MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 669 



open forest or away from the immediate vicinity of a wet well wooded 

 nullah. The bird is not gregarious. I have never been fortunate enough 

 to find the nest of the Large Brown Thrush, although I am convinced that 

 it breeds here, as it remains throughout the year being certainly more 

 common during the winter months. Some years ago, whilst upon a short 

 visit before I had taken up my abode in Buisar ; the late Mrs. Goban, a 

 keen observer of birds, showed me a nest which she declared to be that of 

 Z. monticola ; the nest contained one egg, pale green, with rather pale brown 

 blotches, the nest itself was cup shaped, neatly constructed of moss and 

 lined with fibre and was built in the first bifurcation of a holly tree about 

 six feet from the ground and almost touching the bank which rose steeply 

 from the bed of the nullah. By standing on a boulder the inside of the 

 nest was clearly observable. I suggested that the nest might be that of 

 an ouzel, but Mrs. Goban declared she had seen the bird leave the nest 

 which indeed had let to its discovery, and was quite certain that the bird 

 was the Large Brown Thrush. I had to leave the next day, and so was 

 unable to prosecute inquiries, but heard afterwards that the nest had 

 been destroyed. 



Hume in his Nests and Eggs, 2nd Edition, makes no reference to Z. 

 monticola, but gives an account of a nest of the Purple Thrush taken 

 in the same nullah by Home many years ago, the indentification of which 

 was obviously open to question, owing to the circumstances under which 

 the bird was obtained and makes me wonder whether the nest was not 

 that of Z. monticola, as the description of Home's nest and eggs tallies 

 completely with the one found by Mrs. Goban. The Purple Thrush is, at 

 any rate, at the present time, an exceedingly rare bird. I have not seen 

 it myself once in the past five years during which I have been a close 

 observer of the birds in the neighbourhood, and think it quite possible 

 that Home mistook Z. monticola for CocJwa ptirpurea. However in a foot- 

 note on page 111 of Nests and Eggs the Editor states that now that the 

 history of these Thrushes is better known, there is little doubt that Home's 

 nest really belonged to C. ptirpurea. 



S. J. MARTIN. 

 BiNSAR House, 



KuMAON^ 30th December 1918. 



No. XV.— NIDTFICATION OF THE SMALLER STREAKED 

 SPIDER-HUNTER {ARACHNOTHERA AURATA). 



During June and July 1918, when camped at the foot of the Pegu Yomas, 

 in Prome Division, at the headwaters of the Shwele River, I shot 2 or o 

 specimens of Arachnothera aurata, the Smaller Streaked Spider-hunter, 

 (Blanford's No. 907) and found them just ready to breed. The birds 

 are by no means rare in this immediate locality, and distinctly conspicuous 

 from their habit of sitting on a branch and twisting their heads, and stretch- 

 ing their necks, and their dumpy unbalanced figure owing to their short 

 tails and long bills. On July 24th, I noticed one fly past my te with a 

 thread of silk or cotton in its bill, but a long search failed to bring its nest 

 to light. Several other hunts brought no better luck. 



On July 28th, 1 was out doing a long day's logging. As I was walking 

 along a rather slippery felled teak, 1 put out a hand on to a creeper 

 growing beside it to steady myself. From right under my hand, an Arach- 

 nothera aurata flew out, and after a very short search I found its nest, 

 containing 2 eggs. The creeper had been pushed aside 5 days before, to 

 get at the tree to fell it, when the fellers had found the nest ; luckily the 



