lay here. The nest is very often placed on the ground under the
shelter of some grass-tuft."

Mr. Cockburn writes to me:--"I found a nest of this bird on the north
bank of the Bramaputra, near Sadija. One of the birds darted off the
nest a foot or two from me in an excited way, which led me to search.
The nest was almost a perfect oval, with a slice taken off at the top
on one side, built in a clump of grass, and only 9 or 10 inches from
the ground. It was made of sarpat-grass, and lined internally with
finer grasses. The grass had a bleached and washed-out appearance,
while the clump was quite green. This was on the 29th May. I noticed
at the same time that the nest was not interwoven with the living
grass. I removed it easily with the hand."

Mr. Cripps says:--"They breed in April and May in the Dibrugarh
district, placing their deep cup-shaped nests in tussocks of grass
wherever it is swampy, in some instances the bottoms of the nests
being wet. Four seems to be the greatest number of eggs in a nest."

The eggs are much the same shape and size as those of _Acrocephalus
stentoreus_. They have a dead-white ground, thickly speckled and
spotted with blackish and purplish brown, and have but a slight gloss;
the speckling, everywhere thick, is generally densest at the large
end, and there chiefly do spots, as big as an ordinary pin's head,
occur. At the large end, besides these specklings, there is a cloudy,
dull, irregular cap, or else isolated patches, of very pale inky
purple, which more or less obscure the ground-colour. In the peculiar
speckly character of the markings these eggs recall doubtless some
specimens of the eggs of the different Bulbuls, but their natural
affinities seem to be with those of the _Acrocephalinae_.

The eggs vary from 0.8 to 0.97 in length, and from 0.61 to 0.69 in
breadth; but the average of twelve eggs is 0.85 by 0.64.

390. Schoenicola platyura (Jerd.). _The Broad-tailed Grass-Warbler_.

Schoenicola platyura (_Jerd.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 73.

Colonel E.A. Butler discovered the nest of the Broad-tailed
Grass-Warbler at Belgaum. He writes:--

"On the 1st September, 1880, I shot a pair of these birds as they rose
out of some long grass by the side of a rice-field; and, thinking
there might be a nest, I commenced a diligent search, which resulted
in my finding one. It consisted of a good-sized ball of coarse blades
of dry grass, with an entrance on one side, and was built in long
g