194. Brachypteryx rufiventris (Blyth). The Rufous-bellied Short-wing.

Callene rufiventris, Blyth. Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 496: Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 339.

I have been favoured with nests of the Rufous-bellied Short-wing by Mr. Carter, who took them from holes or depressions of banks in the Nilghiris in April and May. They closely resemble nests of Niltava macrigoriae from Darjeeling. They are soft masses of green moss, some 4 or 5 inches in diameter externally, with more or less of a depression towards one side, lined with very fine dark moss-roots. This depression may average about 21/2 inches across and 3/4 inch in depth; but they vary a good deal. Mr. Carter says:—"I have found the nests of this species about Conoor in May, in holes of banks, on roads running through thick sholas (i.e. jungles not amounting to forests). The nests are of moss, shallow, lined with fine root-fibres, the cavity about 3-5 inches in diameter. They lay two eggs, pale olive, shading into a decided brownish red at the larger end. The old birds are very shy in returning to the nest when watched; indeed, they are always shy, hiding in the brushwood of jungles or amongst fallen timber, along which they almost creep."

Mr. Davison informs me that "this species breeds on the Nilghiris from about 5500 feet to about 7000 during April and May, building in holes of trees, crevices of rocks, &c., seldom at any great elevation above the ground. The nest is composed of moss, lined with moss and fern-roots. Two or three eggs are laid."

The few eggs I possess, which I owe to Messrs. Carter and Davison, and which were taken by them in the Nilghiris, have a pale olive-brown ground with, at the large end, an ill-defined mottled reddish-brown cap. In some specimens the mottling extends more or less over the whole egg, though always most dense about the larger end. Though much larger and of a more elongated shape, they not a little resemble some specimens of the eggs of Pratincola indica that I possess. In shape they are long ovals, recalling in that respect those of Myiophoneus temmincki; they have less gloss than the eggs of most of the Thrushes.

In length they vary from 0.97 to 1.02 inch, and in breadth from 0.65 to 0.69 inch.

197. Drymochares cruralis (Blyth). The White-browed Short-wing

Brachypteryx cruralis (Bl.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 495; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 338.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and drawings, the White-browed Short-wing breeds in April and May. It constructs its nest a foot or so above the ground amongst grass and creeping-plants at the base of trunks of trees; it is composed of moss and moss-roots, is somewhat globular in shape, and is firmly attached to the creepers; dried bamboo-leaves and pieces of fern are here and there fixed to the exterior, and the nest is lined with hair-like fibres; the entrance is at one side and circular. One nest measured 7 inches in height, 5.5 in width, and 3.38 from front to back. The aperture was 2 inches in diameter. The eggs (four in number, or at times three) are pure white, broad ovals, pointed at one end, measuring 0.9 by 0.65 inch. This species breeds in the central regions of Nepal and in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling.

Three nests of this species found early in June in Sikhim and Nepal, at elevations of 5000 to 8000 feet, contained respectively 2, 3, and 4 fresh eggs. They were all placed in brushwood at 2 to 3 feet above the ground, and they are all precisely similar, being rather massive shallow cups, composed of very fine black roots firmly felted together, and with a few dead leaves or scraps of moss in most of them incorporated in one portion or other of the outer surface. The nests are about 4 inches in diameter and 2 in height; the cavity is about 2 inches in diameter and 1 in depth; but, owing to the positions in which they are placed, they are often more or less irregularly shaped.

Mr. Mandelli obtained three eggs which he considers to belong to this species, on the 3rd June, near Darjeeling. I rather question the authenticity of these eggs. They are pure white and devoid of gloss, moderately elongated ovals, only slightly compressed towards the smaller end. They vary from 0.83 to 0.91 in length and from 0.61 to 0.64 in breadth.

198. Drymochares nepalensis (Hodgs.). The Nepal Short-wing.

Brachypteryx nipalensis, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 494.

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:—"A nest taken by me on the 15th of June at 5000 feet, close to a large forest, contained three slightly-set eggs. It was placed on the moss-covered trunk of a fallen tree, and was hooded, with an entrance at the side; rather neatly made of dry leaves with an outer covering of green moss, and an inner lining of skeletonized leaves and black fibrous roots. Externally it measures 5 inches in height by about the same in width; internally 3 inches high by 2.4 across. The entrance was 2.3 in diameter. The front of the egg-cavity is but slightly depressed below the entrance, gradually sloping backwards to the depth of nearly an inch."

All the nests of this species that I have seen were of the same type, more or less globular, more or less hooded or domed, according to the situation in which they were placed, composed of dry flags and dead and more or less skeleton leaves, bound together with a little vegetable fibre and some moss, but chiefly with fine black fibrous roots, with which the entire cavity is densely lined, inside which again is a coating of more skeleton leaves; they measure exteriorly 4 or 5 inches in diameter, and the cavities are a little above 2 by 2.5 inches in diameter.

Mr. Mandelli found two of these nests at Lebong (elevation 5500 feet), near Darjeeling, on the 8th July. One contained three fresh eggs, the other three slightly incubated ones. They were about 12 yards apart, in a very shady damp glen, in very dense underwood, to the stems of which they were attached in a standing position about 3 feet from the ground. The entrance was on one side in both cases.

The eggs of this species obtained by Mr. Gammie belong to the same type as those of Brachypteryx rufiventris and B. albiventris. In shape they are moderately elongated, rather regular ovals, somewhat obtuse at both ends. The shell is fine and compact, and very smooth to the touch, but they have not much gloss. The ground is a pale olive stone-colour, and they are very minutely freckled and mottled, most densely at the large end, with pale, very slightly reddish brown; the freckling is excessively minute and fine.

Two eggs measured 0.8 and 0.82 in length by 0.6 in breadth.

200. Elaphrornis palliseri (Blyth). The Ceylon Short-wing.

Brachypteryx palliseri, Bl., Hume, cat. no. 338 bis.

Colonel Legge, writing in his 'Birds of Ceylon,' says:—"Mr. Bligh found a nest at Nuwara Eliya in April 1870; it was placed in a thick cluster of branches on the top of a somewhat densely-foliaged small bush, which stood in a rather open space near the foot of a large tree; it was in shape a deep cup, composed of greenish moss, lined with fibrous roots and the hair-like appendages of the green moss which festoons the trees in such abundance at that elevation. It contained three young ones, plumaged exactly like their parents, who kept churring in the thick bushes close by, but would not show themselves much."

201. Tesia cyaniventris, Hodgs. The Slaty-bellied Short-wing.

Tesia cyaniventer, Hodgs., Jerd, B. Ind. i, p. 487; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 328.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes, the Slaty-bellied Short-wing breeds much like the next species. It constructs a huge globular nest of green moss and black moss-roots, which it fixes in any dense dry shrub or clump of shoots, many of which it incorporates in the walls of the nest. The nest measures externally about 7 inches in height and 5 inches in width; it has a circular aperture on one side, a little above the middle, about 2 inches in diameter, and it is placed at a height of one or two feet from the ground. Three or four eggs are laid; these are figured as rather broad ovals, somewhat pointed towards one end, with a whitish ground, profusely speckled and spotted, especially towards the large end, where the markings are nearly confluent, with bright red, and measuring 0.72 by 0.54 inch.

202. Oligura castaneicoronata (Burt.). The Chestnut-headed Short-wing.

Tesia castaneo-coronata (Burt.), Jerd. E. Ind. i, p. 487; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 327.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and figures, the Chestnut-headed Short-wing builds a large globular nest, more or less egg-shaped, some 6 inches high and 4 in breadth, composed of moss-roots and fibres, and lined with feathers, and with a circular aperture in the middle of one side about 1.5 inch in diameter. The nest is placed in some clump of shoots or thick bush (the twigs of which are more or less incorporated in the sides of the nest) at a height of 1 or 2 feet from the ground. The birds lay in April and May three or four eggs, which are figured as moderately broad ovals, somewhat pointed at one end, reddish (apparently something like a Prinia's, though this seems incredible), and measuring 0.66 by 0.48 inch.

Dr. Jerdon says:—"A nest made chiefly of moss, with four small white eggs, was brought me as the nest of this bird. It was of the ordinary shape, rather loosely put together, and the walls of great thickness. It was taken from the ground on a steep bank near the stump of a tree."

The three eggs in my museum supposed to belong to this species pertained to this nest, and are excessively tiny, somewhat oval eggs of a pure, dull, glossless unspotted white, very unlike our English Wren's egg and certainly not one half the size. Dr. Jerdon was not quite certain to which species of Tesia these eggs belonged, and I therefore only record this "quantum valeat". They measure 0.55 and 0.6 inch in length by 0.4, 0.42, and 0.45 inch in breadth. I am inclined to believe that both nest and eggs belonged to Pnoepyga pusilla, Hodgs.



Subfamily SIBIINAE.

203. Sibia picaoides, Hodgs. The Long-tailed Sibia.

Sibia picaoides, Hodgs. Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 55; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 430.

Mr. Gammie obtained a nest of the Long-tailed Sibia from the top of a tall tree, situated at an elevation of about 4000 feet, in the neighbourhood of Rungbee, near Darjeeling. This was on the 17th June, and the nest contained five fresh eggs. The nest is as perplexing as are the eggs; for the nest is that of a Bulbul, the eggs those of a Shrike or Minivet. The nest is a deep compact cup, about 41/2 inches in diameter and 23/4 inches in depth. The egg-cavity is 3 inches across and fully 13/4 inch in depth. Interiorly the nest is composed of excessively fine grass-stems very firmly interwoven; externally of the stems of some herbaceous plant, a Chenopod, to which the dry blossoms are still attached, intermingled with coarse grass, a single dead leaf, and one or two broad grass-blades more or less broken up into fibres.

The eggs, for the authenticity of which Mr. Gammie positively vouches, are very unlike what might have been expected. They are absolutely Shrike's eggs—broad ovals, pointed towards one end, with a slight gloss, the ground a slightly greyish white, with a good many small spots and specks of pale yellowish brown and dingy purple, chiefly confined to a large irregular zone towards the larger end. They vary in length from 0.86 to 0.93, and in breadth from 0.7 to 0.73.

204. Lioptila capistrata (Vigors). The Black-headed Sibia.

Sibia capistrata (Vig.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 54; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 429.

