of certain South-Indian Birds. 317 



the eggs arc depositeil has often a most intolerable steneh 

 about it. Dimensions of an egg 1 inch in length by '7 in 

 breadth. 



16. BUCHANGA ATRA (Hcmi.)^. 



Breeds from March to the end of May, constructing a slight 

 cup-shaped nest in a tree. The nest is composed of fine twigs 

 bound together with cobwebs, and is rather a flimsy concern, 

 the eggs often being visible from below. It is generally 

 placed in the fork of a branch, at from ten to thirty feet from 

 the ground. The eggs are three in number, occasionally only 

 two, and vary very greatly in colour, some being almost of a 

 pure white, whilst others again are spotted and blotched, es- 

 pecially at the larger end, with claret and light purple on a 

 rich salmon-coloured ground. The birds are very noisy in 

 the breeding-season, keeping all intruders off, not hesitating 

 to attack Kites and Crows. They seem to have an especial 

 antipathy to the latter. The dimensions of an egg are 1"07 

 inch in length by '99 in breadth. 



17. Leucocerca pectoralis (Jerdon). 



The nest of this lively little bird is very difficult to find. 

 The first I ever discovered had been within a couple of feet 

 of my head for more than an hour ; and it was only when my 

 dog-boy attracted my attention by pulling it down, and say- 

 ing, '^ What a very odd-looking nest this is," that I saw it. 

 It contained three eggs of a light hair-brown colour, with a 

 ring of darker spots of the same colour at the larger end. It 

 was shaped like a funnel, and was constructed entirely of 

 fibrous grasses bound together with cobwebs, and was lined 

 with very fine grass stems. The eggs averaged "6 in length 

 by "5 in breadth. The nest is usually placed very low down, 

 some two or three feet from the ground ; and when discovered 

 the bird flies out and flutters feebly along the ground in front 

 of you, trying to allure you away. 



18. Empidothera cinereocapilla (Vieillot). 



This Flycatcher breeds in March and April, building a 

 nest of fine moss, which is attached like a pocket to the mossy 

 trunk of some large shola-tree. The nest is almost invariably 



* [Museicapa atra, Hermaun, Obs. Zool. p. 208 (1804)]. 



