very pale green or pink. Typically they are very
thickly and very finely speckled all over with somewhat dingy red or
purplish red. In three out of four eggs the markings are densest and
largest towards the large end; and, to judge from the large series
before me, at least one in four exhibits a more or less well-defined
mottled zone or cap at this end, formed by the partial confluence of
multitudinous specks.

In some specimens the markings are pale inky purple, and in some
slightly purplish brown, but these are abnormal varieties. In one or
two eggs fairly-sized spots and blotches are intermingled with the
minute specklings, but this also is rare. Of course in different
specimens the density of the speckling varies greatly: in some eggs
not a fifth of the surface is covered with the markings, while in some
it appears as if there were more of these than of the ground-colour.

In length the eggs vary from 0.55 to 0.66, and in breadth from 0.43 to
0.52; but the average of eighty-seven eggs is 0.62 by 0.48.

385. Franklinia cinereicapilla (Hodgs.). _Hodgson's Wren-Warbler_.

Prinia cinereocapilla, _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 172; _Hume,
Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 537.

Captain Hutton says[A]:--"In this species the structure of the nest
is somewhat coarser than in _P. stewarti_, and it is more loosely put
together, but like that species it is also a true Tailor-bird.

[Footnote A: I reproduce this note as it appeared in the 'Rough
Draft,' but I have no faith in the identification of this rare bird by
Capt Hutton. Mr. Hume is apparently of the same opinion, as he does
not quote the Dhoon as one of the localities in which, this species
occurs (S.F. ix, p. 286). It may be well, however, to point out that
Mr. Brooks procured this species at Dhunda, in the Bhagirati valley,
so that it is not unlikely to occur in the Dhoon.--ED.]

"In the specimen before me two large leaves are stitched together at
the edges, and between these rests the cup-shaped nest composed of
grass-stalks and fine roots, as in _P. stewarti_, and without any
lining, while, being more completely surrounded by or enfolded in the
leaves, the cottony seed-down which binds together the fibres in the
others is here dispensed with.

"The eggs were three in number, of a pale bluish hue, irrorated with
specks of rufous-brown, and chiefly so at the larger end, where they
form an ill-defined ring.

"The eggs measured 0.62 by 0.44.

"The nest was found ha