2 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1890. 



streaked, spotted, speckled, and blotched with various shades of 

 brownish-red. One clutch I have is a pale sea-green, sparingly but 

 beautifully blotched with reddish-brown, and having smudges of 

 faint inky purple at the larger end. In another clutch the ground- 

 colour is a bluish-green. The markings are usually much more 

 numerous at the larger end, where they often form an imperfect zone 

 or cap. Often the markings are so thick as to leave little of the 

 ground colour visible. 



They vary much in size, but the average is 0*87 inches in length 

 by rather more than - 66 in breadth. 



Mr. Davidson tells me that, according to his experience, this bird 

 seems to breed only in the West part of the Presidency ; thus, he 

 has taken its nest in Satara and the western talukas of Nassick, never 

 in Khandeish, Sholapur, or the eastern Nassick talukas. In Kanara 

 it swarms, breeding from the middle of March to the rains. 



After the eggs are hatched, the birds are very quarrelsome, boldly 

 attacking any other bird or animal that approaches the nest. 



The young are easily reared by placing them in a cage accessible 

 to the parent birds, who will attend and feed them in the same way 

 that the Golden Oriole does. They have a sweet song, which is heard 

 to most advantage in the early morning during the breeding season. 



Poona, April to June. R. E. Barnes. 



Bombay, 18th March to June. ,, 



Satara, Middle of March to Jane. J. Daridson, C.S. 



Western Nassich, „ „ „ 



Kanara, 



Baroda, ,, „ II. Littlcdale, B.A. 



476.— THE SHAMA. 



Cercotrichas macrura, Gin. 



The Shama only occurs in the southern portion of the Presidency, 

 where it is a permanent resident, but I can find no record of a nest 

 having actually been taken there. 



Mr. Davidson notes — "Common though this bird is in the above 

 ghat portion of Kanara, from March to May, and probably all the 

 year, I not only never got a nest (the birds were then breeding), but 

 I never managed to shoot a hen-bird." 