The Black-headed Sibia lays throughout the Himalayas from Afghanistan to Bhootan, at elevations of from 5000 to 7000 feet.

It lays during May and June, and perhaps part of July, for I find that on the 11th of July I found a nest of this species a little below the lake at Nynee Tal, on the Jewli Road, containing two young chicks apparently not a day old.

They build on the outskirts of forests, constructing their nests towards the ends of branches, at heights of from 10 to 50 feet from the ground. The nest is a neat cup, some 4 or 5 inches in diameter and perhaps 3 inches in height, composed chiefly of moss and lined with black moss-roots and fibres. In some of the nests that I have preserved a good deal of grass-leaves and scraps of lichen are incorporated in the moss. The cavity is deep, from 21/2 to 3 inches in diameter and not much less than 2 inches in depth.

They lay two or three eggs; not more, so far as I yet know.

From Murree, Colonel C.H.T. Marshall tells us that "the egg of this bird was, we believe, previously unknown, and it was a mere chance that we found the whereabouts of their nests, as they breed high up in the spruce firs at the outer end of a bough. The nest is neatly made of moss, lined with stalks of the maiden-hair fern. The eggs are pale blue, spotted and blotched with pale and reddish brown. They are .95 in length and .7 in breadth. This species breeds in June, about 7000 feet up."

Nearly twenty years prior to this, however, Captain Hutton had remarked:—"At Mussoorie this bird remains at an elevation of 7000 feet throughout the year, but I never saw it under 6500 feet. Its loud ringing note of titteree-titteree tweeyo, quickly repeated, may constantly be heard on wooded banks during summer. It breeds in May, making a neat nest of coarse dry grasses as a foundation, covered laterally with green moss and wool and lined with fine roots. The number of eggs I did not ascertain, as the nest was destroyed when only one egg had been deposited, but the colour is pale bluish white, freckled with rufous. The nest was placed on a branch of a plum-tree in the Botanical Garden, Mussoorie."

Captain Cock says that he "found this species breeding at Murree, at 6000 feet elevation.

"I took my first nest on the 5th June.

"It builds near the tops of the highest pines, and unless seen building its nest with the glasses, it is impossible to find the nest with the unaided eye.

"The nest is placed on the outer extremity of an upper bough in a pine-tree; is constructed of moss lined with stalks of the maiden-hair fern. Three eggs is the largest number I ever found. The eggs are light greenish white, with rusty spots and blotches principally at the larger end."

From Nynee Tal Colonel G.F.L. Marshall writes:—"This species builds in trees and bushes. The only nest I examined personally was a very compact and thick cup-shaped structure of moss, grass, and roots, lined with grass, and placed amongst the outer twigs of a blackberry bush overhanging a cliff. It was ready for the eggs on the 23rd May. It was found at Nynee Tal on Agar Pata, about 7000 feet above the sea."

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:—"I have only myself taken two nests of this common species. I found both of them the same day (the 21st May), in the Chinchona reserves, at an elevation of about 5000 feet. Both nests were in the forest, built on the outer branches of trees, at heights the one of 15, the other of 40 feet from the ground. The nests were cup-shaped, and very neatly made of moss, leaves and fibres, and lined with black fibres. One measured externally 4.6 in diameter by 2.75 in height, and internally 2.4 in diameter and 1.7 in depth. One nest contained two fresh, the other two hard-set eggs; so perhaps two is the normal number, though the natives say that they lay three. As might be expected from the bird's habit of feeding on the insects on moss-covered trees in moist forests, the nests were in forest by the sides of streams."

The eggs are rather broad, slightly pyriform ovals, often a good deal pulled out as it were at the small end. The shell is fine, but almost entirely devoid of gloss. The ground-colour is a pale greenish white or very pale bluish green. The markings are various and complicated: first there are usually a few large, irregular, moderately dark brownish-red spots and splashes; then there are a very few, very dark, reddish-brown hair-lines, such as one finds on Buntings' eggs; then there is a good deal of clouding and smudging here and there of pale, dingy purplish or brownish red (all these markings are most numerous towards the large end); and then besides these, and almost entirely confined to the large end, are a few pale purple specks and spots. Sometimes the markings are almost wholly confined to the thicker end of the egg. Of course the eggs vary somewhat, and in some specimens the characteristic Bunting-like hair-lines are almost wholly wanting. The eggs vary in length from 0.95 to 1.0, and in breadth from 0.66 to 0.72.

205. Lioptila gracilis (McClell.). The Grey Sibia.

Malacias gracilis (McClell.), Hume, cat. no. 429 bis.

Colonel Godwin-Austen is, I believe, the only ornithologist who has as yet secured the nest and eggs of the Grey Sibia. He says:—"In the pine forest that covers the slopes of the hills descending into the Umian valley in Assam, one of my men marked a nest on June 25th; I proceeded to the spot soon after I had heard of it, and on coming up to the tree, a pine, saw the female fly off out of the head of it. But the nest was so well hidden by the boughs of the fir, that it was quite invisible from below. The bird after a short time came back, and then I saw it was Sibia gracilis; but it was very shy and seeing us went off again, and hung about the trees at a distance of some 50 yards; while thus waiting, some four or five others were also seen. The female, however, would not venture back, and I sent one of my Goorkhas up, to cut off the head of the fir, nest and all, first taking out the eggs. It contained three, of a pale sea-green, with ash-brown streakings and blotchings all over.

"The nest was constructed of dry grass, moss, and rootlets, and the green spinules of the fir were worked into it, fixing it most firmly in its place in the crown of the pine where it was much forked."

206. Lioptila melanoleuca (Bl.). Tickell's Sibia.

Malacias melanoleucus (Bl.), Hume, cat. no. 429 quart.

Mr. W. Davison was fortunate enough to secure a nest of this Sibia on Muleyit mountain in Tenasserim. He says:—"I secured a nest of this species on the 21st of February, containing two spotless pale blue eggs slightly incubated. The nest, a deep compactly woven cup, was placed about 40 feet from the ground, in the fork of one of the smaller branches of a high tree growing on the edge of a deep ravine.

"The egg-cavity of the nest is lined with fern-roots, fibres and fine grass-stems; outside this is a thick coating of dried bamboo-leaves and coarse grass, and outside this again is a thick irregular coating of green moss, dried leaves, and coarse fibres and fern-roots.

"Externally the nest measures about 5 inches in height, and nearly the same in external diameter at the top.

"The egg-cavity measures 1.7 deep by 2.7 across.

"The eggs, a pale spotless blue, measure 0.95 and 0.98 in length by 0.66 and 0.68 in breadth."

211. Actinodura egertoni, Gould. The Rufous Bar-wing.

Actinodura egertoni, Gould, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 52; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 427.

There is no figure of the Rufous Bar-wing's nest or eggs amongst the original drawings of Mr. Hodgson now in my custody, but in the British Museum series there appears to be, since Mr. Blyth remarks:—"Mr. Hodgson figures the nest of this bird like that of an English Redbreast, with pinkish-white eggs."

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:—"On the 27th April I took a nest of this Bar-wing in a large forest at an elevation of about 5000 feet. It was placed about 20 feet from the ground, in a leafy tree, between several upright shoots, to which it was firmly attached. It is cup-shaped, mainly composed of dry leaves held together by slender climber-stems, and lined with dark-coloured fibrous roots. A few strings of green moss were twined round the outside to assist in concealment. Externally it measures 4.2 inches wide by 4 deep; internally 2.8 wide and 2.4 deep. It contained but two slightly-set eggs.

"I killed the female off the nest."

Several nests have been obtained and sent me by Messrs. Gammie and Mandelli. One was taken on the 4th May by Mr. Mandelli, at Lebong, at an elevation of 5500 feet, which contained three fresh eggs; this was placed on the branches of a small tree, in the midst of dense brushwood, at a height of about 4 feet from the ground.

Another, taken in a similar situation at the same place on the 22nd May, contained two fresh eggs, and was at a height of about 12 feet from the ground.

These nests vary just in the same way as do those of Trochalopterum nigrimentum; some show only a sprig or two of moss about them, while others have a complete coating of green moss. They are cup-shaped, some deeper, some shallower; the chief material of the nest seems to be usually dry leaves. One before me is composed entirely of some Polypodium, on which the seed-spores are all fully developed; in another, bamboo-leaves have been chiefly used; these are all held together in their places by black fibrous roots; occasionally towards the upper margin a few creeper-tendrils are intermingled. The whole cavity is lined more or less thickly, and the lip of the cup all round is usually finished of with these same black fibrous roots; and then outside all moss and selaginella are applied according to the taste of the bird and, probably, the situation—a few sprigs or a complete coating, as the case may be.

Two eggs of this species sent me by Mr. Gammie are regular, slightly elongated ovals, with very thin and fragile shells, and fairly but not highly glossy. The ground is a delicate pale sea-green, and they are profusely blotched, spotted, and marked with curious hieroglyphic-like figures of a sort of umber-brown; while about the larger end numerous spots and streaks of pale lilac occur.

These eggs measure 0.98 in length, by 0.65 and 0.68 in breadth.

Other eggs obtained by Mr. Mandelli early in June are quite of the same type, but somewhat shorter, measuring 0.85 and 0.93 in length by 0.68 and 0.7 in breadth. But the markings are rather more smudgy and rather paler, and there are fewer of the hair-like streaks and hieroglyphics.

213. Ixops nepalensis (Hodgs.). The Hoary Bar-wing.

Actinodura nipalensis (Hodgs.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 53; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 428.

The Hoary Bar-wing is said in Mr. Hodgson's notes to breed from April to June in Sikhim and the central region of Nepal up to an elevation of 4000 or 6000 feet. The nest is placed in holes, in crevices between rocks and stones; is circular and saucer-shaped. One measured externally 3.62 in diameter by 2 inches in height; the cavity measured 2.5 in diameter and 1.37 in depth. The nest is composed of fine twigs, grass, and fibres, and externally adorned with little pieces of lichen, and internally lined with fine moss-roots. The birds are said to lay from three to four eggs, which are not described, but they are figured as pinky white, about 0.85 in length and 0.55 in width. Mr. Blyth, however, remarks:—"One of Mr. Hodgson's drawings represents a white egg with ferruginous spots, disposed much as in that of Merula vulgaris."

