horizontally, forming a smooth bottom or interior. In external
form it is a shapeless ball about 8 or 10 inches in diameter, and has
an unfinished opening at the side. The birds build with astonishing
quickness, picking up the leaves one after another from the ground
just beneath the nest. When fresh the eggs are fleshy white, becoming
pure white when emptied; they are large for the size of the bird,
rather stumpy ovals, of a smooth texture, and spotted openly and
sparingly with brownish red, over bluish-grey specks; in one specimen
the darker markings are redder than in the other, and ran mostly in
the direction of the axis. Dimensions: 0.74 by 0.56 and 0.74 by 0.55."

169. Stachyrhis nigriceps, Hodgs. _The Black-throated Babbler_.

Stachyris nigriceps, _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p, 21; _Hume. Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 391.

I have never taken a nest of this species, the Black-throated Babbler,
but Mr. Gammie, a careful observer, in whose neighbourhood (Rungbee,
near Darjeeling) this bird is very abundant, has taken many nests, two
of which he has sent me, with many eggs.

One nest, found at Rishap, on the 14th May, at an elevation of about
4000 feet, contained four nearly fresh eggs. It was a very loose
structure, a shallow cup of about 31/2 inches in diameter, composed of
fine grass-stems without any lining, and coated externally with broad
coarse grass-blades.

Another nest taken low down in the valley, at about an elevation of
2000 feet, on the 17th June, contained three fresh eggs. It was placed
in a bank at the foot of a shrub. Like the previous one, it was a
loose but rather deeper cup, interiorly composed of moderately fine
grass, exteriorly of dead leaves. The egg-cavity measured about 2
inches in diameter, and 11/2 inch in depth. _In situ_, both probably
were more or less domed, the cups more or less overhung by a hood or
canopy.

Mr. Gammie remarks:--"I have seen numerous nests of this species in
former years, and have found two this season, but have never seen
eggs with 'faint darker spots' as mentioned by Jerdon. Hodgson's
description is quite correct. The eggs are a 'pale fawn-colour'
_before they are blown_, the shells being so translucent that the yolk
shows through partially. The shell is pure white in itself. The cavity
of the cup-shaped part of one nest beside me is 2 inches deep by 2
inches wide; outer dimensions 53/4 inches deep (from top of hood) by 4
inches wide across the face of entran