KHOPOCICHI/A, 109

from 0-68 to 0*78 and in breadth from 0-53 to 0-59, but the average
of nine eggs is 0-75 by 0-58.

166. EhopocicMa atriceps (Jerd.) The Blade-headed Babbler.

Alcippe atriceps (Jerd.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii; p. 19; Hume, Rough
Draft N. $ E. no. 390.

"Writing from Coonoor in the Mlghiris, Mr. Wait tells me
that the Black-headed Babbler breeds in his neighbourhood in
June and July:—" It builds in weeds and grass beside the banks
of old roads, at elevations of from 5000 to 5500 feet. The nest is
placed at a height of from a foot to 2 feet from the ground, is
domed and loosely built, composed almost entirely of dry blades of
the lemon-grass, and lined with the same or a few softer grass-
blades. In shape it is more or less ovate, the longer axis vertical,
and the external diameters 4 and 8 inches. They lay two or
three rather broad oval eggs, which have a white ground, speckled
and spotted, chiefly at the large end, with reddish brown."

Miss Cockburn sends me a nest of this species which she found
on the 17th June amongst reeds on the edge of a stream, about 2
or 3 feet above the water's edge. It appears to have been a glo-
bular mass very loosely put together, of broad reed-leaves, between
3 or 4 inches in diameter, and with a central uulinecl cavity,

Mr. Iver Maepherson, writing from Mysore, says :—" I have
only met with this bird in heavy bamboo-forest, and have only
found two nests, viz., on the 25th May and 2nd July, 1879. Both
nests were fixed low down (2 to 3 feefc) in bamboo-clumps, and
each contained two eggs, which, for the size of the bird, I con-
sidered very large. Nest globular, and very loosely constructed of
bamboo-leaves and blades of grass."

An egg sent me from Coonoor by Mr. Wait is a moderately
broad, very regular oval, only slightly compressed towards the
smaller end. The shell is very fine and satiny, but has only a slight
gloss. The ground-colour is white or slightly greyish white, and
towards the large end it is profusely speckled with minute dots of
brownish and purplish red, a few specks of the same colour being
scattered about the rest of the surface of the eggs.

Another egg sent me from Kotagherry by Miss Cockburn exactly
corresponds with the above description.

Both are precisely the same in size, and measure 0*75 by 0*55.
Other eggs measure from 0-75 to 0*79 in length by 0'53 to 0*58 in
breadth*.

* Mr. T. Fulton Bourdillon (S. F. ix, p. 300) gives an interesting account of
the nest and eggs of a species of Rhopocichla, which he failed to identify satisfac-
torily. It may have been E. atriceps or E. bourdilloni. Most probably, judging
from the locality, it was the latter. As, however, there is a doubt about it, I do
not insert the note.—ED.