138 CEATEHOrODID.^i:. 



speckled and freckled, usually most densely towards the large end, 

 with red or brownish red. His nests were taken both in Sikhini 

 and Nepal. 



221. Siva cyanuroptera, Hodgs. The Blue-ivinged Siva. 



Siva cyaDouioptt'i'a, Jlvch/s., Jcrcl. B. Inch ii, p. 263 ; Hume, Iluuyli 

 Draft K. cy K uo. 017." 



The Blue-winged Siva breeds, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, 

 in the central regions of Is'epal, and in the neighbourhood of 

 Darjeeling, in May and June. The nest is placed in trees, at no 

 great elevation above the ground, and is wedged in where three or 

 four slender twigs make a convenient fork. A nest taken on tiie 

 2nd June was a large compact cup, measuring exteriorly 4*75 in 

 diameter and 3-75 in height, and having a cavity 2-6 in diameter and 

 1"87 in depth. It was composed of tine stems of grass, dry leaves, 

 moss, and moss-roots, bound together with pieces of creepers, roots, 

 and vegetable fibres, and closely lined with fine grass-roots. They 

 lay from three to four eggs, which are figured as moderately broad 

 ovals, considerably pointed towards the small end, (••85 in length 

 by 0*6 in w idth, having a pale greenish ground pretty thickly speckled 

 and spotted, esi)ecialiy on the broader half of the egg, w ith a kind 

 of brownish brick-red. 



Mr. Mandelli found a nest of this species at Lebong (elevation 

 5500 feet) on the 28th April. It contained four fresh eggs ; it was 

 placed in a fork of a horizontal branch of a small tree at a height 

 of only 3 feet from the ground. The nest is, for the size of the 

 bird, a large cup, externally entirely composed of green moss firmly 

 felted together. This outer shell of moss is thickly lined with the 

 dead leaves of a Pohjpodium, and this again is thinly lined with 

 fine grass. The nest was about 4 inches in diameter, and 2-5 in 

 height externally ; the cavity was about 2*5 broad and 1*5 deep. 



The nests of this species are A'ery beautiful cujds, A'ery compact 

 and firm, sometimes wedged into a fork, but more commonly sus- 

 pended between two or three twigs, or sometimes attached by one 

 side only to a single twig. They are placed at heights of from 

 4 to 10 feet from the ground in the branches of slender trees, and 

 are usually carefully concealed, places completely encircled by 

 creepers being very frequentlj^ chosen. The chief materials of the 

 nest are dead leaves, sometimes those of the bamboo, but more 

 generally those of trees ; but little of this is seen, as the exterior is 

 generally coated with moss, and the interior is lined first with 

 excessively fine grass, and then more or less thinly with black 

 buffalo- or horse-hairs. The cups are about 3 inches in diameti-r 

 and 2 in height externally, the cavities barely 2 in diameter and 

 perhaps 1*5 in depth : but they vary somewhat in size and shape 

 according to the situation in which they are placed and the uumner 

 in which they are attached, some being considerably broader and 

 shallower, and some rather deeper. 



