CAMPOPHAGA. 



345 



rather silky greyish-white vegetable fibres, in places more or less 

 felted together. It is not ornamented externally with moss and 

 lichen, as those of so many of the Pericrocoti commonly are, only 

 occasionally one or two little ornamental brown patches of withered 

 glossy vegetable scales are worked into the exterior of the nest. 



The eggs are not at all like those of the other Pericrocoti with 

 which we are best acqnainted ; though less densely, and even more 

 streakily marked, they most remind me of the egg of Volvocivora, 

 and ill a lesser degree of that of Hemipiis incatus. 



The eggs vary in shape from rather broad to rather elongated 

 ovals. The shell is very fine and smooth, but has scarcely any 

 perceptible gloss. The ground-colour is greenish or greyish white, 

 and they are profusely marked with comparatively fine longitudinal 

 streaks of a moderately dark brown, which in some lines is more 

 of a chocolate, in others perhaps more umber. At both ends of 

 the egg, but especially the smaller end, the markings often become 

 spotty or speckly, but the fine longitudinal streaking of the sides 

 of the egg is very conspicuous. 



In size the eggs vary from 69 to 0-71 in length, by 0-51 to 

 0-58 in breadth. I have measured too few eggs to be able to 

 give a reliable average. 



505. Campophaga melanoschista (Hodgs.). The Darl-grey 

 Cud'OoShril-e. 



Volvocivora melaschistos, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 415 : Hume, 

 Rouyh Draft N. ^- E. no. 269. 



I have never found the nest of the Dark-grey Cuckoo-Shrike. 

 Captain Hutton tells us : — 



" This, too, is a mere summer visitor in the hills, arriving up to 

 7000 feet about the end of March, and breeding early in May. 

 The nest is small and shallow, placed in the bifurcation of a hori- 

 zontal bough of some tall oak tree, and always high up ; it is 

 composed externally almost entirely of grey lichens picked from 

 the tree, and lined with bits of very fine roots or thin stalks of 

 leaves.. Seen from beneath the tree the nest appears like a bunch 

 of moss or lichens, and the smallness and frailty would lead one 

 to suppose it incapable of holding two young birds of such size. 

 Externally the nest is compactly held together by being thickly 

 pasted over with cobwebs. The eggs, two in number, of a dull 

 grey-green, closely and in part contiuently dashed with streaks of 

 dusky brown." 



This species, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes and drawings, 

 breeds in Nepal in the central districts of the hills from April to 

 July, laying three or four eggs. The nest is a broad shallow 

 saucer, some 4 inches in external diameter and 1*75 inch in height; 

 it is placed in a fork where two or three slender branches divide, 

 to one or more of w-hich it is firmly bound with vegetable fibres 

 . and grass-rooTs, and is composed of fine roots and vegetable fibres, 



