726 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XV. 



Ventrals 377. Anterior, well developed, smooth, entire, and nearly twice the 

 breadth of adjacent rows. Midbody — Bi and trituberculate ; many divided. 

 Posterior — Bi and trituberculately, mostly divided. Anal 7 fid, small. 



F. WALL, C.M.Z.S., 



Captain, I.M.S. 

 Cannanore, 1st May, 1904. 



No. XXVII —THE EGGS OF THE SMALL SUN-BIRD 

 (ARACHNECTHRA MINIMA). 



In the last number of the Society's Journal, page 473, there is a most interest- 

 ing article on the birds of Travancore, by Mr. H. S. Fergusson. In it I notice 

 he refers to Mr. Bourdillon's notes as to the eggs of Arachnecthra minima being 

 minatenrs of those of Arach. asiatica. 



Now this has been stated before in Oates's " Nests and Eggs " with regard to 

 nests taken on the Nilgherries. I wish Mr. Fergusson had mentioned if he 

 had personally ever come across such eggs, as it is evident either a mistake 

 having been once made about this bird it is again and again repeated, or that 

 the bird lays in different places totally different eggs. In Kanara and about 

 Matheran near Bombay the bird is very common, but breeds early in the year, 

 generally in December and January, and I must have examined forty or fifty 

 of their nests. In no one of these could the eggs or nests have been mistaken 

 for either zeylonica or asiatica. 



The nests of minima I have always found made of bright green moss orna- 

 mented with broad bands of white material, suspended in nine cases out of ten 

 at about three feet from the ground on the edge of a plant of Stfobilanihus. 

 They were much smaller than the brown fibre-built nests of the two larger 

 honey-suckers. 



The eggs, of which I must have seen fifty, were all similar. They Were consi- 

 derably smaller, and more blunt than asiatica, and instead of being greeni^h- 

 white, thickly spotted with greenish-brown, were clear white, minutely spotb d, 

 on the larger end with purple, forming a well-defined zone round the larger end. 

 I hope Mr. Bonrdillon if still in Travancore, or Mr Fergusson, will be able to 

 clear up the matter. 



J. DAVIDSON. 

 Edinburgh, 2~)th April 11)04. 



No. XXVIII— OCCURRENCE OF THE CEYLON WHITE-EYE 

 (ZOSTEROPS CEYLONENSIS) IN THE NILGHERRIES. 



It may bo worth recording that on the 5th June 1903 I shot a specimen of 

 the Ceylon White-Eye (Zosferojjs Ceyluumsis) at Coonoor, in the Nilgherries, 

 and that several birds, of this species, were observed by me at the time. 



D. G. HATCHWELL. 

 Madras, \hth May, 1904. 



