Pellorneum subochraceum, _Swinh., Hume, Cat._ no. 399 sex.
The Burmese Spotted Babbler breeds pretty well over the whole of Pegu
and Tenasserim. Mr. Oates writes:--"On the 3rd May I found a nest on
the ground near Pegu. A good many bamboo-leaves had fallen and the
nest was imbedded in these. It was formed entirely of these leaves
loosely put together, the interior only being sparingly lined with
fine grass. The structure _in situ_ was tolerably firm, but it would
not stand removal. In height it was about 7 inches, and in breadth
about 5, the longer axis being vertical. Shape cylindrical with
rounded top. Entrance 2½ inches by 1½, placed about the centre. The
interior of the nest was a rough sphere of 4 inches diameter.
"There were three eggs, slightly incubated. The ground-colour is pure
white, and the whole surface is minutely and thickly speckled with
reddish-brown and greyish-purple spots, more closely placed at the
thick end, where they coalesce in places and form bold patches.
"On the 29th June, I found another nest of similar construction,
placed on the ground in thick forest, at the root of a shrub."
Mr. W. Davison in 1875 gave me the following note:--"On the morning
of the 25th March I took at Bankasoon a nest of this species in thick
forest; it was placed on the ground and was composed externally
of dead leaves, with a scanty lining of fine roots and fibres.
It measured externally about 5 inches high by about 4 wide. The
egg-cavity was hardly 3 inches in diameter. The nest was only
partially domed, and was very loosely and carelessly put together.
"The nest contained three eggs, but these were so far incubated that
it was impossible to blow two of them."
The single egg of this species obtained by Mr. Davison is in shape a
moderately broad oval, a little pointed towards the small end; the
shell is fine, but has little gloss. The ground-colour, so far as this
is visible through the thickly-set markings, is white, and it is very
finely but densely stippled and freckled (most densely at the large
end, where the markings are not unfrequently confluent or nearly so)
with dull to bright reddish brown; here and there, especially about
the large end, more or less faint grey or red specks, spots, or tiny
clouds may be traced underlying as it were the brown or purplish
markings.
The egg sent me from Pegu by Mr. Oates is of precisely the same size
and type, but the markings are much less dense and are brighter
coloured. The ground-colour is white, and the egg is pretty thickly
speckled with a reddish-chocolate brown. Here and there a moderately
large irregularly-shaped spot is intermingled with the finer
specklings. The markings are rather most dense at the large end,
where there is a tendency to form a zone, and here a number of pale
purplish-grey streaks and specks are also intermingled.
Major C.T. Bingham says:--"Early on the morning of the 7th April,
moving camp from the sources of the Thoungyeen, on the side of a hill
at the foot of a bamboo-bush not two feet from the road, I flushed
and shot a female of the above species off her nest; a little
loosely-put-together round ball of dry bamboo-leaves, unlined, though
domed over, with the entrance at the side, and containing two fresh
eggs, white, thickly speckled with brick-red and obscure purple. On
the 12th of the same month, I found a second nest behind the zayat or
rest-house at Meeawuddy. This was similar to the nest above described,
and contained three similar eggs."
The eggs measure from ·78 to ·88 in length, and from ·58 to ·65 in
breadth; but the average of twelve eggs is ·82 by ·62.