222 Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker on the 



The texture of the eggs is smooth and fine, but is gloss- 

 less and rather chalky, though stout for so tiny an egg. 



23. ZosTEROPs SIMPLEX. (Oates, op. cit. i. p. 215.) 



I found a few of these birds breeding on the high ranges 

 to the east of the North Cachar Hills. There is absolutely 

 nothing to note about their nidification whieh in any way 

 differs from that of Z. palebrosa. I have not met with any 

 nest so completely plastered with cobwebs and spiders' egg- 

 bags as the nest of Z. palebrosa is sometimes found to be. I 

 have not seen this bird below 3000 feet^ and it is very local 

 in its distribution. In 1893 I did not come across a single 

 specimen, and 1 should not be surprised to find that it is 

 hardly a regular resident so far west as Cachar. 



24. Chloropsis aurifrons. [Gates, op. cit. i. p. 234.) 

 This bird is one of the later breeders, seldom laying before 



the end of May or beginning of June, and its eggs may be 

 found well on into the middle of August, as on the 16th of 

 this month I once took two fresh eggs. The earliest date on 

 which I have seen eggs was the 12th of May, 1891. The 

 nest appears to be very like that oiC.jerdoni (Hume, 'Nests 

 and Eggs,' 2nd edit. vol. i. p. 155), but I have seen very few 

 of this bird's nests, and judge principally from the accounts 

 in the book just referred to. 



Amongst other birds'-uests to which it nearly approximates 

 are those of the genus Hemixus, the nests of that genus 

 differing principally in being more bulky and less tidy. It 

 is generally placed in a semi pendent position in a small 

 horizontal fork, the supporting twigs coming outside the 

 sides of the nest, which does not hang from them as does an 

 Oriole's. The fork chosen is usually one on the outer 

 branches of some small tree or sapling, less often in a stout 

 fork of some larger tree, and I have never seen a nest placed 

 on the upper surface of a large bough in the manner that 

 C.jerdoni is said sometimes to build. 



In shape the nest is a rather shallow cup, measuring in 

 outward diameter from 3"'5 to about 4", and in depth from 

 1"'3 to 1"'8, the latter depth being unusual, it generally being 



