formed entirely of fine black fern-roots
well woven together. Stout weeds appear favourite sites, but I have
found old nests in dwarf palm-trees at the junction of the frond with
the trunk, and in one instance I found an old nest on the ground,
undoubtedly belonging to this bird. Three eggs measured .84 by .66,
.82 by .67, and .87 by .65. They are very glossy and smooth. The
ground-colour is a pale pinkish white. At the cap there are a few
spots and short lines of inky-purple sunk into the shell, and over the
whole egg, very sparingly distributed, there are spots and irregular
fine scrawls of reddish brown. A few of the marks are neither spots
nor scrawls, but something like knots. The cap is suffused with a
darker tinge of pink than are the other parts of the shell.

"A third nest, found on the 10th June, contained three eggs, and
differed from those above described in being very massive. It was
composed of dead leaves and fern-roots, and measured about 5 inches in
exterior diameter, with the egg-cup about 21/2 inches broad and 2 inches
deep. It was placed on some entangled small plants about 2 feet from
the ground. Of these eggs I noted that before being blown the shell
was of a ruddy salmon colour. The marks are much as in the others
described above."

The eggs are moderately broad ovals, somewhat pointed at times towards
the small end, and occasionally slightly pyriform. The shell is fine
and glossy; the ground-colour is pinky white, with a redder shade
about the large end. A few streaks, spots, and hieroglyphics of a deep
brownish red, each more or less surrounded by a reddish nimbus, are
scattered very thinly about the surface of the egg, while, besides
these, a few small greyish-purple subsurface-looking spots may be
observed about the larger end. The average size of the seven eggs I
possess is 0.82 by 0.64.

163. Alcippe nepalensis (Hodgs.). _The Nepal Babbler_.

Alcippe nipalensis (_Hodgs.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 18; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 388.

The Nepal Babbler, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, breeds from March
to May, building a deep, massive, cup-shaped nest, firmly fastened
between two or three upright shoots, and laying three or four eggs,
which are figured as measuring 0.7 by 0.55. He has the following
note:--

"_Valley, April 1st_.--A pair and nest. Nest is round, 4 inches deep
on the outside and 2 inches within, and the same wide, being of the
usual soup-basin shape and open at the