this species, like _S. nigriceps_,
only domes its nest in certain situations.

The eggs obtained by Mr. Gammie and Mr. Mandelli are very regular,
slightly elongated ovals. The shell is very fine and compact, but has
only a faint gloss. The ground is white and round the larger end is a
zone or imperfect cap of specks and spots of brownish red, generally
intermingled with tiny spots, usually very faint, of pale purple. A
few specks and spots brown, yellowish, or reddish brown, and sometimes
also pale purple, are scattered about the rest of the egg.

In length the eggs vary from 0.64 to 0.72, and in breadth from 0.50 to
0.53, but the average of eight eggs was 0.68 by 0.52 nearly.

174. Stachyrhidopsis pyrrhops, Hodgs. _The Red-billed Babbler_.

Stachyris pyrrhops, _Hodgs. Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 21; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 392.

Accounts differ somewhat as to the eggs of the Red-billed Babbler.

From Murree, Colonel C.H.T. Marshall writes:--"Nest found in low
ground, about 100 yards from the River Jheelum, situated in a low
bush, externally composed of broad dry reed-leaves, and interiorly of
fine grass, cup-shaped. Eggs, four in number, long oval, white, with a
few reddish specks at the larger end. Length .7, breadth .5. Lays in
the latter end of June, 4000 feet up."

The nest, which he kindly sent me, is a deep cup, coarsely made
interiorly of grass-stems, externally of broad blades of grass,
in which a few dead leaves are incorporated; there is no lining.
Exteriorly the nest is about 3.5 inches in diameter, and about 3 in
depth; the egg-cavity is a little more than 2 inches in diameter, and
fully 1.75 in depth.

Mr. Hodgson "found the nest" of this species in Nepal, "at an
elevation of about 6000 feet, in shrubby upland." It was "placed in a
small shrub about 2 feet from the ground." It was "a very deep cup,
about 4 inches in length, and 2.5 in diameter externally, placed
obliquely endwise upon cross-stems of the shrub, and opening, as it
were obliquely, upwards at one end," the cavity being about 1.5 in
diameter. The nest was made of "dry leaves and grass pretty compactly
woven." The nest "contained four eggs," which are described as
"whitish, with spare and faint fawn-coloured spots," and are figured
as measuring 0.65 by 0.47.

Captain Hutton says:--"This is a common species both in the Dhoon
and in the hills, and may be found at all seasons, making known its
presence among the brushwood by the utt