at have been sent me from Sikhim, taken in May,
June, and July, were all of the same type--shallow or deeper cups
loosely put together, exteriorly composed of coarse blades of grass,
dead leaves, bamboo-spathes and the like, held together with a little
vegetable fibre or fibrous roots, and interiorly of fine grass
generally more or less mingled with blackish roots, which in some
nests greatly predominate over the grass.

The eggs are broad ovals, somewhat compressed towards one end, in some
cases slightly pyriform. They are pure white, spotless, and fairly
glossy.

They vary from 0.68 to 0.84 in length, and from 0.55 to 0.61 in
breadth, but the average of thirty-four eggs is 0.76 by somewhat over
0.58.

170. Stachyrhis chrysaea, Hodgs. _The Golden-headed Babbler_.

Stachyris chrysaea, _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 22; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 394.

Mr. Blyth remarks:--"The egg, as figured by Mr. Hodgson, is pinkish
white, and the nest domed and placed on the summit of a sedge. _S.
praecognita_ lays a blue egg." (Ibis, 1866, p. 309.)

There is no figure of either the nest or eggs of the Golden-headed
Babbler amongst the drawings of Mr. Hodgson that I possess.

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"I took a nest of this bird out of a
large forest, at 5000 feet elevation, on the 15th May. It is of an
oval shape, neatly made of small bamboo-leaves only, devoid of lining,
and was fixed vertically between a few upright sprays, within two feet
of the ground. It measures externally 5.25 inches in height by 4 in
diameter; internally 1.5 in depth, from lip of egg-cavity, by 1.75 in
diameter. The entrance is also 1.75 across.

"The eggs were four in number; three of them well set and the fourth
quite fresh. The set eggs were altogether pure white, but the fresh
egg, unblown, was of a pinky-white colour with a pure white cap; when
blown it exactly resembled the others."

The eggs sent as pertaining to this species by Mr. Gammie are very
regular ovals, pure white, and somewhat glossy, but they are so small
that I can scarcely credit their really belonging to this species.
Their cubit contents are not half those of the average eggs of _S.
nigriceps_. They measure 0.63 by 0.48.

172. Stachyrhidopsis ruficeps, Bl. _The Red-headed Babbler_.

Stachyris ruficeps, _Bl., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 22; _Hume, Rough Draft
N. & E._ no. 393.

The Red-headed Babbler breeds in Nepal, according to Mr. Hodgson,
from April to June,