Clearly there is some mistake here. Most of the drawings I have are the originals, taken from the fresh specimens when they were obtained, with Mr. Hodgson's own notes, on the reverse, of the dates on and places at which he took or obtained the eggs, nests, and birds figured, with often a description and dimensions of the two former, and invariably full dimensions of the latter. On the other hand, the drawings in the British Museum are mostly more finished and artistic copies of these originals; so how the spots got on to the eggs of the British-Museum drawing I cannot say; there is no trace of such in mine.

219. Siva strigula, Hodgs. The Stripe-throated Siva.

Siva strigula. Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 252; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 616.

The nest of the Stripe-throated Siva is placed, according to Mr. Hodgson, in the slender fork of a tree at no great elevation from the ground. It is composed of moss and moss-roots, intermingled with dry bamboo-leaves, and woven into a broad compact cup-shaped nest. One such nest, taken on the 27th May, with three eggs in it, measured exteriorly 4.25 in diameter and 3 inches in height, with a cavity (thickly lined with cow's hair) about 2.5 in diameter and 2.25 in depth. The birds lay in May and June. The eggs are three or sometimes four in number; they are pale greenish blue or bluish green, and vary in length from 0.8 to 0.9, and in breadth from 0.6 to 0.65, and are, some thickly, some thinly, speckled and freckled, usually most densely towards the large end, with red or brownish red. His nests were taken both in Sikhim and Nepal.

221. Siva cyanuroptera, Hodgs. The Blue-winged Siva.

Siva cyanouroptera, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 253; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 617.

The Blue-winged Siva breeds, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, in the central regions of Nepal, and in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling, in May and June. The nest is placed in trees, at no great elevation above the ground, and is wedged in where three or four slender twigs make a convenient fork. A nest taken on the 2nd June was a large compact cup, measuring exteriorly 4.75 in diameter and 3.75 in height, and having a cavity 2.6 in diameter and 1.87 in depth. It was composed of fine stems of grass, dry leaves, moss, and moss-roots, bound together with pieces of creepers, roots, and vegetable fibres, and closely lined with fine grass-roots. They lay from three to four eggs, which are figured as moderately broad ovals, considerably pointed towards the small end, 0.85 in length by 0.6 in width, having a pale greenish ground pretty thickly speckled and spotted, especially on the broader half of the egg, with a kind of brownish brick-red.

Mr. Mandelli found a nest of this species at Lebong (elevation 5500 feet) on the 28th April. It contained four fresh eggs; it was placed in a fork of a horizontal branch of a small tree at a height of only 3 feet from the ground. The nest is, for the size of the bird, a large cup, externally entirely composed of green moss firmly felted together. This outer shell of moss is thickly lined with the dead leaves of a Polypodium, and this again is thinly lined with fine grass. The nest was about 4 inches in diameter, and 2.5 in height externally; the cavity was about 2.5 broad and 1.5 deep.

The nests of this species are very beautiful cups, very compact and firm, sometimes wedged into a fork, but more commonly suspended between two or three twigs, or sometimes attached by one side only to a single twig. They are placed at heights of from 4 to 10 feet from the ground in the branches of slender trees, and are usually carefully concealed, places completely encircled by creepers being very frequently chosen. The chief materials of the nest are dead leaves, sometimes those of the bamboo, but more generally those of trees; but little of this is seen, as the exterior is generally coated with moss, and the interior is lined first with excessively fine grass, and then more or less thinly with black buffalo- or horse-hairs. The cups are about 3 inches in diameter and 2 in height externally, the cavities barely 2 in diameter and perhaps 1.5 in depth: but they vary somewhat in size and shape according to the situation in which they are placed and the manner in which they are attached, some being considerably broader and shallower, and some rather deeper.

Eggs of this species sent me from Mr. Mandelli, which were obtained by him in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling, are decidedly elongated ovals, fairly glossy, and with a pale slightly greenish-blue ground. A number of minute red or brownish-red or yellowish-brown specks and spots occur about the large end, sometimes irregularly scattered, sometimes more or less gathered into an imperfect zone. The rest of the egg is either spotless or exhibits only a few tiny specks and spots. The eggs measure 0.75 and 0.76 by 0.51 and 0.52.

223. Yuhina gularis, Hodgs. The Stripe-throated Yuhina.

Yuhina gularis, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 261; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 626.

The Stripe-throated Yuhina breeds, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, from April to July, building a large massive nest of moss, lined with moss-roots, and wedged into a fork of a branch or between ledges of rocks, more or less globular in shape, and with a circular aperture near the top towards one side. A nest taken on the 19th June, near Darjeeling, was quite egg-shaped, the long diameter being perpendicular to the ground, and measured 6 inches in height and 4 inches in breadth, the aperture, 2 inches in diameter, being well above the middle of the nest; the cavity was lined with fine moss-roots. The eggs are figured as rather elongated ovals, 0.8 by 0.56, with a pale buffy or cafe au lait ground-colour, thickly spotted with red or brownish red, the markings forming a confluent zone about the large end.

225. Yuhina nigrimentum (Hodgs.). The Black-chinned Yuhina.

Yuhina nigrimentum (Hodgs.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 262; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 628.

A nest of the Black-chinned Yuhina, taken by Mr. Gammie on the 17th June below Rungbee, at an elevation of about 3500 feet, was placed in a large tree, at a height of about 10 feet from the ground, and contained four hard-set eggs. It is a mere pad, below of moss, mingled with a little wool and moss-roots, and above, that is to say the surface where the eggs repose, of excessively fine grass-roots.

Dr. Jerdon says:—"A nest was once brought me which was declared to belong to this species; it was a very small neat fabric, of ordinary shape, made with moss and grass, and contained three small pure white eggs. The rarity of the bird makes me doubt if the nest really belonged to it."

The eggs are tiny little elongated ovals, pure white, and absolutely glossless.

Two sent me by Mr. Gammie measure 0.58 by 0.42 and 0.57 by 0.43.

226. Zosterops palpebrosa (Temm.). The Indian White-eye.

Zosterops palpebrosus (Temm.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 265; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 631.

The Indian White-eye, or White-eyed Tit as Jerdon terms it, breeds almost throughout the Indian Empire, sparingly in the hotter and more arid plains, abundantly in the Nilghiris and other ranges of the Peninsula to their very summits, and in the Himalayas to an elevation of 5000 or 6000 feet.

The breeding-season extends in different localities from January to September, but I think that everywhere April is the month in which most eggs are to be met with.

Sometimes they have two broods; whether this is always the case I do not know.

The nest is placed almost indifferently at any elevation. I have taken one from amongst the topmost twigs of a huge mohwa tree (Bassia latifolia) fully 60 feet high, and I have found them in a tiny bush not a foot off the soil. Still I think that perhaps the majority build at low elevations, say between 2 and 6 feet from the ground.

The nest is always a soft, delicate little cup, sometimes very shallow, sometimes very deep, as a rule suspended between two twigs like a miniature Oriole's nest, but on rare occasions propped in a fork. The nest varies much in size and in the materials with which it is composed.

Pine grass and roots, tow, and a variety of vegetable fibres, thread, floss silk, and cobwebs are all made use of to bind the little nest together and attach it to the twigs whence it depends. Grass again, moss, vegetable fibre, seed-down, silk, cotton, lichen, roots and the like are used in the body of the nest, which is lined with silky down, hair, moss, and fern-roots, or even silk, while at times tiny silvery cocoons or scraps of rich-coloured lichen are affixed as ornaments to the exterior.

One nest before me is a very perfect and deep cup, hung between two twigs of a mohwa tree and almost entirely hidden by the surrounding leaves. The exterior diameter of the nest is 21/2 inches, and the depth 2 inches. The egg-cavity measures scarcely more than 11/2 inch across and very nearly as much in depth. It is composed of very fine grass-stems and is thinly coated exteriorly with cobwebs, by which also it is firmly secured to the suspending twigs, and externally numerous small cocoons and sundry pieces of vegetable down are plastered on to the nest. Another nest, hung between two slender twigs of a mango tree, is a shallow cup some 21/2 inches in diameter, and not above an inch in depth externally. The egg-cavity measures at most 11/2 inch across by three-fourths of an inch in depth. The nest is composed of fine tow-like vegetable fibres and thread, by which it is attached to the twigs, a little grass-down being blended in the mass, and the cavity being very sparsely lined with very fine grass-stems. In another nest, somewhat larger than, the last described, the nest is made of moss slightly tacked together with cobwebs and lined with fine grass-fibres. Another nest, a very regular shallow cup, with an egg-cavity 2 inches in diameter and an inch in depth, is composed almost entirely of the soft silky down of the Calatropis gigantea, rather thickly lined with very fine hair-like grass, and very thinly-coated exteriorly with a little of this same grass, moss, and thread. Another, with a similar-sized cavity, but nearly three-fourths of an inch thick everywhere, is externally a mass of moss, moss-roots, and very fine lichen, and is lined entirely with very soft and brilliantly white satin-like vegetable down. Another, with about the same-sized cavity, but the walls of which are scarcely one-fourth of an inch in thickness, is composed entirely of this satiny down, thinly coated exteriorly and interiorly with excessively fine moss-roots (roots so fine that most of them are much thinner than human hair); a few black horsehairs, which look coarse and thick beside the other materials of the nest, are twisted round and round in the interior of the egg-cavity. Other nests might be made entirely of tow, so far as their appearance goes; and in fact with a very large series before me, no two seem, to be constructed of the same materials.

I have nests before me now, taken in September, March, June, and August, all of which when found contained eggs.

Two is certainly the normal number of the eggs; about one fifth of the nests I have seen contained three, and once only I found four.

From Murree Colonel C.H.T. Marshall informs us that he took the eggs in June at an elevation of about 6000 feet.

Colonel G.F.L. Marshall says:—"I have taken eggs of this species at Cawnpore in the middle of June. I found six nests, five of which were in neem-trees. I also found the nest in Naini Tal at 7000 feet above the sea, with young in the middle of June; one only of all the nests I have seen was lined, and that was lined with feathers: they were, as a rule, about eight feet from the ground, but one was nearly forty feet up."

