10 Mr. A. Hume on Indian Ornithology, 



one side are a number of sheeshum-trees {Dalbergia sissoo) ; and 

 on one of the outermost branches of these^ at the very end where 

 the branch hangs nearly straight downwards, and where only 

 one independent twig, dissenting from its principal, persists in 

 growing straight upwards, between branch and twig was placed 

 a half-egg-shaped nest, a mere shell, very closely and compactly 

 woven of fine grass-roots and grass, thickly coated exteriorly 

 with cobwebs, among which a great number of small white empty 

 cocoons had been interwoven. The nest was nowhere much 

 above '25 in. in thickness ; and the cavity was about 2"5 in. in 

 diameter at the margin, and 1*5 in. deep. The nest we took 

 the other day was seated on the horizontal branch of a mango, 

 had horsehair and a little fine tow interwoven with the grass 

 interiorly, and was a trifle smaller. Exteriorly the two were 

 precisely similar. 



On this nest, its head tucked close in, with only the beak pro- 

 jecting in front, but with the whole tail from the vent showing 

 beyond the nest behind, sat a chestnut female, whose middle 

 tail-feathers were not in the least elongated. The nest contained 

 three fresh eggs, precisely similar to the four which we took two 

 days ago. They were white, with a very pale salmon-coloured 

 tinge and numerous dull red specks and spots, nearly all gathered 

 into a large patch at the broad end, where they were partly con- 

 fluent, and their interspaces filled up by a haze of a paler shade 

 of the same colour, as if the colouring of the spots had partially 

 run. All the eggs were much of the same size and shape, and 

 only varied from 1-187 in. to '875 in length, and from '5625 

 to "593 in breadth. 



The full-grown bird, feathers and all, never weighs quite an 

 ounce, while its whole length is sometimes close upon 2 feet; it 

 flies pretty rapidly, in undulatory sweeps, its long tail waving 

 behind ; and seen flitting through the dense jungle and forest 

 glades of the Dhoon and Terai, where it is especially abundant, it 

 is really, in its white livery, one of the most remarkable birds we 

 have in India. Close to the tank is a thick clump of saul-trees 

 {Shorea rohusta), the great building-timber of India, whose 

 natural home is in that vast Subhimalayan belt of forests which 

 I have above mentioned as passing only thirty miles to the north 



