"I send you all the eggs I have at present, but can procure you any number more next season.
"The birds are to be found in all kinds of wooded country except the heavy forests, and appear to breed from the middle of April to the end of July, and possibly later.
"The nest is a largish globular structure loosely made of either bamboo-leaves or blades of grass, and all that I have ever seen have been lined inside with a few fine fibres.
"Four appears to be the usual number of eggs, but very often there are only three.
"The nests are always built near the ground, sometimes almost touching it, and are fixed in either small bushes, tufts of grass, or young bamboo-clumps."
Mr. J.L. Darling, Jun., states that this bird is very common in Culputty in the Wynaad, at an elevation of about 3000 feet, and that he has found the nests from the end of May to the middle of October. The nest is built in high grass nearly on the ground, or in date-palms, or in arrowroot in the jungle up to heights of 3 feet. The nest is built entirely of grass, lined with finer grass; a nearly round ball 6 inches in diameter outside and 5 inside, with a hole on the side. The eggs are laid at the rate of one a day, and three are usually found in one nest, occasionally only two. On one occasion after securing the female bird, he found the cock bird sitting on the eggs and he continued to sit there for three days.
Mr. J. Davidson tells us that he found a nest of this bird on the 15th
July at Kondabhari with four fresh eggs.
Colonel Legge writes in his 'Birds of Ceylon':—"The breeding-season lasts from March until July, the nests being built in a low bush sometimes only a few inches from the ground."
In shape the eggs are moderately elongated ovals. The shell is very fine and smooth, and has in some a rather bright, in some only a very slight gloss. The ground is a China-white. The markings consist of a profusion of specks and spots of a very bright red, which, though spread over the whole surface, are gathered most densely into an imperfect, more or less confluent, cap or zone at the larger end, where also a few purplish-grey spots and specks not usually found on any other part of the egg, are noticeable.
In length the eggs vary from 0·66 to 0·78, and in breadth from 0·5 to 0·55. The average of 28 eggs is 0·72 by 0·53.