MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 857 



such trees as limes and guavas for building upon, or a prickly bush may be 

 chosen. The eggs, which seem to be always two in number, somewhat 

 resemble those of A. asiatica, but are as a rule of a decidedly more greenish 

 ground colour. 



905. Plain- coloured Sunbird — AntJiothreptes simplex. 



I record this, subject to correct identification of the female, which was 

 shot oft' the nest. This was found on March 17, 1918, in scrub near the sea, 

 and was made of grass, and very thickly felted inside with soft silky 

 pappus probably from a Calotropis, or some similar plant. It was suspended 

 like a sunbird's nest and had a similar portico, but otherwise in general 

 appearance rather resembles a Munia's nest. The eggs are very pale lilac, 

 with purplish clouds at the large end, and a very few deep purple (almost 

 black), splashes and scriggles elsewhere on the eggs, in one of which the 

 markings are mostly ;^at the small end : the eggs measure 0*74 x 0"50 : 

 0-72 X 0--50. 



939. Dusky Broadbill — Corydon sumatranus. 



On the same day on which 1 found the Flatysmurus'' nest, and not very 

 far from it, whilst following the course of the stream through heavy ever- 

 green forest, my attention was attracted by an enormous mass of moss 

 and debris suspended from the tip of a cane. I could not at first believe 

 that this was the nest of a bird, but investigation revealed the iinmistak- 

 able entrance hole, and a little shaking of a convenient creeper caused the 

 bird to take flight Making sure from the closeness with which it sat 

 that the nest contained eggs, at considerable trouble we got down the nest 

 intact from a height of about forty feet, when to my great disgust I found 

 that it contained four newly hatched young. It was seven feet in length, 

 and must have weighed fully ten pounds, and was composed of coarse dry 

 moss, to which all sorts of odds and ends, pieces of sticks, leaves, cocoons, 

 and so on had been added. The entrance hole and the nest cavity were 

 placed about the middle of the mass, all of which had undoubtedly been 

 placed in position by the birds, and it would be interesting to know how 

 long a time was occupied in building the nest, whether it represented the 

 accumulation of several years. We replaced the nest as far as possible in 

 its orignal position, but I was unable to visit the spot again. 



940. Black and Red Broadbill. — Cymhorhynchus macrorhynchus. 



The nests of this species are simply smaller editions of that just des- 

 cribed, but are none the less very large untidy-looking structures. They 

 are built as a rule on an isolated tree either in a swampy open space, or 

 if in the forest, on the bank of a stream or where there is an open patch, 

 and never far from water. They are always suspended from the tip of a 

 branch, sometimes at a considerable height from the ground. Last year 

 we were very unlucky, as although Mackenzie and I found numerous nests 

 in April, nearly all were empty. Probably the birds are early breeders, 

 as this year I have taken two nests with eggs during the first week in 

 March. All the eggs taken are of the cream or fawn coloured type, very 

 heavily speckled all over with amber brown, and average about 1"0.5 X 

 0"75. The nests are, after the usual Broadbill fashion, lined with green 

 leaves, which are not however renewed as incubation proceeds ; the normal 

 clutch appears to be three. 



942. Gould's Broadbill — Serilophus lunatus. 



On March 12, truly a red letter day, I found no less than seven nests 

 of this bird, all suspended from bushes in or near the same stream where 

 the Flatysmurus and Corydon nests were found. These nests are made of 

 green moss and are much more neatly and tidily built than are those of 

 Cymhorhynchus. In size, too, they are not exaggerated, and are more or less 

 spherical, with a diameter of about six inches. The full clutch appears to 



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