LARVIVORA. 127 



The eggs of this species, wliich I have received from Kotagherry 

 and other parts of the Nilghiris, are broad, nearly regular ovals, 

 slightly compressed towards the lesser end ; considerably elon- 

 gated, and more or less spherical, and pyriform varieties occur. 

 The shell is fine, and has a slight gloss ; the ground-colour is pale 

 salmon-pink or pinkish-white, occasionally greyish white. The 

 whole egg is, as a rule, finely speckled, spotted, and splashed with 

 pinkish brown or brownish pink. The markings, in most eggs, 

 everywhere very fine, are often considerably more dense at the 

 large end, where they are not unusually more or less underlaid by 

 a pinkish cloud, with which they form an irregular ill-defined and 

 inconspicuous cap. 



At times more boldly and richly marked eggs are met with ; one 

 now before me is everywhere thickly streaked with dull pink, in 

 places purplish, and over this is thinly but rather conspicuously 

 spotted and irregularly blotched (the blotches being small howeser) 

 with light burnt sieuna-brown. 



In length thev vary from 1*18 to 1-48 inch, and in breadth from 

 0-92 to 1 inch. ' 



191. Larvivora brunnea, Hodgs. The Indian Blue Chut. 



Larvivora cyana, Gould, Jerd. B. Ind. 'A, p. 145 5 Hume, Jloi«jh 

 Draft N. ^ E. no. 507. 



I have never obtained the nest of the Indian Blue Chat. Mr. 

 Davison found it on the Xilghiris. He says : — " I really quite 

 forget the details of that one egg which I brought you along with 

 the skin of the parent, but it was taken in May on the Xilghiris. 

 I remember very well another nest of this species, which I took in 

 the latter end of March or the beginning of April in a shola or 

 detached piece of jungle about 9 miles from Ootacamund. 



" The nest was in a hole in the trunk of a small tree, about 5 

 feet from the ground, and was composed chiefly of moss, but mixed 

 with dry leaves and twigs. It contained three young birds, appa- 

 rently about four or five days old." 



The late Mr. Mandelli sent me a nest of this species which was 

 found at Lebong (elevation 5500 feet) on the 16th May. It con- 

 tained three eggs, and u'as placed on the ground amongst grass on a 

 bank made by the cutting of a hill-road. It is a broad shallow nest, 

 composed exteriorly of vegetable fibre, scraps of dead leaves and 

 tiny pieces of moss matted closely together, and is rather thickly 

 lined with black and red hairs, amongst which one or two soft 

 downy feathers are incorporated. The external diameter of the 

 nest is about 4 inches, the height about 1'5, the cavity is about 

 2"75 inches in diameter, and rather less than 1 in depth. 



Two eggs taken by Mr. Darling* are very elongated, somewhat 

 cylindrical ovals, very obtuse at both ends. In both, the shell is 

 fine, and has an appreciable though not brilliant gloss. In one, the 



* I cannot find any account of the finding of the nest of tliis bird by Mr. 

 Darling amongst Mr. Hume's notes. — Ed. 



