faintly shows through, here and
there, as a sort of pale mottling; in the other type the ground-colour
is pinkish white, somewhat _sparingly_, but boldly, blotched with
irregular patches and eccentric hieroglyphic-like streaks, often
Bunting-like in their character, of bright blood- or brick-dust red.
The eggs of this type, besides these primary markings, generally
exhibit towards the large end a number of pale inky-purple blotches or
clouds. There is a third type somewhat intermediate between these, in
which the ground-colour, instead of being finely freckled all over
as in the former, or sparingly blotched as in the latter, is very
coarsely mottled and clouded, as if clumsily daubed over by a child,
with a red intermediate in intensity between that usually observable
in the two first-described types. Combinations of these different
types of course occur, but fully two thirds can be separated
distinctly under the first and second varieties. Though much smaller,
many of the eggs recall those of the English Robin. The eggs have
often a fine gloss. I have one or two specimens so uniformly coloured
that, though perhaps slightly shorter and broader in form, they might
almost pass for the eggs of Cetti's Warbler.

In length they vary from 0.65 to 0.8, and in breadth from 0.53 to
0.68; but the average of seventy-seven eggs measured is 0.73 by 0.59.

140. Pyctorhis nasalis, Legge. _The Ceylon Yellow-eyed Babbler_.

Pyctorhis nasalis, _Legge, Hume, Cat._ no. 385 bis.

Colonel Legge writes in his 'Birds of Ceylon':--"In the Western
Province this Babbler commences to breed in February; but in May I
found several nests in the Uva district near Fort Macdonald; and
that month would thus seem to be the nesting-season in the Central
Province. The nest is placed in the fork of a shrub, or in a huge tuft
of maana-grass, without any attempt at concealment, about 3 or 4 feet
from the ground. It is a neatly-made compact cup, well finished off
about the top and exterior, and constructed of dry grass, adorned with
cobwebs or lichens, and lined with fine grass or roots. The exterior
is about 21/2 inches in diameter by about 2 in depth. The eggs are
usually three in number, fleshy white, boldly spotted, chiefly about
the larger end, with brownish sienna; in some these markings are
inclined to become confluent, and are at times overlaid with dark
spots oil brick-red. They are rather broad ovals, measuring, on
the average, from 0.76 to 0.7