d not shoot it I am quite sure it
was _Timelia pileata_. The jungle was particularly thick just about
where I stood, indeed impenetrable, and I could not follow the
bird, but I soon heard the male bird talking to his mate in that
extraordinary way which these birds have, and which once heard cannot
be mistaken.

"The nest was placed on the spikes growing from the joints of a
species of grass very thick and stiff, and forming a secure foundation
for the nest. This latter is 6 inches high and 4 inches broad.
Egg-cavity 2 inches, entrance-hole 11/2 by 2. The nest itself is very
loosely put together with the dead leaves of the tiger-grass twisted
round and round, and lined roughly with coarse grass. The nest was
quite open to view and about three feet from the ground. I suppose the
birds never expected that such a wild swampy spot as they had selected
would be invaded by any oologist."

Mr. J.R. Cripps writing from Eastern Bengal says:--"Pretty common.
Permanent resident. Oftener found in the patches of cane brushwood
jungle found in and around villages than in unfrequented jungle and
thickets as Dr. Jerdon says. I have, however, once seen it in a field
of jute, which was alongside a village. Its well-known note can be
heard a long way off. I have several times found nests in course of
construction, but only once secured a clutch of eggs. When the nests
are being built, if the bush is at all disturbed the nest is deserted.
The earliest date on which I found a nest was the 1st April, 1878; it
was half finished, and as I pulled the cane-leaves asunder to see if
there were eggs, the birds deserted it. After this I found four nests
in cane-clumps on the sides of roads, but they were empty, and as the
birds abandoned them in due course I despaired of getting any eggs;
but on the 15th June, while going along a road, the edges of which
were bounded by the small embankments natives throw up round their
holdings, and which are always overgrown with 'sone' grass, I saw one
of these birds with a straw in its bill disappear at the root of a
small date-tree. The nest could be discerned from the road. On the
20th June I returned and found two fresh eggs; the nest was placed at
the junction of the frond and the stem of the date-tree about five
inches from the ground, and was an oval deep cup and measured
externally 5 inches deep by 33/4 broad. Egg-cavity 2 broad and 13/4 deep,
composed exclusively of 'sone' grass with no lining."

The