MISGELLANEOUS NOTES, '.. 8,55 



above, as it was built in a tangle of creepers and was composed entirely of 

 dry leaves, not a scrap of 2;reen moss being used, although this material 

 was readily available. This nest was for some reason deserted, and a new 

 one was commenced a few yards away, this time on the frond of a tree 

 fern ; on May 10 a friend went to take the eggs for me, but though the 

 bird was seen on the nest, there were no eggs, and T presume she deserted 

 again, as I never got the eggs. A third nest, with two fresh eggs, was found 

 on April 30, this time in a hanging bamboo, and was in all respects similar 

 to that of Dryonastes chinensis, for which I mistook it till the parent birds 

 put in an appearance. The evidence 8,t present available thus goes to show 

 that T. melanostigma is very irregular in its choice of nesting site and mate- 

 rial and is only constant in always selecting a deep moist ravine in which 

 to build its nest. The two eggs taken this year difler in no way from the 

 one described above. 



118. Tenasserim Scimitar Babbler — Pomatorliinus olivaceus. 



Common and noisy in bamboo forest. A very neat nest, with three 

 fresh eggs was found near the head waters of the Tavoy river, on March 7. 

 It was placed in a large crevice between the roots of a tree, and was com- 

 posed externally of bamboo leaves, and neatly lined with tine grass, but 

 although so tidily built and apparently compact it fell to pieces when 

 removed. The nest was of course domed, and both it and the eggs were 

 in all respects typical. 



160. Abbott's Babbler — Turdinus abhotti. 



Was found breeding commonly in the heavy evergreen at the end of 

 February and beginning of March. The full clutch appears to be three, 

 but sometimes only two are laid. Nests and eggs precisely as described 

 by Hume, but the latter are subject to a good deal of colour variation 

 inter se. 



175. Eed-winged Babbler — Cyanoderma erythroptenim. 



The nest much resembles that of Mixornis, but is more massive, loosely 

 made of bamboo leaves, and neatly rounded and lined with fine grass 

 inside. It was placed in a small cane plant near the ground and contained 

 two incubated eggs on April 16. These eggs differ from those taken by 

 Stuart Baker's collectors in that they are unspotted, and of a white colour, 

 very faintly tinged with blue. They measure 0-66 xO'oO. The bird was 

 seen to leave the nest by Mackenzie and myself, and was shot by me in 

 his presence on its return, so there can be no doubt as to the correctness 

 of the identification of the esgs, which appear, however, to be abnormal in 

 colouration. 



177. Sumatran Yellow-breasted Babbler — Mixornis gularis. 



The nest and eggs of this bird, which is of course nothing but a geogra- 

 phical race of M. rubricapillus, as might be expected exactly resemble those 

 of the latter species. A nest with two fresh eggs was brought to me in 

 Mergui on April 27, 191f5, together with the parent bird (alive), which 

 had been snared on the nest. 



218. Tickell's Staphidia — Staphidia striata. 



Common on Nwalabo at an elevation of about 3,000 feet, where it breeds 

 freely in holes in road cuttings. Numerous nests were found during the 

 first week in May 1918, but with the exception of one nest these were 

 empty, and some showed signs of having been occupied by young birds. 

 It is probably a fairly early breeder, as at the end of April 1919 I found 

 a lot of nests with fresh eggs, or rather egg-shells, as in every case the 

 eggs had been sucked, I suspect by tree-shrews, which are exceedingly 

 common. The nests are made of moss and lined with bast fibres, and 

 except for the fact that they are cup-shaped, they rather recall the nest 

 of a mouse. 