Capt. Hutton gives a very full account of the nidification of this species. He says:—"These beautiful little birds are exceedingly common at Mussoorie, at an elevation of about 5000 feet, during summer, but I never saw them much higher. They arrive from the plains about the middle of April, on the 17th of which month I saw a pair commence building in a thick bush of Hibiscus, and on the 27th of the same month the nest contained three small eggs hard-set. I subsequently took a second from a similar bush, and several from the drooping branches of oak-trees, to the twigs of which they were fastened. It is not placed on a branch, but is suspended between two thin twigs, to which it is fastened by floss silk torn from the cocoons of Bombyx Huttoni, Westw., and by a few slender fibres of the bark of trees or hair according to circumstances.

"So slight and so fragile is the little oval cup that it is astonishing the mere weight of the parent bird does not bring it to the ground, and yet within it three young ones will often safely outride a gale that will bring the weightier nests of Jays and Thrushes to the ground.

"Of seven nests now before me four are composed externally of little bits of green moss, cotton, and seed-down, and the silk of the wild mulberry-moth torn from the cocoons, with which last material, however, the others appear to be bound together within. The lining of two is of the long hairs of the yak's tail, two of which died on the estate where these nests were found, and a third is lined with black human hair. The other three are formed of somewhat different materials, two being externally composed of fine grass-stalks, seed-down, and shreds of bark so fine as to resemble tow; one is lined with seed-down and black fibrous lichens resembling hair, a second is lined with fine grass, and a third with a thick coating of pure white silky seed-down. In all the seven, the materials of the two sides are wound round the twigs, between which they are suspended like a cradle, and the shape is an ovate cup, about the size of half a hen's egg split longitudinally. The diameter and depth are respectively 2 inches and 11/2 inch by three-fourths of an inch. The eggs are usually three in number."

Mr. Brooks, writing from Almorah, says:—"This morning, 28th April, I found a nest of Zosterops palpebrosa containing two fresh eggs. Yesterday I found one of the same bird containing three half-fledged young ones. Near the Tonse River, in the Allahabad District, I found these birds in July nesting high in a mango-tree, the nest suspended like an Oriole's to several leaves; now I find it in low bushes, at heights of from 3 to 5 feet from the ground. The eggs, as before, skim-milk blue, without markings of any kind."

From Gurhwal Mr. R. Thompson says:—"A small cup-shaped elegant nest is built by this bird suspended by fastenings from the fork of a low branch. The nest is about 21/2 inches in diameter and three-fourths of an inch in depth, composed of cobwebs, fine roots, hairs, &c., neatly interwoven and lined internally with vegetable down. The eggs, two, three, or four in number, are of a pale whitish-blue, oval, and somewhat larger than those of Arachnechthra asiatica. The birds select all kinds of trees, but the nest is always suspended. The breeding-season is about March and April, and the brood is quickly hatched and fledged.

"A nest found by me on the 22nd April, and containing four eggs, was built most ingeniously in a creeper that hung from a small tree. The birds had arranged it so that the long down-bearing tendril of the creeper blended with the nest, which in the main was composed of the material surrounding it.

"Another nest found on the 26th contained three young ones. It was built in a low branch of a large mango-tree, and might have been 12 feet from the ground. It was a neat compact structure, deeply hollow, and made up of cobwebs, fine straw, and hair, and lined with vegetable down, closely and neatly interwoven.

"The parent birds were evidently feeding the young on the ripe fruit of the Khoda or Chumroor (Ehretia laevis). I got one fruit from the old birds, being anxious to know what the young ones were getting for their dinner.

"The pairing-season commences about the end of March, when the males may be heard uttering a feeble kind of rambling song, which in reality is merely modified repetitions of a single note."

Mr. A. Anderson remarked that "the White-eye breeds throughout the North-Western Provinces and Oudh during the months of June, July, and August. The nest is a beautiful little model of the Oriole's; and according to my experience it is invariably suspended, and not fixed in the fork of small branches as stated by Jerdon. I have on several occasions watched a pair in the act of building their nest. They set to work with cobwebs, and having first tied together two or three leafy twigs to which they intend to attach their nest, they then use fine fibre of the sun (Crotalaria juncea), with which material they complete the outer fabric of their very beautiful and compact nest. As the work progresses more cobwebs and fibre of a silky kind are applied externally, and at times the nest, when tossed about by the wind (sometimes at a considerable elevation), would be mistaken by a casual observer for an accidental collection of cobwebs. The inside of the nest is well felted with the down of the madar plant, and then it is finally lined with fine hair and grass-stems of the softest kind. Sometimes the nest is suspended from only two twigs, exactly after the fashion of the Mango-birds (Oriolus kundoo); and in this case it is attached by means of silk-like fibres and fine fibre of sun for about 11/2 inch on each side; at others it is suspended from several twigs; and occasionally I have seen the leaves fixed on to the sides of the nest, thus making it extremely difficult of detection.

"In shape the nest is a perfect hollow hemisphere; one now before me measures (inside) 1.5 in diameter. The wall is about 0.3 in thickness.

"Almost all my nests have been built on the neem tree, the long slender petioles of which are admirably adapted for its suspension.

"As a rule the nest is built at a considerable height, and owing to its situation there is not a more difficult nest to take. Great numbers get washed down in a half-finished state in a heavy fall of rain.

"The eggs are, exactly as Jerdon describes them, of a pale blue, 'almost like skimmed milk,' and the usual number is three, though four are frequently laid."

"On the 7th September," writes Mr. E.M. Adam, "in my garden in Lucknow, I discovered a nest of this bird in course of construction, but when it was nearly finished the birds left it. The nest was a beautiful little cup made of fine grass and cobwebs. It was situated in a slender fork of a mango-tree about 15 feet from the ground."

Major C.T. Bingham says:—"Common both at Allahabad and at Delhi; breeds in both places in May, June, and July. All nests I have seen have been finely made little cups of fibres, bits of thread and cobwebs, lined interiorly with horsehair, generally suspended between two slender twigs at no great height from the ground."

Mr. E. Aitken writes:—"I have only actually taken one nest of the White-eye. That was in Poona (2000 feet above the sea) on the 21st July. The bird, however, builds abundantly in Poona about gardens, trees on the roadside, &c.

"This particular nest was fixed to a thin branch of a tamarind-tree on the side of a lane among gardens. It was within reach of my hand, and was attached both to the thin branch itself and to two twigs. It was well sheltered among leaves.

"The nest was a cup rather narrower at the mouth than in the middle. Its external diameter at the top was 21/2 inches; internal diameter 11/2 inch; depth 11/2 inch internally. It was composed of a variety of fibres closely interwoven with some kind of vegetable silk, and was lined principally with horsehair and very fine fibres. It contained three eggs."

Mr. Davison tells us that "the White-eye breeds on the Nilghiris in February, March, April, and the earlier part of May.

"The nest is a small neat cup-shaped structure suspended between a fork in some small low bush, generally only 2 or 3 feet from the ground, but sometimes high up, about 20 or 30 feet from the ground. It is composed externally of moss and small roots and the down from the thistle; the egg-cavity is invariably sparingly lined with hair. The eggs, two in number, are of a pale blue, like skimmed milk."

From Kotagherry Miss Cockburn remarks:—"Their nests are, I think, more elegantly finished than those of any of the small birds I have seen up here. They generally select a thick bush, where, when they have chosen a horizontal forked branch, they construct a neat round nest which is left quite open at the top. The materials they commence with are green moss, lichen, and fine grass intertwined. I have even found occasionally a coarse thread, which they had picked up near some Badagar's village and used in order to fasten the little building to the branches. The inside is carefully lined with the down of seed-pods. White-eyes' nests are very numerous here in the months of January, February, and March. They are extremely partial to the wild gooseberry bush as a site to build on. One year I found ten out of eleven nests on these bushes, the fruit of which is largely used by the aborigines of the hills. A pair once built on a thick orange-tree in our garden. We often stood quite close to one of them while sitting on the eggs, and it never showed the slightest degree of fear. They lay two eggs of a light blue colour."

Mr. Wait, writing from Conoor, says that "Z. palpebrosa breeds in April and May, building in bushes and shrubs, and making a deep round cup-shaped nest very neatly woven in the style of the Chaffinch, composed of moss, grass, and silk cotton, and sparsely lined with very fine grass and hair. The eggs are two in number, of a roundish oval shape, and a pale greenish-blue colour."

Finally Colonel Legge informs us that this species breeds in Ceylon in June, July, and August.

The eggs are somewhat lengthened ovals (occasionally rather broader), and a good deal pointed towards the small end. The shell is very fine but almost glossless; here and there a somewhat more glossy egg is met with. They are normally of a uniform very pale blue or greenish blue, without any markings whatsoever, but once in a way an egg is seen characterized by a cap or zone of a somewhat purer and deeper blue. Abnormally large and small specimens are common. They vary in length from 0.53 to 0.7, and in breadth from 0.42 to 0.58; but the average of thirty-eight eggs is 0.62 by 0.47, and the great majority of the eggs are really about this size.

229. Zosterops ceylonensis, Holdsworth. The Ceylon White-eye.

Zosterops ceylonensis, Holdsw., Hume, cat. no. 631 bis.

Colonel Legge, referring to the nidification of the Ceylon White-eye, says:—"This species breeds from March until May, judging from the young birds which are seen abroad about the latter month. Mr. Bligh found the nest in March on Catton Estate. It was built in a coffee-bush a few feet from the ground, and was a rather frail structure, suspended from the arms of a small fork formed by one bare twig crossing another. In shape it was a shallow cup, well made of small roots and bents, lined with hair-like tendrils of moss, and was adorned about the exterior with a few cobwebs and a little moss. The eggs were three in number, pointed ovals, and of a pale bluish-green ground-colour. They measured, on the average, .64 by .45 inch."

231. Ixulus occipitalis (Bl.) The Chestnut-headed Ixulus.

Ixulus occipitalis (Bl.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 250; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 624.

A nest of this species, taken by Mr. Gammie out of a small tree below Rungbee, at an elevation of about 3000 feet, was a small, somewhat shallow cup, composed almost entirely of very fine moss-roots, but with a little moss incorporated in the outer surface. Externally the nest was about 31/2 inches in diameter and 2 inches in height. The egg-cavity was about 21/4 inches by barely 11/4 inch. This nest was found on the 17th June and contained three hard-set eggs, which were thrown away!

