Nidijication of Indicni Birds. 2'25 



the family Paridae) will be found the right one, and it will 

 have to be removed from the Liotrichinae. 



The nest in question was taken on the 17th May, 1890, 

 and was placed in the bottom of a long narrow crevice 

 which ran down several feet of one of the main boughs of an 

 old oak tree. This tree was one of a thin scattered forest of 

 oaks, with rather short, though coarse, grass undergrowth, 

 the forest being interrupted with occasional patches of grass- 

 land or with dense bush and tree-jungle at the bases of the 

 hills, which here ran to some 1500 feet. At the time I found 

 the nest I was out after gaur, and whilst 7*esting for a few 

 moments on a fallen tree I observed a Sultan-bird flying 

 about in a very peculiar manner on a tree opposite to where 

 I was sitting. In his mouth he seemed to be carrying some- 

 thing edible, and it was not long before he made up his mind 

 that I was nothing very dangerous, and, flying off to another 

 oak some dozen paces away, shortly disappeared into the 

 crevice already mentioned. Of course I concluded that there 

 must be a nest, and at once sent up one of my native trackers 

 to investigate. As he went up the two birds flew away, and, 

 after examining the bottom of the hollow, he reported a nest 

 containing seven eggs. The nest was composed almost 

 entireb/ of small scraps of fern-fronds and moss, mostly of 

 lycopodium and other moss-ferns, two or three kinds of 

 which grew very luxuriantly close by. In shape it merely 

 fitted closely into the bottom of the hollow in which it was 

 placed, and as this gradually narrowed to a point, the nest, 

 when removed, roughly approximated to an inverted cone. In 

 depth and diameter it was about 4;" either way, and the 

 depression in which the eggs lay was about 3" across by 

 rather less than \" deep, and even this was nearly filled 

 with the soft cotton down taken from an adjacent bombax. 

 The eggs, most unfortunately, were very hard-set when I 

 found them ; from two the chicks were even then emerging, 

 and these I broke in the attempt to clean them ; three others 

 were blown, though with great difficulty, and two were com- 

 paratively easy to manage. 



The ground-colour is a chalky white, and the markings 



