rom a nest made of leaves and grass, and placed on a bank
in jungle. Mr. Bligh has found the nest in crevices in trees, between
a projecting piece of bark and the trunk, also in a jungle-path
cutting and on a ledge of rock; it is usually composed of moss,
grass-roots, fibre, and a few dead leaves, and the structure is rather
a slovenly one. The eggs vary from three to five, and are pure white,
the shell thin and transparent, and they measure 0.96 to 0.98 in
length, by 0.7 in breadth."

120. Pomatorhinus horsfieldii, Sykes. _The Southern Scimitar
Babbler_.

Pomatorhinus horsfieldii, _Sykes, Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 31; _Hume,
Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 404.

The Southern Scimitar Babbler breeds throughout the hilly tracts of
Southern India, up to an elevation of fully 7000 feet. They are common
in Ootacamund, and even on Dodabet as high up as it is wooded. They
seem to breed less plentifully about Kotagherry than they do at
Ootacamund itself, Coonoor, Neddivattam, &c.

They lay from February to May, building a largish globular nest of
grass, moss, and roots, placed on or very near to the ground in some
bush or clump of fern or grass. They lay five eggs.

A nest of this species which I owe to Mr. Carter, and which was found
at Coonoor on the 7th April, 1869, is a huge globular mass of moss and
fine moss-roots some 7 inches in diameter, with, on the upper side,
an entrance to a small egg-cavity some 31/2 inches in diameter, and 2
inches in depth. It is a most singular nest, a great compact ball of
soft feathery moss and very fine moss-roots, which latter predominate
in the interior of the cavity, and so form a sort of lining to it. The
great body of the nest is below the cavity, the overhanging dome-like
covering of the cavity being comparatively thin.

Mr. Davison remarks:--"The nest of this bird is very peculiar in
structure, more like the nest of a field-mouse than of a bird, being
in fact merely a ball of grass rather loosely put together, the grass
on the exterior being intermingled with dry leaves and other rubbish.
The nest is generally placed either in a clump of fern, or at the
roots of some grass-grown bush. The eggs are pure white, very
elongated, and with a remarkably thin and delicate shell. The normal
number appears to be five. The breeding-season is, I think, the latter
end of April and May."

Later, he writes:--"It must, I think, breed twice, as I found a nest
on the 10th March with fully-fledged youn