet. The nest is built entirely of grass, lined with finer grass ;
a nearly round ball 6 inches in diameter outside and 5 inside, with
a hole on the side. The eggs are laid at the rate of one a day, and
three are usually found in one nest, occasionally only two. On
one occasion after securing the female bird, he found the cock bird
sitting on the eggs and he continued to sit there for three days.

Mr. J. Davidson tells us that he found a nest of this bird on the
15th July at Kondabhari with four fresh eggs.

Colonel Legge writes in his ' Birds of Ceylon':—" The breeding-
season lasts from March until July, the nest being built in a low
bush sometimes only a few inches from the ground."

In shape the eggs are moderate^ elongated ovals. The shell is
very fine and smooth, and has in some a rather bright, in some
only a very slight gloss. The ground is a Chiiia-white. The
markings consist of a profusion of specks and spots of a very bright
red, which, though spread over the whole surface, are gathered
most densely into an imperfect, more or less confluent, cap or zone
at the larger end, where also a few purplish-grey spots and specks
not usually found on any other part oŁ the egg, are noticeable.

In length the eggs vary from 0-66 to O7S, and in breadth from
0-5 to 0-55. The average of 28 eggs is 0-72 by 0-53.

139. PyctorMs sinensis (Grin.). The Yellow-eyed Babbler.

Pyctorhis sinensis (Gm.), Jerd. E. Ind. ii, p. 15 ; Hume, Rouyh
Draft N. $ E. no. 385.

The Yellow-eyed Babbler breeds throughout the plains of India, as
also in the Nilghiris, to an elevation of 5000 feet, and in the Hima-
layas to perhaps 4000 feet. It lays in the latter part of June, in
July, August, and September. Gardens are the favourite localities
and in these the little bird makes its compact and solid nest, some-
times in a fork of the fine twigs of a lime-bush, sometimes in a inangoe-,
orange-, or apple-tree, occasionally suspended between three stout
grass-stems, or even attached to a single stem of the huge grass
from which the native pens are made. I have taken a nest, hung
between three reeds, exactly resembling in shape and position the
Beed-Warbler's nest (Scdicaria arundinaceci), figured in Mr. Tar-
rell's vignette at page 313, vol. i. 3rd edition.

The nest is typically cone-shaped (the apex downwards), from 5
to 6 inches in depth, and 3 or 4 in diameter at the base; but it
varies of course according to situation, the cone being often broadly
truncated. .In the base of the cone (which is uppermost) is the egg-
cavity, measuring from 2 to 3 inches in diameter, and from 2 to 2*5
inches in depth. The nest is very compactly and solidly woven, of
rather broad blades of grass, and long strips of fine iibrous bark,,
exteriorly more or less coated with cobwebs and gossamer-threads.
Interiorly, fine grass-stems and roots are neatly and closely inter-
woven. I once found some horse-hair along with the grass-roots,
but this is unusual.