338 LANIIDiE. 



and the bottom of the nest, whicli in some may be at most 5 inch 

 thick, in another is a full inch. The sides rarely exceed 5 inch in 

 thickness. The egg-cavity has a diameter of abont 2 inches, and a 

 depth of from 1 to 1-25 inch. 



Five seems to be the maximum number of eggs laid, but 1 have 

 now twice met with three, more or less incubated, eggs. 



Mr. Hodgson notes:— "May 16th: At the top of the great 

 forest of tSheopoori, secured a nest built near the top of a kaiphul 

 tree, and laid on a thick branch amongst smaller twigs. The nest 

 is about 2 inches deep and the same in diameter : inside it is 1-5 inch 

 deep ; it is made of paper-like bits of lichen welded together with 

 spiders' webs, and with a Hniug of elastic fibres. 11 is the shape 

 of a deep soap-stand, open at the top of course. It contained two 

 eggs of a bluish or greenish-white ground, much spotted with liver 

 colour, especially near the large end, where the spots are clustered 

 into a zone." 



Dr. iScuUy, writing also from Nepal, says : — " During the 

 breeding-season (May and June) this Minivet is found in forestt? 

 on the hills up to an elevation of 7500 feet. A nest was found in 

 the Sheopoori forest on the 17th June, which contained two very 

 young birds and one egg." 



The eggs of this species that I haxe seen are moderately broad 

 ovals, as a rule, very regular in their shape, and scarcely compressed 

 at all towards the lesser end. The shell is fine and satiny, but the 

 eggs have little or no real gloss. The ground-colour is a dull white, 

 sometimes slightly tinged with pink, sometimes with green, and 

 they are richly and profusely blotched, spotted, and streaked, most 

 densely, as a rule, towards the large end, with brownish red and 

 pale purple. Most eggs exhibit a more or less conspicuous, though 

 irregular, zone round the larger end. 



The eggs vary in length from 0*71 to O'S inch, and in breadth 

 from 0*54 to 0-G inch. 



499. Pericrocotus roseus (Vieill.). The llosy Minivet. 



Pericrocotus roseus ( Vieill.), Jerd. JB. Ind. \, p. 422 ; Huvie, Rough 

 Draft N. ^ E. no. 275. 



The only one of my contributors who appears to have taken the 

 eggs of the Eosy Minivet is Colonel C. H. T. Marshall. Mr. 

 E. Thompson says : — " Tney breed in the warmer valleys of Kumaon, 

 up to an elevation of some 5000 feet, in May and June ;" but he 

 adds : '• I have never got down the nests." 



Colonel Marshall, writing from Murree, says: — "The Eosy 

 Minivet builds a beautirully little shallow cup-shaped nest, the 

 outer edge being quite narrow and pointed. The external covering 

 of the nest is fine pieces of lichen fastened on with cobwebs. 

 It was found on the J ^th of June, and contained three fresh eggs, 

 white, with greyish-brown spots and blotches sparsely scattered 

 about the larger end ; the length is 0*8 by 0-55 inch ; 5000 feet up." 



The nest, which I owe to this gentleman, is externally a short 