232. Ixulus flavicollis (Hodgs.). The Yellow-naped Ixulus.

Ixulus flavicollis (Hodgs.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 259; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 623.

I have never taken a nest of the Yellow-naped Ixulus.

Mr. Gammie says:—"I have only as yet found a single nest of this species, and this was one of the most artfully concealed that I have ever seen. I found it in forest in the Chinchona reserves, at an elevation of about 5000 feet, on the 14th May. It was a rather deep cup, composed of moss and fine root-fibres and thickly lined with the latter, and was suspended at a height of about six feet amongst the natural moss, hanging from a horizontal branch of a small tree, in which it was entirely enveloped. A more beautiful or more completely invisible nest it is impossible to conceive. It contained three fresh eggs. The cup itself was exteriorly 3.7 inches in diameter and 1.9 in depth, while the cavity was 2.5 in diameter and 1.5 in depth."

The Yellow-naped Ixulus breeds, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, in the central region of Nepal and the neighbourhood of Darjeeling, laying during the months of May and June. It builds on the ground in tufts of grass, constructing its nest of moss and moss-roots, sometimes open and cup-like and sometimes globular, and lining it with sheep's wool. Mr. Hodgson figures one nest suspended from a branch, and although neither the English nor the vernacular notes confirm this, it is supported to a certain extent by Mr. Gammie's experience. At the same time, though the situation and surroundings of both seem to have been similar, Mr. Hodgson figures his nest, not cup-shaped, but egg-shaped, and with the longer diameter horizontal. Seven nests are recorded as having been taken, and all on the ground. One, cup-shaped, taken on the 7th June, 1846, which is also figured, in amongst grass and leaves on the ground, measured externally 3.5 inches in diameter, 2.5 in height, and internally 2 inches both in diameter and depth.

The full complement of eggs is said to be four. Two types of eggs are figured, both rather broad ovals, measuring about 0.75 by 0.6. The one has a buffy-white ground and is thinly speckled and streaked, except quite at the broad end, where the markings are nearly confluent, with pale dingy yellowish brown; the other has a pale earthy-brown ground, and is spotted similarly to the one just described, but with red and purple. This latter egg appears on the same plate with the suspended nest, and is, I think, doubtful.

Several nests of this species, which I owe to Captain Masson of Darjeeling, are very beautiful structures, moderately shallow and rather massive cups, externally composed of moss, and lined thickly with fine black moss-roots. The cavity of the nests may have been about 13/4 inch in diameter by less than 11/2 inch in depth, but the sides of the nests are from one inch to 2 inches in thickness, constructed of firmly compacted moss.

Other nests of this species that have since been sent me show that the bird very commonly suspends its nest to one or two twigs, not unfrequently making it a complete cylinder or egg in shape, with the entrance at one side, but always using moss, in some cases fine, in some coarse, according to the nature of the moss growing where the nest is placed, as the sole material, and lining the cavity thickly with fine black moss and fern-roots.

Dr. Jerdon tells us that at Darjeeling he has repeatedly had the nest brought to him. "It is large, made of leaves of bamboos carelessly and loosely put together, and generally placed in a clump of bamboos. The eggs are three to five in number, of a somewhat fleshy-white, with a few rusty spots."

I cannot but think that in this case wrong nests had been brought to Dr. Jerdon. The eggs that I possess are all of one type—rather elongated ovals with scarcely any gloss, and strongly recalling in shape, size, and appearance densely marked varieties of the eggs of Hirundo rustica, but with the markings rather browner and slightly more smudgy.

The eggs are typically rather elongated ovals, often slightly compressed towards the small end, sometimes rather broader and slightly pyriform. The shell is extremely fine and compact, but has scarcely any gloss; the ground-colour is sometimes pure white, sometimes has a faint brownish-reddish or creamy tinge. The markings are invariably most dense about the large end, where they form a zone or cap, regular, well defined and confluent in some specimens, irregular, ill-defined and blotchy in others. As a rule these markings, which consist of specks, spots, and tiny blotches, are comparatively thinly scattered over the rest of the egg, but occasionally they are pretty thickly scattered everywhere, though nowhere anything like so densely as at the large end. The colour of the markings is rather variable. It is a brown of varying shades, varying not only in different eggs, but there being often two shades on the same egg. Normally it is I think an umber-brown, yellower in some spots, but varying slightly in tinge, leaning to burnt umber, sienna, and raw sienna.

Other eggs subsequently obtained by Mr. Gammie are of much the same character as those already described, but one is a good deal shorter and broader, and the markings are more decided red than are some of the yellowish-brown spots observable in the eggs first obtained.

In length the eggs seem to vary from 0.76 to 0.8, and in breadth from 0.54 to 0.58.



Subfamily LIOTRICHINAE.

235. Liothrix lutea (Scop.). The Red-billed Liothrix.

Leiothrix luteus (Scop.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 250. Leiothrix callipyga (Hodgs.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 614.

The Red-billed Liothrix breeds from April to August; at elevations of from 3000 to 6000 feet, throughout the Himalayas south, as a rule, of the first snowy range and eastward of the Sutlej; west of the Sutlej I have not heard of its occurrence. It also doubtless breeds throughout the hill-ranges running down from Assam to Burmah.

Mostly the birds lay in May, affecting well-watered and jungle-clad valleys and ravines. They place their nests in thick bushes, at heights of from 2 to 8 feet from the ground, and either wedge them into some fork, tack them into three or four upright shoots between which they hang, or else suspend them like an Oriole's or White-eye's nest.

The nest varies from a rather shallow to a very deep cup, and is composed of dry leaves, moss, and lichen in varying proportions, bamboo-leaves being great favourites, bound together with slender creepers, grass-roots, fibres, &c., and lined with black horse- or buffalo-hair, or hair-like moss-roots. The nests differ much in appearance: I have seen one composed almost entirely of moss, and another of nothing but dry bamboo-sheaths, with a scrap or two of moss. They are always pretty substantial, but sometimes they are very massive for the size of the bird.

Three is certainly the usual complement of eggs.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes, this species breeds in the central mountainous region of Nepal, and lays from April to August. The nest, which is somewhat purse-shaped, is placed in some upright fork between three or four slender branches, to all of which it is more or less attached. It is composed of moss, dry leaves, often of the bamboo, and the bark of trees, and is compactly bound together with moss-roots and fibres of different kinds; it is lined with horse-hair and moss-roots, and contains generally three or four eggs.

The following note I quote verbatim:—"Central Hills, August 12th.—Male, female, and nest. Nest in a low leafy tree 5 cubits from the ground in the Shewpoori forest; partly suspended and partly rested on the fork of the branch; suspension effected by twisting part of the material round the prongs of the fork; made of moss and lichens and dry leaves, well compacted into a deep saucer-shaped cavity; 3.62 high, 4.5 wide outside, and inside 2.25 deep and 3 inches wide; eggs pale verditer, spotted brown, and ready for hatching. The bird found in small flocks of ten to twelve, except at breeding-season."

A nest sent to me last year by Mr. Gammie was found by him on the 24th April, at an elevation of about 5000 feet, in the neighbourhood of Rungbee. It was built by the side of a stream in a small bush, at a height of about 3 feet from the ground, and contained three eggs. The nest is a deep and, for the size of the bird, very massive cup, exteriorly composed entirely of broad flag-like grass-leaves, with which, however, a few slender stems of creepers are intermingled, internally of grass-roots; the egg-cavity being thinly lined with coarse, black buffalo-hair. Externally the nest is more than 5 inches in diameter and nearly 4 inches high; but the egg-cavity, which is very regularly shaped, is 21/2 inches in diameter and 2 inches in depth.

This year Mr. Gammie writes to me:—"I have taken many nests of the Red-billed Liothrix here in our Chinchona reserves, at all elevations from 3500 to 5000 feet. They breed in May and June, amongst dense scrub, placing their nests in shrubs, at heights of from 3 to 5 feet from the ground, and either suspending them from horizontal branches, or hanging them between several upright stems, to which they firmly attach them. The nest itself is cup-shaped and composed principally of dry bamboo-leaves held together by a few fibres, and a few strings of green moss wound round the outside. The lining consists of a few black hairs, and the usual number of eggs is three. A nest I recently measured was externally 4 inches in diameter and 2.7 in height, while the cavity was 2.6 across by 1.9 in depth."

Mr. Gammie subsequently found a nest on the very late date of 17th October at Rishap, Darjeeling. It contained three eggs, two of which were addled.

Dr. Jerdon says that at Darjeeling he "got the nest and eggs repeatedly; the nest made chiefly of grass, with roots and fibres, and fragments of moss, and usually containing three or four eggs, bluish, white, with a few purple and red blotches. It is generally placed in a leafy bush at no great height from the ground. Gould, quoting from Mr. Shore's notes, says that the eggs are black spotted with yellow: this is of course erroneous. I have taken the nest myself on several occasions, and killed the bird, and in every case the eggs were coloured as above."

I wish to add here, as I have abused him occasionally, that Mr. Shore was, I understand, a most excellent man, and that I have now come to the conclusion that the extraordinary fictions that he recorded about the eggs of birds can only have been due to colour-blindness of a peculiarly aggravated nature. It is not that he mistook eggs, but that he describes impossible eggs—Kingfishers' eggs variegated black and white, and here in this case black eggs spotted with yellow! Why, there are no such eggs in the whole world, I believe. On the other hand, his whole life proves that he could not have deliberately set to work to invent falsehoods. To return.

The eggs vary a good deal in shade and size, but are more or less long ovals, slightly pointed towards the lesser end. The ground-colour is a delicate very pale green or greenish blue, in one, not very common type, almost pure white, and they are pretty boldly blotched or spotted and speckled as the case may be, and clouded, most thickly towards the large end, and very often almost exclusively in a zone or cap round this latter, with various shades of red or purple and brown. Some blotches in some eggs are almost carmine-red, but the majority are brownish red or reddish brown, varying much in depth and intensity of colour. There is something Shrike-like in the markings of many eggs; and where the markings are most numerous, namely at the large end, they are commonly intermingled with streaks and clouds of pale lilac. The smaller end of the egg is often entirely free from markings. I should mention that all the eggs have a faint gloss, and that some are decidedly glossy.

