SCIIOENICOLA.. "251

390. Schcenicola platyura (Jercl.). The Broad-tailed Grass-
Warbler.

Sclioenicola platyura (Jerd.), Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 73.

Colonel E. A. Butler discovered the nest of the Broad-tailed
Grass-War bier at Belgaum. He writes :—

" On the 1st September, 1880, I shot a pair of these birds as
they rose out of some long grass by the side of a rice-field; and,
thinking there might be a nest, I commenced a diligent search,
which resulted in my finding one. It consisted of a good-sized
ball of coarse blades of dry grass, with an entrance on one side,
and was built in long grass about a foot from the ground. Though
it was apparently finished, there were unfortunately no eggs, but
dissection of the hen proved that she would have laid in a day or
two. On the 10th instant I found another nest exactly similar,
built in a tussock of coarse grass, near the same place; but this
was subsequently deserted without the bird laying. On the
19th September I went in the early morning to the same patch
of grass and watched another pair, soon seeing the hen disappear
amongst some thick tussocks. On my approaching the spot she
flew off the nest, which contained four eggs much incubated. The
nest was precisely similar to the others, but with the entrance-hole
perhaps rather nearer the top, though still on one side. The situa-
tion in the grass was the same—in fact it was very similar in every
respect to the nest of Drymceca insiynis. The eggs are very like
those of Molpastes JicemorrJious, but smaller, having a purplish-white
ground, sprinkled all over with numerous small specks and spots of
purple and purplish brown, with a cap of the same at the large end,
underlaid with inky lilac.

"These birds closely resemble Chcetornis striatus in their actions
and habits, and in the breeding-season rise constantly into the air,
chirruping like that species, and descending afterwards in the same
way on to some low bush or tussock of grass, sometimes even on to
the telegraph-wires. They are fearful little skulks, however, if
you attempt to pursue them, and the moment you approach disap-
pear into the grass like a shot, from whence it is almost impossible
to flush them again unless you all but tread on them. It is
perfectly marvellous the way they will hide themselves in a patch
of grass when they have once taken refuge in it; and although
you may know within a yard or two of where the bird is, you may
search for half an hour without finding it. If you shoot at them
and miss, they drop to the shot into the grass as if killed, and
nothing will dissuade you from the belief that they are so until,
after a long search, the little beast gets up exactly where you have
been hunting all along, from almost under your feet, and darts oft*
to disappear, after another short flight of fifteen or twenty yards,
in another patch of grass, from whence you may again try in vain,
to dislodge it."

The eggs of this species, though much smaller, are precisely of
the same type as those of Meyalurus palustris and Chcetornis