NOTES ON NWIFICAT10N TN KANAKA. 337 



fledged ; while in the three other cases, the holes though completed, or 

 almost completed, contain Dothing. The sixth nest, <m the other haud, 

 is at the exl reme end of a dead branch, high up. You take every care, 

 have a rope tied round the branch, and haviug successf ully cut it, 

 proceed to Lower it ; it is however no use ; just as you get a hold of the 

 cut stump, the top breaks, and the eggs are scattered at your feet. 

 This has happened to me more than once, and I possess but one egg, 

 taken at Ekambe, in Sirsi, in March, 1890. It is impossible to judge 

 from one specimen, but it seems smaller, and thicker-shelled than 

 the majority of the eggs of Hcemacephala. 



224.— THE LITTLE SPIDER HUNTER. 



Arachnothera longirostra, Lath. 



This is a shy bird, and one, I think, rare in Kanara. I have only 

 seen it on a few occasions, and these all in gardens above the ghats. 

 I have taken, or had brought to me, 4 or 5 of its nests ; and most 

 wonderful structures they are. The bird chooses a large plantain 

 leaf a few feet from the ground, and to its underside sews its nest. 

 This is composed of skeleton leaves an inch or two thick, and nearly 

 a foot, in some cases, in length. It has an entrance at each end, and 

 in the middle there is a hollow thickly padded with fine grass. I 

 have always found two eggs or young ; the nests have always been 

 found by me in February or March. The eggs resemble both in 

 size and general appearance those of Pratincola caprafa, but are 

 slightly smaller, they are a pale pink, with a narrow, but very dark 

 pink ring round the larger end ; altogether a very striking egg, not 

 mistakeable for any other I know. 



233.— THE TINY HONEY-SUCKER. 

 Arachnechthra minima, S//kes. 

 This is the commonest Honey-sucker in Kanara, in the imme- 

 diate neighbourhood of the ghats, but is not found in the east 

 of the district. It breeds from the middle of December to February. 

 Its nest is a very beautiful one, built of green moss, adorned with 

 the white webs of spiders and red ants. It is a neat little pocket, 

 slightly smaller than that of either Zeylonica or Asiatica. I have 

 found it occasionally suspended from bamboos or branches up to 

 twenty feet from the ground, but two-thirds of the nests are on the 