They vary in length from 0.76 to 0.95, and in breadth from 0.59 to 0.66; but the average of thirty-four eggs is 0.85 by 0.62.

237. Pteruthius erythropterus (Vig.). The Red-winged Shrike-Tit.

Pteruthius erythropterus (Vig.) Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 245; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 609.

Writing from Murree, Colonel C.H.T. Marshall says:—"There is no record about the nidification of this species. Its nest is exceedingly difficult to find, and it was only by long and careful watching through field-glasses that Captain Cock discovered that there was a nest at the top of a very high chestnut-tree, to and from which the birds kept flying with building-materials in their beaks. The nest is most skilfully concealed, being at the top of the tree, with bunches of leaves both above and below. The nest, like that of the Oriole, is built pendent in a fork. It is somewhat roughly made of moss and hair. The eggs are pinky white, blotched with red, forming in some a ring round the larger end. They average 0.9 in length and 0.65 in breadth. We were fortunate enough to secure two nests; both were more than 60 feet from the ground. Breeds in the end of May, at an elevation of 7000 feet."

Captain Cock says:—"I first found this bird building its nest on the top of a high chestnut-tree at Murree in the month of May. When the nest was ready I took my friend Captain C.H.T. Marshall to be present at the taking of it, as it had never, I think, been taken before. We took the nest on the 30th May.

"It was an open flattish cup, like the nest of O. kundoo in structure, only shallower. It contained three eggs, pinky white, covered with a shower of claret spots that at the larger end formed a cap of dark claret colour. Another nest, which I took in June from the top of an oak, contained two eggs."

To Colonel Marshall and Captain Cock I am indebted for a nest and egg of this species.

The nest is a moderately deep cup, suspended between two prongs of a horizontal fork. Externally it is about 4 inches in diameter and about 3 inches in depth. The egg-cavity is nearly hemispherical, 3 inches in diameter and 1.5 in depth. It is a very loosely made structure, composed internally of not very fine roots and externally coated with green moss. Along the lines of suspension a good deal of wool is incorporated in the structure, and it is chiefly by this wool that the nest is suspended. The fork is a slender one, the prongs being from 0.3 to 0.4 in diameter.

The egg is a broad oval, a good deal pointed towards the small end. The shell is very fine and compact, and has a fine gloss. The ground-colour is white or pinky white, and is pretty thickly speckled and finely spotted all over with brownish red and a little pale inky purple. Just towards the large end the markings are very dense, and form, more or less of a confluent cap of mingled brownish red and pale lilac, the latter everywhere appearing to underlie the former.

The egg was taken on the 10th June, and measures 0.9 by 0.68.

239. Pteruthius melanotis, Hodgs. The Chestnut-throated Shrike-Tit.

Allotrius oenobarbus, Temm. apud Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 246. Allotrius melanotis, Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 611.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and figures, the Chestnut-throated Shrike-Tit breeds in Sikhim and Nepal up to an elevation of 6000 or 7000 feet. The nest is placed at a height of 6 to 10 feet from the ground, between some slender, leafy, horizontal fork, between which it is suspended like that of an Oriole or White-eye. It is composed of moss and moss-roots and vegetable fibres, beautifully and compactly woven into a shallow cup some 4 inches in diameter, and with a cavity some 2.5 in diameter and less than 1 in depth. Interiorly the nest is lined with hair-like fibres and moss-roots; exteriorly it is adorned with pieces of lichen. The eggs are two or three in number, very regular ovals, about 0.77 in length by 0.49 in width. The ground-colour is a delicate pinky lilac, and they are speckled and spotted with violet or violet-purple, the markings being most numerous towards the large end, where they have a tendency to form a mottled zone.

243. Aegithine tiphia (Linn.). The Common Iora.

Iora zeylonica (Gm.) et I. typhia (Linn.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, pp. 101, 103. Aegithine tiphia (Linn.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. nos. 467, 468.

I have already on several occasions (see especially 'Stray Feathers,' 1877, vol. v, p. 428) recorded my inability to distinguish as distinct species Ae. tiphia and Ae. zeylonica. I am quite open to conviction; but believing them, so far as my present investigations go, to be inseparable, I propose to treat them as a single species in the present notice.

The Common Iora (the genus, though possibly nearly allied, is too distinct from Chloropsis to allow me to adopt, as Jerdon does, one common trivial name for both) breeds in different localities from May to September. I have taken nests and eggs of typical examples of both supposed species, and have had them sent me with the parent birds by many correspondents; and though both vary a good deal, I am convinced that all the variations which occur in the nests and eggs of one race occur also in those of the other. If one gets only two or three clutches of the eggs of each, great differences, naturally attributed to difference of species (see Captain Cock's remarks, infra), may be detected; but I have seen more than fifty, and, so far as I am concerned, I have no hesitation in asserting that, as in the case of the birds so in that of their nests and eggs, no constant differences can be detected if only sufficiently large series are compared.

The birds build usually on the upper surface of a horizontal bough, at a height of from 10 to 25 feet from the ground. Sometimes, when the bough is more or less slanting, the nest assumes somewhat more of a pocket-shape. Occasionally it is built between three or four slender twigs, forming an upright fork; but this is quite exceptional.

As a rule nests of the Iora very closely resemble those of Leucocerca, so much so that when I sent a beautiful photograph of a nest, which I had myself watched building, of the latter species to Mr. Blyth, he unhesitatingly pronounced it to be a nest of the former. There is, however, a certain amount of difference; the Iora's nests are looser and somewhat less compact and firm. My experience does not confirm Mr. Brooks's remarks (vide infra) that they are usually shallower; on the contrary all those now before me are, as indeed all the many I can remember to have seen were, deep, thin-walled cups, which had been placed on more or less horizontal branches, not uncommonly where some upright-growing twig afforded the nest additional security. The egg-cavity averages about 2 inches in diameter, and varies from an inch to 11/4 inch in depth; the walls, composed of vegetable fibres, and varying in different specimens from only one eighth to three eighths of an inch in thickness, are everywhere thickly coated externally with cobwebs, by which also the nest is firmly attached to the branch on which it is seated, as well as, where such adjoin the nest, to any little twig springing from that branch. Interiorly they are more or less neatly lined with very fine grass-stems. The bottom of the nest in its thinnest part is rarely above one eighth of an inch in thickness, but running, as it so often does, down the curving sides of the branch, it becomes a good deal thicker, and where placed on a small branch, say not exceeding an inch in diameter, the lateral portions of the bottom of the nest are sometimes more than half an inch in thickness.

One nest which I obtained recently in the Botanical Gardens at Calcutta was built in an upright fork of four slender twigs; and in this case the bottom of the nest was obtusely conical, and at its deepest point may have been nearly an inch in depth. I have never seen a similar nest.

The eggs are normally three in number, but I have at times found only two, and these more or less incubated.

Mr. Brooks, writing of a nest he took in the Mirzapoor District, says:—"Did you ever get particulars of the nest of Iora zeylonica on the forked branch of a mango-tree 12 or 14 feet from the ground? Nest composed of the same materials as that of Leucocerca albifrontata, but not quite so neat and much more shallow; eggs salmon-coloured and spotted with pale reddish brown, intermixed with a few larger dashes of purple-grey. The bird lays in July; three eggs. This is the only nest I have not taken since I came to India the second time."

From Raipoor, Mr. F.R. Blewitt remarks:—"The Iora breeds from July to September, and certainly not, as Dr. Jerdon supposes, twice a year. Both birds assist in the building of the nests, and there evidently appears to be no choice of any particular kind of tree on which to build. I have found them indiscriminately on the mango, mowah, neem, and other trees. The nest is invariably made either just above or between the fork of two outshooting slender horizontal branches. It is very neatly made, deeply cup-shaped, of grass and fibres, with spider's web on the exterior. The maximum number of eggs is three; they are of a pale whitish colour, marked generally, chiefly at the broad end, with brownish spots. The brown spots vary in size on different eggs. I secured the first eggs on the 12th July, and the last on the 2nd September. A pair of birds were on this last date just completing their nest, which unfortunately was destroyed by the heavy rains."

Captain Cock says:—"Iora tiphia is tolerably common at Seetapoor (Oudh), and I have several times taken their nests and eggs. I may here mention that I have taken eggs of Iora zeylonica at Etawah, and that knowing the birds well, I can say that it is quite a distinct bird; although in the marking of its eggs there is a slight resemblance, yet the nests of the two species are quite different. On the 13th May I observed a nest of I. tiphia on a young mango-tree, at the edge of a croquet-ground in our garden. I shot both male and female and took the eggs; the nest was placed on the upperside of a sloping bough, was covered outside with cobweb, and lined with thin dry grass. It contained two fresh eggs of a delicate pink colour, with broad irregularly-shaped dashes of light brown down the sides of the shell, not tending to coalesce in any way at either apex. Another pair also built their nest on the edge of the same ground in another tree; but unfortunately in a weak moment I pointed out the nest to a lady friend, and as thereafter no one ever played croquet on the ground without staring at the nest, the birds got disgusted and soon deserted it."

To this I need merely add that of course typical Ae. tiphia and typical Ae. zeylonica are very distinct, but that as every intermediate form occurs, they are not, according to my views of what constitutes a species, entitled to specific separation, and that as regards nest and eggs, according to my experience, every variety in the one is to be found in the other.

Dr. Jerdon, speaking of Southern India, remarks:—"I have seen the nest and eggs on several occasions. The nest is deep, cup-shaped, very neatly made with grass, various fibres, hairs, and spiders' webs; and the eggs, two or three in number, are reddish white, with numerous darker red spots, chiefly at the thicker end. It breeds in the south of India in August and September; perhaps, however, twice a year."

Writing from South Wynaad, Mr. J. Darling (Junior) says:—"I found the nest, which with the eggs and both parents I have now sent you, in the Teriat Hills on the 24th May, at an elevation of about 2300 feet. It was placed on, and near the extremity of, a bough, at a height of about 10 feet from the ground. It is round, about 2 inches in height and the same in diameter, and the cavity was about an inch or a trifle more in depth. It is built of grass and reed-bamboo-fibres, and is coated with spider's web. It only contained two eggs."

