and wiles. The nest itself is an artless and shabby affair, made of twigs and stuck into almost any situation in a small dense tree. There are usually three eggs, of an intense colour between green and blue. You may find them in the hot season. But I find I have not described the bird. It seems an insult to such a well-known public character to describe him. For the benefit of strangers, however, I may say that the Bombay Babbler (Malacocercus somervillei) is an earthy-coloured bird, tinged with reddish about the tail. It is nearly the size of an English Thrush, with less body and more tail. It carries its tail a little raised, as ground birds generally do. Its wings droop, its feathers are loose and puffy, and altogether it reminds you of old Jones, who passes the day in his pyjamas. But it is a shrewd old bird and has a wicked white eye. The Poona Babbler is bigger and wants the reddish tinge about the tail, the Malabar Babbler has a hoary head, and so on; for there are many clans of them. But they are all of one blood: you cannot mistake a Babbler.
There is a little bird, about the size of a Robin, which is said to be related to the Babblers and must be described here, for you may often see it in Bombay, though it would rather you did not. It seems to be suspicious of man and tries to keep a bush between you and it, eyeing you through the leaves. A bush, I say, for the White-throated Wren-Babbler (Dumetia albogularis), as Jerdon calls it, is a bird of bushes and hedges. It is not the custom of its caste to go into trees. It is a plain bird, of a light brown colour, but not difficult to recognise, if you catch a fair sight of it, by the contrast of its pure white throat and its
