istinct purplish-grey tinge there, and on the rest of the surface
of the egg the markings are somewhat less thickly set, leaving small
portions of the ground-colour clearly visible. Typically the eggs are
moderately broad ovals, a little compressed towards the small end, and
though none are very glossy, the great majority have a fair amount of
gloss.

463. Prinia flaviventris (Deless.). _The Yellow-bellied
Wren-Warbler_.

Prinia flaviventris (_Deless.) Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 169: _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 532.

Of the Yellow-bellied Wren-Warbler's nidification I know personally
nothing.

Tickell describes the nest as pensile but quite open, being a
hemisphere with one side prolonged, by which it is suspended from a
twig. The eggs, he says, are bright brick-red without a spot.

Mr. H.C. Parker tells me that "this bird breeds in the Salt-Water
Lake, or rather on the swampy banks of the principal canals that
intersect it. The nest is nearly always placed on an ash-leaved
shrub-like plant growing on the banks of the canal and overhanging the
water. One taken on the 26th July, 1873, containing four nearly fresh
eggs, was almost touching the water at high tide. The male has the
habit, when the female is sitting, of hopping to the extreme point
of a tall species of cane-like grass which grows abundantly in these
swamps, whence he gives forth a rather pleasing song, erecting his
tail at the same time, after which he drops into the jungle and is
seen no more. It is almost impossible to make him show himself again."

The nest, which I owe to Mr. Parker, and which was found in the
neighbourhood of the Salt-Water Lake, Calcutta, on the 26th July, is
of an oval shape, very obtuse at both ends, measuring externally 4
inches in length and about 23/4 inches in diameter. The aperture, which
is near the top of the nest, is oval, and measures about 1 inch by 11/2
inch. The nest is fixed against the side of two or three tiny leafy
twigs, to which it is bound lightly in one or two places with grass
and vegetable fibre; and two or three leafy lateral twiglets are
incorporated into the sides of the nest, so that when fresh it must
have been entirely hidden by leaves. The nest was in an upright
position, the major axis perpendicular to the horizon. It is a very
thin, firm, close basket-work of fine grass, flower-stalks, and
vegetable fibre, and has no lining, though the interior surface of
the nest is more closely woven and of s