Both parents (sexes ascertained by dissection) are in the typical tiphia plumage, without one particle of black on either head, nape, or back.

Mr. Davidson writes:—"In the Satara and Sholapur districts the cock puts on his summer plumage in May and the whole back of head, neck, and back (not rump) is glossy and black.

"This bird lays from the end of June to beginning of August. It is very shy when building and is easily caused to forsake its nest; if a single egg is taken from the nest it does not forsake it, however, but lays on (three instances this year)."

Mr. W.E. Brooks has favoured me with the following very interesting note on the habits of this Iora:—

"Ioras are very numerous and have such a variety of notes that I thought at first there were several sorts; but as far as I can see there is but one species. Iora spreads its tail in a wonderful manner, and comes spinning round and round towards the ground looking more like a round ball than a bird. All the time it descends it utters a strange note, something like that of a frog or cricket, a protracted sibilant sound. This bird is close to Liothrix and Stachyrhis, although it belongs to the plains."

Colonel Butler writes:—"A nest on the 17th August, 1880, on the outside branch of a silk-cotton tree in Belgaum about 12 feet from the ground, containing three fresh eggs.

"I found many other nests building all through the hot weather and rains; but in every single instance except the present one they were deserted before they were completed."

Major Bingham writes from Tenasserim:—"This species is common throughout the country. As a rule its nest is well hid, but one I saw in the compound of a house in Maulmain was placed in the exposed leafless fork of a tree, not above six feet from the ground. It contained no eggs when I examined it, and was deserted a day or two after. This was in the beginning of May."

Mr. Oates remarks on the breeding of this bird in Pegu:—"Nests are found chiefly in June and July, but the birds probably lay also in May."

In shape the eggs are moderately broad ovals, slightly pointed towards one end. They vary, however, a good deal, some being much more elongated than others. They are almost entirely devoid of gloss. The ground-colour is generally greyish white, but some have creamy and some a salmon tinge; typically they have numerous long streaky pale brown or reddish-brown blotches, chiefly confined to the large end, where they often seem to spring from an irregular imperfect zone of the same colour. The colour of the blotches varies a good deal. In some it is a pale greyish or purplish brown; in others decidedly reddish, or even well-marked and somewhat yellowish brown. Some pale, purplish streaks and clouds generally underlie the brown blotches where they are thickest, and there form a kind of nimbus. In some eggs the markings are confined to a narrow imperfect zone of pale purplish specks or very tiny blotches round the large end, and some of the eggs remind one of those of Leucocerca albifrontata. The peculiar streaky longitudinal character of the markings, almost wholly confined to the large end, best distinguishes the eggs of the Ioras from those of any other Indian bird with which they are likely to be confounded.

In length they vary from 0.63 to 0.76, and in breadth from 0.51 to 0.57: but the average of forty-seven eggs measured is 0.69, nearly, by a trifle more than 0.54.

246. Myzornis pyrrhura, Hodgs. The Fire-tailed Myzornis.

Myzornis pyrrboura, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 263; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 629.

I have received a single egg said to belong to the Fire-tailed Myzornis from Native Sikhim, where it was found in May in a small nest (unfortunately mislaid) which was placed on a branch of a large tree at no great height from the ground. The place where it was found had an elevation of about 10,000 feet. Although the parent bird was sent with the egg, I cannot say that I have any great confidence in its authenticity, and only record the matter quantum valeat.

The egg is a very regular, rather elongated oval. The egg was never properly blown and has been consequently somewhat discoloured. It may have been pure white, and it may have been fairly glossy when fresh, but it is now a dull ivory-white with scarcely any gloss. It measured 0.68 in length by 0.5 in breadth.

252. Chloropsis jerdoni (Bl.). Jerdon's Chloropsis.

Phyllornis jerdoni, Bl., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 97; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 463.

I have never myself found the nest of Jerdon's Chloropsis, but my friend Mr. F.R. Blewitt has sent me numerous specimens of both nests and eggs from Raipoor and its neighbourhood.

In that part of the country July and August appear to be the months in which it lays; but elsewhere its eggs have been taken in April, May, and June, so that its breeding-season is much the same as that of many of the Bulbuls. The nest is a small, rather shallow cup, at most 31/2 inches in diameter and 11/2 in depth; is composed externally entirely of soft tow-like vegetable fibre, which appears to be worked over a light framework of fine roots and slender tamarisk-stems, amongst which, some little pieces of lichen are intermingled. There is no attempt at a lining, the eggs being laid on the fine grass and slender twigs (about the thickness of an ordinary-sized pin) which compose the framework of the nest.

The eggs as a rule appear to be two in number.

Mr. Blewitt remarks:—"The Green Bulbul breeds in July and August. The bird does not preferentially select any one description of tree for its nest, though the greater number secured were taken from mowah trees (Bassia latifolia). The nest is generally firmly affixed at the fork of the end twigs of an upper branch from 15 to 25 feet from the ground. Sometimes, however, eschewing twigs, the bird constructs its nest on the top of the main branch itself, cunningly securing it with the material to the rough exterior surface of the branch. Three is certainly the maximum number of eggs. During the period of nidification the parent birds are very watchful and noisy, and their alarm and over-anxiety on the near approach of a stranger often betray the nest."

The late Captain Beavan recorded the following interesting note in regard to this species:—

"This handsome bird is very abundant in Manbhoom, where it is called 'Hurrooa' by the natives. Its note is so much like that of Dicrurus ater that I have frequently been deceived by the resemblance. It breeds in the district. A nest with two eggs was brought to me at Beerachalee on April 4th, 1865. It is built at the fork of a bough and neatly suspended from it, like a hammock, by silky fibres, which are firmly fixed to the two sprigs of the fork, and also form part of the bottom and outside of the nest. The inside is lined with dry bents and hairs. The eggs (creamy white with a few light pinky-brown spots) are rather elongated, measuring 0.85 by 0.62. Interior diameter of nest 2.25, depth 1.5. The cry of alarm of this species is like that of Parus major"

Dr. Jerdon remarked ('Illustrations of Indian Ornithology'), writing at the time from Southern India:—

"I have seen a nest of this species in the possession of S.N. Ward, Esq. It is a neat but slightly cup-shaped nest, composed chiefly of fine grass, and was placed near the extremity of a branch, some of the nearest leaves being, it was said, brought down and loosely surrounding it. It contained two eggs, white, with a few claret-coloured blotches. Its nest and eggs, I may remark, show an analogy to that of the Orioles."

Mr. Layard tells us that this species is "extremely common in the south of Ceylon, but rare towards the north. It feeds in small flocks on seeds and insects, and builds an open cup-shaped nest. The eggs, four in number, are white, thickly mottled at the obtuse end with purplish spots."

And Sir W. Jardine says:—"For the interesting nest and eggs of Phyllornis jerdoni, Blyth, we are indebted to E.S. Layard, Esq., Magistrate of the district of Point Pedro (the northernmost extremity of Ceylon), in which district we understand it to have been procured. A large groove along the underside of the nest indicates it to have been placed upon a branch; the general form is somewhat flat, and it is composed of very soft materials, chiefly dry grass and silky vegetable fibres, rather compactly interwoven with some pieces of dead leaf and bark on the outside, over which a good deal of spider's web has been worked. It contains four eggs, white, abruptly speckled over with dark bistre mingled with some ashy spots." Layard is not generally reliable where eggs are concerned, for he did not usually take them with his own hands and natives will lie; and I doubt the four eggs here, but I think, so far as the nest goes, that he was right in this case.

The eggs are rather elongated ovals; some of them a good deal pointed towards one end, others again slightly pyriform. The shell is very delicate; the ground-colour white to creamy white; as a rule almost glossless, in some specimens slightly glossy. They are sparingly marked, usually chiefly at the large end, with spots, specks, small blotches, hair-lines, or hieroglyphic-like figures, which are typically almost black, but which in some eggs are blackish, or even reddish, or purplish brown. In no specimens that I have seen were the markings at all numerous, except just at the large end; and in some they consist solely of a few tiny specks, scattered about the crown of the egg.

The eggs vary from 0.8 to 0.92 in length, and from 0.56 to 0.63 in breadth; but the average of a dozen was 0.86 by 0.6.

254. Irena puella (Lath.). The Fairy Blue-bird.

Irena puella (Lath.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 105; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no 469.

Mr. Frank Bourdillon favoured me with an egg of the Fairy Blue-bird, which with other rare eggs he obtained on the Assamboo Hills. So little is known of this range that I quote his remarks upon this locality.

"I must premise that the specimens were obtained along the Assamboo Range of hills, between the elevations of 1500 and 3000 feet above sea-level. This range of hills, running in a north-westerly and south-easterly direction from Cape Comorin to 8 deg.33' north latitude, forms the boundary line between Travancore and the British Territory of Tinnevelly, the average height of the range being about 4000 feet, while some of the peaks are as high as 5500 feet. The general character of the hills is dense forest, broken here and there by grass ridges and crowned by precipitous rocks, above which lies an almost unexplored table-land, varying in width from a mile to 12 or 15 miles, at an elevation of almost 4000 feet."

"The egg of the Fairy Blue-bird," he adds, "was taken slightly set on the 28th February, 1873, from a loose sparsely-built nest situated in a sapling about 12 feet from the ground. The nest was composed of dead twigs lined with leaves, and was about 4 inches broad and very slightly indented."

As will be remembered, Dr. Jerdon states that "Mr. Ward obtained, what he was informed were, the nest and eggs; the nest was large, made of roots and fibres and lined with moss; and the eggs, two in number, were pale greenish, much spotted with dusky:" and I have no doubt that Mr. Ward's eggs were genuine.

The egg is an elongated oval, compressed almost throughout its entire length, very blunt at both points; a long cone, the apex broadly truncated and rounded off obtusely, sealed on half a very oblate spheroid. In no one single point—shape, texture of shell, colour or character of markings—does this egg approach to those of either the Oriole or the Chloropsis. This shell is very close-grained and fine, but only moderately glossy. The ground is pale green, and it is streaked and blotched with pale dull brown. The markings are almost entirely confluent over the large end (where they appear to be underlaid by dingy, dimly discernible greyish blotches), and from the cap thus formed they descend in streaky mottlings towards the small end, growing fewer and further apart as they approach this latter, which is almost devoid of markings.

