206 DICRIJRID^, 



salmon-coloured, with brick-red blotches sparsely scattered over 

 them, and are -95 by '7 inch." 



Dr. Scully records the follo\\'ing note from IS^epal : — " This 

 species lays in the valley in May and June, the nest being placed 

 high up in trees, often in Pinus lonrjifolia. The eggs are usually 

 four in number, fairly glossy, in shape moderate ovals, smaller at 

 one end. The ground-colour is pinkish white, with a tinge of buff, 

 sparingly spotted and blotched with brownish red, chiefly at the 

 lai'ge end, where the marks tend to coalesce, so as to form an 

 irregular incomplete ring. Four eggs taken on the 28th May 

 measured 1-09 to 1-12 in length, and 0-75 to 0-7G in breadth. The 

 race which I identify \\\{\\ 1). Idmalaijanus was found, in very 

 small numbers, on the smnmitof Sheopuri, at an elevation of about 

 7500 feet, and was breeding at the time I shot my specimen, viz. 

 the 20th May." 



Mr. Gammie found a nest at Mongpho, near Darjeeling, at an 

 elevation of about 3500 feet on the 13th Hay. It was placed on 

 an outer branch of a tall tree and contained only one partially 

 incubated egg. The nest was a beautifully compact, but shallow 

 cup, placed on the upper surface of the bough, composed externally 

 of roots and coated with a little lichen and a great deal of cobweb. 

 Interiorly lined with the finest grass and moss-roots. The cavity 

 measured about 3 inches in diameter and scarcely more than 1 inch 

 in depth. At the bottom, where it rested on tlie bough, the nest 

 was not above \ inch thiclv, and consisted only of the lining mate- 

 rials. Laterally it was about | inch thick. 



The egg was a broad oval, slightly compressed towards one end, 

 but not at all pointed. The shell very tine and with a slight gloss, 

 the ground-colour a delicate salmon-pink, and with a broad ring of 

 deep brownish-pink spots and blotches intermingled with pale 

 purple subsurface-looking clouds and spots round the large end. 

 The rest of the egg with some half-dozen similar spots. 



He subsequently sent me the following note : — " This species is 

 common in the Darjeeling district up to 4000 feet or so. It 

 rather affects the neighbourhood of bungalows, and is a very lively 

 neighbour, especially in the mornings and evenings. These birds 

 are continually quarrelling among themselves, sallying after insects, 

 or making their best attempts at singing. They are dead on Kites, 

 Crows, and such-like depredators. Eor several days an Owl 

 (Bulaca nexvarcnsis) was flying about near the Cinchona Bungalow 

 at Mongpho, and being a stupid ci-eature at the best, and doubly 

 so during daylight when it had no business to be abroad, was 

 evidently considered fair game by the Long-tailed Drongo and 

 Swallow-Shrikes, and so awfully ' sat upon ' by them, that its 

 life must have become a burden to it until it left the place in despair 

 of ever getting either peace or comfort about Mongpho. 



" They lay in April and May, and have but one brood in the 

 year. The nest is generally either built against a tall bamboo, well 

 up, supported on the branch of twigs at a node, or near the ex- 

 tremity of a braucli of a tree, sometimes on quite slender branches 



