slightly browner, in others purple. The
markings have a tendency to form a cap or zone about the large end,
and here, where the markings are densest, some little lilac or
purplish-grey spots and clouds are intermingled.

An egg measures 0.61 by 0.43.

441. Abrornis schisticeps (Hodgs.). _The Black-faced
Flycatcher-Warbler_.

Abrornis schisticeps, _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 201; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 571.

Captain Hutton tells us that the Black-faced Flycatcher-Warbler is "a
common species in the neighbourhood of Mussoorie, at 5000 feet, and
commences building in March. A pair of these birds selected a thick
China rose-bush trained against the side of the house, and had
completed the nest and laid one egg when a rat destroyed it. I
subsequently took two other nests in May, both placed on the ground
in holes in the side of a bank by the roadside. In form the nest is
a ball, with a round lateral entrance, and is composed externally
of dried grasses and green moss, lined with bits of wool, cotton,
feathers, thread, and hair. The eggs are three in number."

Two eggs of this species, sent to me by Captain Hutton, are very
perfect ovals, pure white[A], and rather glossy.

[Footnote A: There can be little doubt that Capt. Hutton's eggs were
wrongly identified.--ED.]

They both measure 0.62 by 0.48.

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"The only nest I ever found of this
Warbler was in a natural hole in a small tree in an open part of a
large forest, at 5500 feet above the sea. In a cleft, five feet from
ground, where a limb had been lopped off, there was a small hole,
barely large enough, at entrance to admit the bird, but gradually
widening out for the seven or eight inches of its depth. In the bottom
of this cavity was a loose lining of dry bamboo-leaves, on which lay
five eggs. They do not agree with those taken by Captain Hutton, which
were 'pure white,' but I am absolutely certain of the authenticity of
the eggs taken by me. They were well-set, so five is probably the full
complement. They were taken on the 26th May."

The eggs sent by Mr. Gammie, for the authenticity of which he vouches,
are moderately broad ovals, somewhat compressed and pyriform towards
the small end. They have but little gloss, and are of the same type as
_A. superciliaris_ and _A. albigularis_. The ground is a dull pinkish
white, and they are profusely mottled and streaked with red, which in
some eggs is brownish, in some purp