It is impossible to generalize from a single specimen as to the position this bird should hold, but this one egg renders it quite certain to my mind that the nearest allies of Irena are neither Oriolus nor Chloropsis, and that it is quite impossible to place it with the Dicruridae. The eggs of Psaroglossa spiloptera are not very dissimilar, and I expect that it is somewhere between the Paradiseidae, Sturnidae, and Icteridae that Irena will ultimately have to be located.

The egg measures 1.1 by 0.73.

Mr. Fulton Bourdillon writes:—"The last note I have to send you at present is that of a Blue-bird's nest (Irena puella). Of this there can be no possible doubt, as my brother and I shot both the male and female birds, and I took the nest with my own hands. It was in a pollard tree beside a stream among some thick branches about 20 feet from the ground. The nest was neatly but very loosely constructed of fresh green moss, which formed the bulk of the nest, and lined with the flower-stalks of a jungle shrub. It was very well concealed, and was about 4 inches broad with a cavity not more than 11/2 inch deep. It contained two eggs slightly set, measuring respectively 1.11 x .84 and 1.16 x .81. These eggs tally very fairly in colour, shape, and size with those sent last year; of the identity of which I was doubtful at the time, though now I think there can be no mistake.

"Since writing last I have had another nest of Irena puella brought me with two fresh eggs. The nest was very loosely put together and similar in all respects to the one last sent. The eggs measure .95 x .81 and .92 x .79, with the same well-defined ring round the larger end. The nest was in a small tree about 10 feet from the ground and was well concealed. It was composed of twigs, without any lining."

The nest sent me by Mr. Bourdillon is a very flimsy affair, reminding one much of the nest of Graucalus macii and not in the smallest degree of that of an Oriole. A mere pad, some 4 inches in diameter, composed of very thin twigs or dry flower-stalks with a couple of dead leaves intermingled, and an external coating of green moss.

Major C.T. Bingham has favoured me with the following notes from Tenasserim:—"At the sources of the Winsaw stream, a feeder of the Thoungyeen river, on the 30th April I found a nest of this bird, a mere irregularly roundish pad of moss with very little depression in the centre, containing two fresh eggs, and placed 12 feet or so above the ground in the fork of an evergreen sapling. The eggs measure 1.18 x 0.86 and 1.19 x 0.86 respectively, and are so thickly spotted and blotched with brown as to show very little of the ground-colour, which latter, however, appears to be of a greenish white.

"On the 11th April I was slowly clambering along a very steep hill-side overlooking the Queebaw choung, a small tributary of the Meplay stream, when from a tree whose crown was below my feet I startled a female Irena puella off her nest. I could see the nest and that it contained two eggs, so I shot the female, who had taken to a tree a little above me. On getting the nest down, I found it a poor affair of little twigs, with a superstructure of moss, shaped into a shallow saucer, on which reposed two eggs, large for the size of the bird, of a dull greenish white, much dashed, speckled, and spotted with brown. They were so hard-set that I only managed to save one, which measured 1.09 by 0.77 inch."

Mr. Davison writes:—"At Kussoom, in some moderately thin tree-jungle I found the nest of Irena puella. The nest was placed in the fork of a sapling some 12 feet from the ground. The nest externally was composed of dry twigs, carelessly and irregularly put together. The egg-cavity was shallow, not more than 1.5 inch at its deepest part, and it was lined with finer twigs, fern-roots, and some yellowish fibre. The nest contained two fresh eggs."

Two eggs, taken by Mr. Davison at Kussoom in the north of the Malay Peninsula, to which the Malayan form does not extend, are rather elongated ovals, with a slightly pyriform tendency. The shell is fine, smooth, and compact, and has a perceptible gloss. The ground-colour is greenish white; round the large end is a huge, smudgy, irregular zone of reddish brown and inky grey, the one colour predominating in the one egg, the other in the other. Inside the zone are specks and spots of the same colours, and below the zone streaks and spots of these same colours, thinly set, stretched downwards towards the small end of the egg.

Other eggs subsequently received are very similar to that first sent by Mr. Bourdillon, except that in shape they are more regular ovals, and that the brown markings in some have a reddish and in some a purplish tinge, and that in some eggs the mottings and markings are pretty thick even at the small end.

In length they seem to vary from 1.08 to 1.2 inch and in breadth from 0.73 to 0.88 inch.

In some eggs the ground appears to have no green tinge, but is simply a greyish white. In one egg the markings are all of one colour, a sort of chocolate-brown, a dense almost confluent mass of mottlings in a broad irregular zone round the large end and elsewhere pretty thickly set over the entire surface of the egg. They have always a certain amount of gloss, but are never very glossy.

257. Mesia argentauris, Hodgs. The Silver-eared Mesia.

Leiothrix argentauris (Hodgs.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 251. Mesia argentauris, Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 615.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes, the Silver-eared Mesia breeds in the low-lands of Nepal, laying in May and June. The nest is placed in a bushy tree, between two or three thin twigs, to which it is attached. It is composed of dry bamboo and other leaves, thin grass-roots and moss, and is lined inside with fine roots. Three or four eggs are laid: one of these is figured as a broad oval, much pointed towards one end, measuring 0.8 by 0.6, having a pale green ground with a few brownish-red specks, and a close circle of spots of the same colour round the large end.

Dr. Jerdon brought me two eggs from Darjeeling, which he believed to belong to this species. They much resemble those of Liothrix lutea. They are oval, scarcely pointed at all towards the lesser end, and are faintly glossed. The ground-colour of one is greenish, the other creamy, white, and both are spotted and streaked, chiefly in an irregular zone near the large end, with different shades of red and purple. The markings are smaller than those of the preceding species. Further observations are necessary to confirm the authenticity of the eggs.

They measure 0.85 and 0.87 by 0.65.

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:—"I have taken about half a dozen nests of this bird. They closely resemble those of Liothrix lutea in size and structure and are similarly situated, but instead of having the egg-cavity lined with dark-coloured material, as that species has, all I found had light-coloured linings; such was even the case with one nest I found within three or four yards of a nest of the other species.

"The eggs are usually four in number."

Other eggs obtained by Mr. Gammie correspond with those given me by Dr. Jerdon. They are as like the eggs of L. lutea as they can possibly be, and if there is any difference, it consists in the markings of the present species being as a body smaller and more speckled than those of L. lutea.

The six eggs that I have vary in length from 0.82 to 0.9, and in breadth from 0.6 to 0.65.[A]

[Footnote A: There is in the Tweeddale collection a skin of a young nestling of this species procured by Limborg on Muleyit mountain in Tenasserim in the second week of April. On the label attached to the specimen is a note to the effect that the nest from which the nestling was taken was made of moss.—ED.]

258. Minla igneitincta, Hodgs. The Red-tailed Minla.

Minla ignotincta, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 254: Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 618.

The Red-tailed Minla, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes and figures, breeds in the central region of Nepal and near Darjeeling, during May and June. It builds a beautiful rather deep cup-shaped nest of mosses, moss-roots, and some cow's hair, lined with these two latter. The nest is placed in the fork of three or four slender branches of some bushy tree, at no great elevation from the ground, and is attached to one or more of the stems in which it is placed by bands of moss and fibres. A nest taken on the 24th May measured externally 3.28 inches in diameter and 2.25 in height; internally the cavity was 2 inches in diameter and 1.62 in depth. They lay from two to four eggs, of a pale verditer-blue ground, speckled and spotted pretty boldly with brownish red. An egg is figured as a regular rather broad oval, measuring 0.78 by 0.55.

On the other hand, Dr. Jerdon says:—"Its nest has been brought to me, of ordinary shape, made of moss and grass, and with four white eggs, with a few rusty red spots."

260. Cephalopyrus flammiceps (Burton). The Fire-cap.

Cephalopyrus flammiceps (Burt.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 267; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 633.

Writing from Murree, Colonel C.H.T. Marshall tells us:—"On the 25th May we found the nest of this species (the Fire-cap) in a hole in a rotten sycamore-tree about 15 feet from the ground. The nest was a neatly made cup-shaped one, formed principally of fine grass. We were unfortunately too late for the eggs, as we found four nearly fledged young ones, showing that these birds lay about the 15th April. Elevation, 7000 feet."

Captain Cock says:—"I found a nest in the stump of an old chestnut-tree at Murree. The nest was about 13 feet from the ground near the top of the stump, placed in a natural cavity: it was constructed of fine grass and roots carefully woven and was of a deep cup shape. It contained five fully fledged young ones. The end of May was the time when I found this, and I have never yet succeeded in finding another."

261. Psaroglossa spiloptera (Vigors). The Spotted-wing.

Saroglossa spiloptera (Vig.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 336; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 691.

Personally I know nothing of the nidification of the Spotted-wing.

Captain Hutton tells us that "this species arrives in the hills about the middle of April in small parties of five or six, but it does not appear to ascend above 5500 to 6000 feet, and is therefore more properly an inhabitant of the warm valleys. I do not remember seeing it at Mussoorie, which is 6500 to 7000 feet, although at 5200 feet on the same range it is abundant during summer. Its notes and flight are very much those of the Starling (Sturnus vulgaris), and it delights to take a short and rapid flight and return twittering to perch on the very summit of the forest trees. I have never seen it on the ground, and its food appears to consist of berries.

"Like the two species of Acridotheres, it nidificates by itself in the holes of trees, lining the cavity with bits of leaves. The eggs are usually three, or sometimes four or five, of a delicate pale sea-green speckled with blood-like stains, which sometimes tend to form a ring near the larger end; shape oval, slightly tapering."

The eggs are so different in character from those of all the Starlings that doubts might reasonably arise as to whether this species is placed exactly where it ought to be by Jerdon and others. I possess at present only three eggs of this bird, which I owe to Captain Hutton. They are decidedly long ovals, much pointed towards the small end, and in shape and coloration not a little recall those of Myiophoneus temmincki. The eggs are glossless, of a greenish or greyish-white ground, more or less profusely speckled and spotted with red, reddish brown, and dingy purple. In two of the eggs the majority of the markings are gathered into a broad irregular speckled zone round the large end. In the third egg there is just a trace of such a zone and no markings at all elsewhere. In length they vary from 1.03 to 1.08, and in breadth from 0.68 to 0.74.[A]