246 STLVIIDJE.

the commonest type. Examining a large series, it appears that
variations from this type are more commonly of an elongated than
a spherical form. The eggs are of the same character as those
of Qisticola cursitans (p. 236), but yet differ somewhat. The
eggs are many of them fairly glossy, the shells very delicate
and fragile; the ground-colour white, usually slightly greyish,
but in some specimens faintly tinged with very pale green or
pink. Typically they are very thickly and very finely speckled all
over with somewhat dingy red or purplish red. In three out of
four eggs the markings are densest and largest towards the large
end ; and, to judge from the large series before me, at least one
in four exhibits a more or less well-defined mottled zone or cap
at this end, formed by the partial confluence of multitudinous
specks.

In some specimens the markings are pale inky purple, and in
some slightly purplish brown, but these are abnormal varieties.
In one or tw'o eggs fairly-sized spots and blotches are intermingled
with the minute specklings, but this also is rare. Of course in
different specimens the density of the speckling varies greatly: in
some eggs not a fifth of the surface is covered with the markings,
while in some it appears as if there were more of these than of the
ground-colour.

In length the eggs vary from 0-55 to 0-66, and in breadth from
0-43 to 0-52; but the average of eighty-seven eggs is 0*62 by
0-48.

385. Franklinia cinereicapilla (Hodgs.). Uodyson's Wren-
Warbler.

Prinia cinereocapilla, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Xnd. ii, p. 172: Hume.
Draft N, $ K no. 537.

Captain Button says*:—"In this species the structure of the
nest is somewhat coarser than in P. steivarti, and it is more loosely
put together, but like that species it is also a true Tailor-bird.

"In the specimen before ine two large leaves are stitched
together at the edges, and between these rests the cup-shaped nest
composed of grass-stalks and fine roots, as in P. stewarti, and with-
out any lining, while, being more completely surrounded by or
enfolded in the leaves, the cottony seed-down which binds to-
gether the fibres in the others is here dispensed with.

" The eggs were three in number, of a pale bluish hue, irrorated
with specks of rufous-brown, and chiefly so at the larger end, where
they form an ill-defined ring.

* I reproduce this note as it appeared in the ' Rough Draft/ but I have no
faith in the identification of this rare bird by Capt Hutton. Mr. Hume is
apparently of the same opinion, as he does not quote the Dhoon as one of the
localities in which this species occurs (S. R is, p. 286). It may be well,
however, to point out that Mr. Brooks procured this species at Dhunda,
in the Bhagirati valley, so that it is not unlikely to occur in the Dhoon.— ED.