DICB.UETJS. 205 



spots that until 1 had got several specimens and compared them 

 narrowly, I was inclined to think we had more than one species of 

 Bicrtirus here. I am, however, now fully convinced that these 

 variable eggs belong to the same species. Sometimes they are dull 

 white with brick-red spots openly disposed in form of a rude ring 

 at the larger end ; at other times the spots are rufescent claret, 

 with duller indistinct ones appearing through the shell ; otliers 

 are of a deep carneous hue, clouded and coarsely blotched with 

 deep rufescent claret ; while again some are faint carneous witli 

 large irregular blotches of rufous clay with duller ones beneath 

 the shell." 



Some of Captain Hutton's eggs which he sent me were clearly 

 those of ]] upsipetes psaroides (of which also he sent me specimens), 

 and the fact is that in thick foliage where the Eed-bill is not seen 

 nothing is easier than to mistake this bird for D. loiu/icaudatus. I 

 have taken a great many of these nests, and I never found eggs 

 other than of the two types to be below described. 



Colonel G. F. L. Marshall writes : — " In Kumaon this species 

 breeds from 4000 to 5000 feet above the sea ; the eggs are laid 

 in the last week of May. I have never seen a nest at Naini Tal 

 itself (6.000 to 7000 feet), but at Bheem Tal (4000 feet) I found 

 numerous nests within three days, in the first week of June ; all 

 without exception had young. The next season I visited tlie place 

 in the last week of May, and found the eggs just laid. 



" The nests were of the usual Dicrunis type, wedged in a fork at 

 heights varying from fifteen to fifty feet from the ground, but as 

 far as my experience goes always in conspicuous places and 

 generally on trees almost or quite bare of leaves. The nests 

 are usually only to be obtained by sawing off the bough they are 

 built on." 



Long ago Captain Cock, writing from Dhurmsala, said : — " I 

 took a nest on the Sth of May, containing four eggs. The eggs 

 are regular, roundish ovals, somewhat pointed towards one end. 

 The ground-colour is white, here and there suifused with a faint 

 pinkish tinge, and it is spotted and blotched with purplish i*ed and 

 pale lilac, most of the spots being gathered into an irregular zone 

 about the large end." 



Colonel C. H. T. Marshall, writing from Murree, says : — 

 " Breeds in May, in almost inaccessible places, about 7000 feet up, 

 choosing a thin fork at the outermost end of a bough about 50 or 

 60 feet from the ground, and always on trees that have no lower 

 branches. The nest is almost invisible from below, as it is very 

 neatly built on the top of the fork ; and v,'hen the female sits on 

 it, she places her tail down the bough so as entirely to hide her- 

 self. The eggs are only to be obtained either by climbing higher 

 up the tree than the nest is, and extracting the eggs by means of 

 a small muslin bag at the end of a long stick, or else by lashing 

 the bough on which the nest is to an upper bough as the climber 

 goes along so as to make it strong enough to support him. The 

 nest is much neater than that of D. atcr ; the eggs are light 



