56 ORATEEOPODID^. 



which the beautiful sky-blue and maroon-spotted eggs repose. 

 Externally the nests may average about 6 inches in diameter, but 

 the egg-cavity is comparatively large and very regular, measuring 

 about 3| inches across and fully 2| inches in depth. Some nests 

 of course are less regular and artistic in their appearance, but, as a 

 rule, those of this species are particularly beautiful. 



The eggs vary from two to four in number. 



Sir E. C. Buck sent me the following note : — 



" I found a nest of this species near Narkunda (about 30 miles 

 north of Simla) on the 26th June. It was placed on the branch 

 of a banj tree, some 8 feet from the ground, and contained two 

 eggs, half set. Nest and eggs forwarded." 



Dr. Jerdon says that Shore, as quoted by Gould in his ' Century,' 

 says that " it is by no means uncommon in Kumaon, where it 

 frequents shady ravines, building in hollows and their precipitous 

 sides, and making its nest of small sticks and grasses, the eggs 

 being five in number, of a sky-blue colour." But Shore, as the 

 showman would say, is, so far as eggs and nests are concerned, " a 

 fabulous writer," and the eggs are always more or less spotted, and 

 no nest that I ever saw of this species was composed of " small 

 sticks." 



Mr. Blyth says : — " Mr. Hodgson figures a green egg, spotted 

 much like that of Turdus mitsiciis, as that of the present species ; " 

 but in all Hodgson's drawings this green represents a r/t'eenish 

 hive, as I have tested in dozens of cases. 



Colonel Cx. E. L. Marshall remarks : — " I found a nest of this 

 species on the 15th May at Nynee Tal on the top of Ayar Pata, at an 

 elevation of about 7500 feet above the sea. The nest was a rather 

 deep cup, neatly made and placed about 5 feet from the ground 

 amongst the outer twigs of a thick barberry bush, the leaves of 

 which entirely concealed it. It was composed of a thick layer of 

 dead oak- and rhododendron-leaves, bound round outside with just 

 enough of grass-stems and moss to keep the leaves in place; it had 

 no lining of any description. The egg-cavity was 3^ inches broad 

 by nearly 2| inches deep. The eggs, two in number, were blue, 

 with a few spots, streaks, and scrawls of brown tending to form a 

 zone at the larger end. They were large for the size of the bird. 

 The ground-colour was like that of the eggs of a Song-Thrush in 

 England. 



" Several more nests found subsequently with eggs up to 4th 

 June were similar in structure, but placed in small oak trees from 

 5 to 15 or 18 feet from the ground. 



" I found a nest of this species containing a single hard-set egg 

 on the 17th August ; both parent-birds were by the nest; this is 

 unusually late, the chief breeding-month being June." 



The eggs are very long ovals, of a delicate pale greenish-blue 

 ground-colour, with a few spots, streaks, and streaky blotches of a 

 very rich though slightly brownish red at the large end. These 

 eggs, though somewhat longer in shape and less freely marked, are 

 exactly of the same type as those of T. cacMnnans and T. variegatum. 



