x eggs is 0.61 by 0.45.

384. Franklinia buchanani (Blyth). _The Rufous-fronted
Wren-Warbler_.

Franklinia buchanani (_Blyth), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 186; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 551.

The Rufous-fronted Wren-Warbler breeds throughout Central India,
the Central Provinces, the North-western Provinces, the Punjab, and
Rajpootana. It affects chiefly the drier and warmer tracts, and,
though said to have been obtained in the Nepal Terai, has never been
met with by _me_ either there or in any very moist, swampy locality.
The breeding-season extends from the end of May until the beginning of
September.

The nests, according to my experience, are always placed at heights of
from a foot to 4 feet from the ground, in low scrub-jungle or bushes.
They vary greatly in size and shape, according to position. Some are
oblate spheroids with the aperture near the top, some are purse-like
and suspended, and some are regular cups. One of the former
description measured externally 5 inches in diameter one way by 31/4
inches the other. One of the suspended nests was 7 inches long by 3
wide, and one of the cup-shaped nests was nearly 4 inches in diameter
and stood, perhaps, at most 21/2 inches high. The egg-cavity in the
different nests varies from 13/4 to 21/4 inches in diameter, and from less
than 2 to fully 3 inches in depth. Externally the nest is very loosely
and, generally, raggedly constructed of very fine grass-stems and
tow-like vegetable fibre used in different proportions in different
nests; those in which grass is chiefly used being most ragged and
straggling, and those in which most vegetable fibre has been made use
of being neatest and most compact. In all the nests that I have seen
the egg-cavity has been lined with something very soft. In many of the
nests the lining is composed of small felt-like pieces of some dull
salmon-coloured fungus, with which the whole interior is closely
plastered; in others there is a dense lining of soft silky vegetable
down; and in others the down and fungus are mingled. They lay from
four to five eggs, never more than this latter number according to my
experience.

"At the end of June 1867," writes Mr. Brooks, "I took two nests of
this bird at Chunar in low ber bushes about 2 feet from the ground.
They were little spheres of fine grass with a hole at the side. One
contained four eggs; these were of a greyish-white ground or nearly
pure white, finely speckled over with reddish brow