Pyctorhis nasalis, _Legge, Hume, Cat._ no. 385 bis.
Colonel Legge writes in his 'Birds of Ceylon':--"In the Western
Province this Babbler commences to breed in February; but in May I
found several nests in the Uva district near Fort Macdonald; and
that month would thus seem to be the nesting-season in the Central
Province. The nest is placed in the fork of a shrub, or in a huge tuft
of maana-grass, without any attempt at concealment, about 3 or 4 feet
from the ground. It is a neatly-made compact cup, well finished off
about the top and exterior, and constructed of dry grass, adorned with
cobwebs or lichens, and lined with fine grass or roots. The exterior
is about 2½ inches in diameter by about 2 in depth. The eggs are
usually three in number, fleshy white, boldly spotted, chiefly about
the larger end, with brownish sienna; in some these markings are
inclined to become confluent, and are at times overlaid with dark
spots oil brick-red. They are rather broad ovals, measuring, on
the average, from 0·76 to 0·79 inch in length, by 0·56 to 0·59 in
breadth."