CYA^ODEEMA.—MIXORNIS. 115

and they are thinly speckled and spotted, the markings being
much more numerous about the large end, where they have a
tendency to form an ill-defined cap or zone with brownish red or
pinky brown.

In length they vary from 0'62 to 0-69, and in breadth from 0'5
to 0-52.

175. Cyanoderma erythropterum (Blyth). The lied-winytd

Babbler.
Cyanoderma erythropteram, JBl.f Hume, Cat. no. 396 "bis.

Mr. "W. Davison found the nest of the Red-winged Babbler at
Bankasoon on the 23rd April, just when he was leaving the place.
Unfortunately the birds had not yet laid. The nest was a ball
composed of dry reed-leaves, about 6 inches in diameter. Extern-
ally, with a circular aperture on one side, very like that of Mixornis
rubricaj}iUtis and of J)utnetia, and again not at all unlike that of
Ocliromela niyrorufa, but placed in a bush about 4 feefc high and
pot on the ground.

176. Mixornis rubricapillus (Tick.), The Yellow-breasted Babbler.

Mixornis rubricapilla (2Tc/c.); Jerd. £. Ind. ii; p. 23; Hume, Rough
Draft N. $ E. no. 39o.

This, though said, to occur also in Central India, is a purely
Indo-Burinese form, found chiefly in the Eastern sub-Himalayan
jungles, Assam, Cachar, Burma, aud Tenasserirn.

It is only from this latter province that I have any information
as to the nidification of the Yellow-breasted Babbler.

Mr. Davison writes to me:—" At a small village, called Shy-
mootee or Tsinmokehtee, about 7 miles from the town of Tavoy,
and very slightly above the sea-level, say 50 feet, I found on the
6th of May, 1874, a nest of this species. The nest was placed in a
dense clump of a very thorny plant (somewhat like a pineapple
bush) about a foot from the ground; it was not particularly well
concealed. The nest wras built of bamboo-leaves, and in general
appearance was not at all unlike that of Ockromela nigrorufa; but
the egg-cavity was very shallow, so that by moving aside an over-
hanging leaf the eggs were distinctly visible. There were three
partially incubated eggs in the nest, a somewhat dull white, spotted
with pinkish dots."

The nest is more or less egg-shaped, the longer axis vertical,
with a circular aperture on one side near the top.

The exterior diameters are 5 and nearly 4 inches. The aperture
about 1-5 in diameter. The cavity is barely 2 inches in diameter,
and only 1*25 deep below the lower edge of the entrance.

Both nest and eggs strongly recall those of Damctia hyperijthra.
The former is composed of the broad, grass-like leaves of the

8*