s intermingled with the finer
specklings. The markings are rather most dense at the large end,
where there is a tendency to form a zone, and here a number of pale
purplish-grey streaks and specks are also intermingled.

Major C.T. Bingham says:--"Early on the morning of the 7th April,
moving camp from the sources of the Thoungyeen, on the side of a hill
at the foot of a bamboo-bush not two feet from the road, I flushed
and shot a female of the above species off her nest; a little
loosely-put-together round ball of dry bamboo-leaves, unlined, though
domed over, with the entrance at the side, and containing two fresh
eggs, white, thickly speckled with brick-red and obscure purple. On
the 12th of the same month, I found a second nest behind the zayat or
rest-house at Meeawuddy. This was similar to the nest above described,
and contained three similar eggs."

The eggs measure from .78 to .88 in length, and from .58 to .65 in
breadth; but the average of twelve eggs is .82 by .62.

147. Pellorneum fuscicapillum (Bl.). _The Brown-capped Babbler_.

Pellorneum fuscocapillum (_Bl), Hume, Cat._ no. 399 quint.

Captain Legge writes, in his 'Birds of Ceylon':--"The nest of this
species is exceedingly difficult to find, and scarcely anything is
known of its nidification. Mr. Blyth succeeded in finding it in
Haputale at an elevation of 5500 feet. It was placed in a bramble
about 3 feet from the ground, and was cup-shaped, loosely constructed
of moss and leaves; it contained three young."

149. Drymocataphus nigricapitatus (Eyton). _The Black-capped
Babbler_.

Drymocataphus nigricapitatus (_Eyton), Hume, Cat._ no. 396 sex.

Mr. W. Davison writes:--"I got one nest of this bird at Klang. I was
passing through some very dense jungle, where the ground was very
marshy, when one of these birds rose from the ground about a couple of
feet in front of me, and alighted on an old stump some few feet away.
On examining the place from which the bird rose, I found the nest
placed at the base of a small clump of ferns, and concealed by a
number of overhanging withered fronds of the fern. The base of the
nest, which rested on the ground, was composed of a mass of dried
twigs, leaves, &c.; then came the real body of the nest, composed of
coarse fern-roots, the egg-cavity being lined with finer roots and
a number of hair-like fibres. It looked compactly and strongly put
together, but on trying to remove it, it all came to pieces. When the