ly and loosely put
together, in general at no great height from the ground. It lays three
or four blue eggs."

Colonel Butler writes:--"A nest containing four fresh eggs apparently
of this species (it being the common Babbler in this district) was
brought to me by some wood-cutters on the 18th March, 1880. It was
taken in the jungles about six miles from Belgaum, and measured about
23/4 inches in diameter and about 2 inches deep interiorly, and was of
the usual Babbler type, consisting of dry stems loosely but neatly
constructed. The eggs were highly glossed and deep bluish green, some
people might say greenish blue."

Mr. Iver Macpherson writes of this bird from Mysore:--"I have found
their nests in every month between March and August, and they possibly
breed both earlier and later. The nests are generally fixed in thorny
bushes and at no great height off the ground. Four is the usual number
of eggs laid, but very often five are found, and I feel much inclined
to think that the fifth egg is often that of _H. varius_."

The eggs of this species that I possess were taken by Mr. Davison in
May, in the immediate neighbourhood of Madras. They are all pretty
regular, somewhat cylindrical ovals, excessively glossy, spotless, and
of a deep greenish blue, much deeper than the eggs of any of the other
_Crateropi_ are as a rule; in fact, they approach in colouring to the
eggs of _Garrulax albigularis_.

They vary in length from 0.9 to 1.0, and in breadth from 0.62 to
0.74; but I have seen too few eggs to be able to strike any reliable
average.

112. Crateropus striatus (Sw.). _The Southern-Indian Babbler_.

Malacocercus striatus (_Sw._), _Hume, Cat._ no. 432 bis.

Colonel Legge, writing of this bird's nidification in Ceylon,
says:--"The breeding-season of the 'Seven Brothers' lasts from
(page 80 in the book.) March until July. The nest is placed in a
cinnamon-bush, shrub or bramble, at about four feet from the ground,
and is a compact cup-shaped structure, usually fixed in a fork and
made of stout grasses and plant-stalks and lined with fine grass,
which, in some instances I have observed, was plucked green. The
interior measures 21/2 inches in depth by about 3 in width. The eggs
are two or three in number, small for the size of the bird, glossy in
texture, and of a uniform opaque greenish blue. They measure from 0.91
to 1.0 in length, by 0.7 to 0.74 in breadth."

113. Crateropus somervillii (Sykes). _The Rufous-ta