ACBOCEPHALTJS. 225

above the water. It lays four- or five eggs, rather blunt ovals,
equally blunt at both ends, blotched with olive arid dusky grey on
a dirty-white ground."

Mr. S. B. Doig, who found this bird breeding in the Eastern
Narra in Sincl, writes :—" On the 4th August, while my man was
poling along in a canoe in a large swamp on the lookout for eggs,
he passed a small bunch of reeds and in them spotted a nest with
a bird on it. The nest contained three beautiful fresh eggs. A
few days later I joined him, and on asking about these eggs he
described the bird and said he had found several other nests of the
same species, but all of them contained young ones nearly Hedged.
I made him show me some of these nests, all of which were
situated in clumps of reed, in the middle of the swamp, and in
these same reeds 1 found and shot the young ones which, though
fledged, were not able to fly. These I sent with one of the eggs
to Mr. Hume, who has identified them as belonging to this species.
The uests were composed of frayed pieces of reed-grass and fine
sedge, the latter being principally towards the inside, thus forming
a kind of lining. The nests were loosely put together, were about
3 inches inner diameter, 1J inch deep, the outer diameter being
6 inches. They were situated about a foot over water-line in the
tops of reeds growing in the water."

Colonel Legge says:—" This species breeds in Ceylon during
June and July. Its nest was procured by me in the former month
at the Tamara-Kulam, and 'was a very interesting structure, built
into the fork of one of the tall seed-stalks of the rush growing
there; the walls rested exteriorly against three of the branches of
the fork, but were worked round some of the stems of the flower
itself which sprung from the base of the fork. It was composed
of various fine grasses, with a few rush-blades among them, and
was lined with the fine stalks of the flower divested, by the bird I
conclude, of the seed-matter growing on them. In form it was a
tolerably deep cup, well shaped, measuring 2| inches in internal
diameter by 2 in depth. The single egg which it contained at the
time of my finding it was a broad oval in shape, pale green, boldly
blooched with blackish over spots of olive and olivaceous brown,
mingled with linear markings of the same, under which there were
small clouds and blotches of bluish grey. The black markings
were longitudinal and thickest at the obtuse end. It measured
0-89 by 0-67 inch/7

The eggs of this species, as might have been expected, greatly
resemble those of A. arundinaceus. In shape they are moderately
elongated ovals, in some cases almost absolutely perfect, but gener-
ally slightly compressed towards one end. The shell, though fine,
is entirely devoid of gloss.

The ground-colour varies much, but the two commonest types
are pale green or greenish white and a pale somewhat creamy stone-
colour. Occasionally the ground-colour has a bluish tinge.

The markings vary even more than the ground-colour. In one
type the ground is everywhere minutely, but not densely, stippled

YOL. I. 15