31G Mr. 11. W. Morgan uii the Nidijication 



at Kiirnool, in an acacia-tree, had the most extraordinary 

 nest I have ever seen. It was ornamented with bits of blot- 

 ting-paper, twine, and old service-stamps that had been left 

 lying about. The whole structure was most compactly bound 

 together with cobwebs, and had a long string of caterpillar- 

 excrement wound round it. This excrement had most pro- 

 bably fallen on a cobweb and had stuck to it, and the cobweb 

 had afterwards been transported in strips to the nest. It 

 breeds from February to June, the majority of the nests 

 being constructed in March and April. The eggs are thickly 

 spotted with dusky brown on a greenish grey ground, the 

 usual number being three. Dimensions of an egg in my col- 

 lection '65 inch in length by "46 in breadth. 



13. Dictum concolor, Jerdon. 



This little bird breeds in March, building a beautiful little 

 pendulous nest at the extreme end of a small twig, some 

 twenty or thirty feet from the ground. The tree usually 

 chosen in the cantonment at Ootacamund, on the Neilgher- 

 ries, is the Acacia melanoxylon. The nest is built of the silky 

 down of some tree, and bound together with very fine fibres. 

 The entrance is at the side. The eggs are beautifully white 

 and fragile-looking, usually two in number. Measurements 

 of one in my collection are as follows — '7 inch in length by 

 '45 in breadth. Owing to the great height at which these 

 birds build, large numbers of their nests are torn off and 

 blown down if the weather becomes at all windy. 



14. Dendrophila FRONTALIS (Horsficld) . 



Breeds in holes of trees, preferring the deserted ones ex- 

 cavated by Megalcema caniceps. The nest is built of moss, 

 and lined with the fluff of hares and soft feathers. The eggs 

 are always four in number, spotted with pinkish red on a 

 white ground, the spots being more numerous towards the 

 larger end. They breed in March. Dimensions : "71 inch 

 long by '57 broad. 



15. Upupa nigripennis, Grould. 



Breeds in holes of trees in April. The eggs are of a dull 

 light olive, rather elongated in shape, and from three to six 

 n number. There is never any nest; and the hole in which 



