Mr. A. Hume on Indian Ornithology. 9 



We had now to cross the road into the public gardens to 

 secure the greatest prize of the morning — the nest of the Rocket- 

 bird {Tchitrea paradisi) . 



The Rocket-bird has two distinct stages of plumage. In the 

 one the head, throat, and neck, with a very full crest of pointed 

 feathers, is a glossy metallic blackish -green, and the rest is 

 snowy-white, the feathers mostly black-shafted. The bird, from 

 the tip of the bill to the end of all but the middle tail-feathers, 

 is from 8 to 9 inches in length, the middle tail-feathers extending 

 more than 12 inches at times beyond the lateral ones. In the 

 other stage the head and neck is black, the breast and abdomen 

 dull white, and all the rest of the plumage bright chestnut. 

 The middle tail-feathers in this stage never, I think, exceed the 

 lateral ones by more than 10 inches. 



Then we have white ones and chestnut ones without any 

 elongation of the centre tail-feathers, and with every amount of 

 elongation up to the limits above given. Besides these, in some 

 the throat and breast are ashy, and some are particoloured 

 chestnut and white. 



Now the puzzle has always been. What do these two liveries 

 mean ? I cannot yet be quite certain of the matter ; but my 

 belief now is that the chestnut, and not the white, is the hreeding- 

 plumage. During the last two months the white plumage has 

 been getting rarer, and we have been killing lots of chestnut 

 birds with long tails, all males, and with the testes largely deve- 

 loped. Two days ago, and again this day, we have taken nests 

 with short-tailed female chestnut birds on them. 



I suspect that the breeding birds drop the white plumage 

 which makes them so conspicuous, and assume the chestnut 

 livery, the males alone having the middle tail-feathers elongated. 

 What confirms me in this idea is, that the only two white birds 

 that we recently got had the testes no bigger than pins^ heads, 

 showing that they were not breeding. However, this is still an 

 open question ; one thing only is certain, namely, that short- 

 tailed chestnut birds were sitting on the two nests we have taken. 

 And now for this second nest which we took to-day. In the 

 public gardens is a large circular reservoir, dry and empty during 

 the hot season, but now half full of water. On the banks on 



