I do not entertain the slightest doubt of these nests and eggs.
Mr. Mandelli has sent me many more eggs of this species, mostly deep chocolate-purple, but here and there an egg somewhat paler, what might be called a pinkish chocolate. They vary from 0·61 to 0·70 in length, and from 0·48 to 0·53 in breadth; but the average of fifteen eggs is 0·67 by 0·51 nearly.
450. Horornis pallidus(Brooks). The Pale Bush-Warbler.
Horeites pallidus, Brooks, Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 527 bis.
The Pale Bush-Warbler breeds in Cashmere, according to Mr. Brooks, during May. I know nothing either of the bird or its nidification myself. I have never even closely examined a specimen, and merely accept the species on Mr. Brooks's authority.
He tells me that he found a nest on the 25th May at Kangan in
Cashmere.
Mr. Brooks writes:—"The nest of Horornis pallidus, which I found near Kangan in Cashmere, up the Sind Valley, was placed in tangled brushwood, and about five feet above the ground. It was on a slightly sloping bank, and close to the edge of a patch of jungle, not far from the right bank of the river.
"It was composed of coarse dry grass externally, with fine roots and fibres towards the inside of the nest, and was profusely lined with feathers. It was large for the bird, being 7 or 8 inches in external diameter, of a globular form, with the entrance at the side. I don't remember the size of the cavity of the nest, but its walls were very thick.
"In external appearance it was rough and clumsy, and looked more like a Sparrow's nest than that of a small Sylvine bird. The entrance was about 1¾ inch in diameter, and was with the interior of the nest neat and strong. Horornis pallidus occurs at from 5600 feet elevation up to 7000 and even 8000 feet. It was abundant at Suki up the Bhagirutti Valley, and I heard of one even at Grangootree."
The shape of the egg is peculiar, being rather flattened in outline at the sides and then suddenly rounded at the smaller end. There is a considerable amount of gloss on the surface, which is of a dull purple-brown, rather darker in tint at the large end. There are a very few indistinct cloudy markings of brown scattered here and there over the egg. In general appearance the egg puts one in mind of a Prinia's.