112 CKATEBOPODIM.

taken in May, June, and July, were all of the same type—shallow
or deeper cups loosely put together, exteriorly composed of coarse
blades of grass, dead leaves, bamboo-spathes and the like, held
together with a little vegetable fibre or fibrous roots, and interiorly
of fine grass generally more or less mingled with blackish roots,
which in some nests greatly predominate over the grass.

The eggs are broad ovals, somewhat compressed towards one
end, in some cases slightly pyriform. They are pure white, spot-
less, and fairly glossy.

They vary from 0-68 to OS4 in length, and from 0-55 to 0-61
in breadth, but the average of thirty-four eggs is 0*76 by somewhat
over 0-5S,

170. StachyrMs chryssea, liodgs. The Golden-headed Babbler.

Sfcachyris cliryssea, Ifodgs,, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 22; Hume, Hough
Draft N. # JB. no. 394.

Mr. Blyth remarks :—" The egg, as figured by Mr. Hodgson, is
pinkish white, and the nest domed and placed on the summit of a
sedge. S. pr&Gognita lays a blue egg.7' (Ibis, 1866, p. 309.)'

There is no figure of either the nest or eggs of the G-oldeu-
headed Babbler amongst the drawings of Mr. Hodgson that I
possess.

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes :—" I took a nest of this bird
out of a large forest, at 5000 feet elevation, on the 15th May. It
is of an oval shape, neatly made of small bamboo-leaves only,
devoid of lining, and was fixed vertically between a few upright
sprays, within two feet of the ground. It measures externally 5-25
inches in height by 4 in diameter; internally 1'5 in depth, from
lip of egg-cavity, by 1*75 in diameter. The entrance is also 1*75
across.

" The eggs were four in number; three of them well set and the
fourth quite fresh. The set eggs were altogether pure white, but
the fresh egg, unblown, was of a pinky-white colour with a pure
white cap; when blown it exactly resembled the others."

The eggs sent as pertaining to this species by Mr. Gammie are
very regular ovals, pure white, and somewhat glossy, but they are
so small that I can scarcely credit their really belonging to this
species. Their cubit contents are not half those of the average
eggs of $. nigriceps. They measure 0P63 by 0*48.

172. StachyrMdopsis ruficeps, BL The Eed-headed Babbler.

Stachyris ruficeps, BL} Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 22; Hume, Rough Draft
N. $ R no. 393.

The Bed-headed Babbler breeds in Nepal, according to Mr. Hodg-
son, from April to June, building a large massive cup-shaped nest
amongst bamboos, as a rule, at heights of from 7 to 10 feet from
the ground. The nest is wedged in between half a dozen or more