OISTICOLA. 239

Colonel E. A. Butler writing from Deesa says :—" The Eufous
Fantail-Warbler breeds in the plains during the monsoon, making
a long bottle-shaped nest of silky-white vegetable down, with an
entrance at the top, in a tuft of coarse grass a few inches from the
ground. I have taken nests on the following dates:—

£ Jnly 29, 1875. A nest containing 4 fresh eggs.

'c Aug. 1, 1876. „ 5 fresh eggs.

' Aug. 5, 1876.

'Aug. 5, 1876.

'Aug. 5, 1876.

'Aug. 5, 1876.

'Aug. 7, 1876.

Aug. 8, 1876.

4 fresh eggs.

3 fresh eggs.

4 fresh eggs.

5 fresh eggs.
5 fresh eggs.
4 fresh eggs."

And he adds the following note :—" Belgaum, 22nd July, 1879.
Four fresh eggs. Same locality, numerous other nests in August
and September."

Major C. T. Bingham notes:—" 1 have not yet observed this
bird at Delhi. At Allahabad I procured one nest in. the beginning
of March, shooting the birds. The nest was made of very fine dry
grass, and contained four small white eggs, speckled thickly with'
minute points of brick-red. The average of the four eggs is 0-60
by 0-41 inch."

Mr. Cripps informs us that in Eastern Bengal this bird is very
common and a permanent resident. Eggs are found from the
beginning of May to the end of June, in grass-jungle almost on
the ground. The nest is a deep cup, externally of fine grasses,
internally of the downy tops of the sun-grass.

In the Deccan, Messrs. Davidson and Wenden state that it is
<c common in all grass-lands. It breeds in the rainy season."

Mr. Gates, writing on the breeding of this bird in Pegu, says :—
" The majority of birds begin laying at the commencement of
June, and probably nests may be found throughout the rains. I
procured a nest on the 2nd of November, a very late date I imagine.
It contained four eggs."

I have taken the eggs of this bird myself on many occasions. I
have had them sent me with the nest and bird by Mr. Brooks from
Etawah, and Mr. F. E. Blewitt from Jhansi. From first to last I
have seen fully fifty authentic eggs of this species. All were of
one and the same type, and that type widely different from, any
one of those that Dr. Bree, following European ornithologists,
figures. Dr. Breeds three figures all represent a perfectly spotless
egg—one pink, the other bluish white, and the third a pretty dark
bluish green. Our eggs, on the contrary, are spotted; the ground
is white with, when fresh and unblown, a delicate pink hue, due
not to the shell itself, but to its contents, which partially show
through it. Occasionally the white ground has a faint greenish
tinge.

Every egg is spotted, and most densely so towards the large end,
with, as a rule, excessively minute red, reddish-purple, and pale
purple specks, thus resembling, though smaller, more glossy, and