Nidification of Indian Birds. 233 



of the others. They are of the same type of nest as that of 

 Molpastes bengalensis, but avt stouter, compacter, and much 

 more bulky, owing to more material being used in their con- 

 struction^ and of the five nests I have seen none have been 

 in the least degree transparent, as the nests of that bird so 

 often are. The chief article used in each nest consisted of 

 long tough strips of the inner bark of a dark-coloured tree, 

 mixed with a few scraps of the outer bark and a good many 

 twigs, the latter all very fine and elastic. In four nests 

 there were also a good many small dead leaves fastened into 

 the outside of the base and walls, and in all five nests nu- 

 merous cobwebs were used, both to attach the nest to its 

 support and to hold the materials together. The lining in 

 each nest is formed of black fern-roots and of long reddish 

 fibres, the tendrils of some creeper, probably the convolvulus 

 already alluded to. In three nests the fern-roots form the 

 greater part of the lining, in the others the tendrils. Out- 

 wardly the nests average in diameter about 4^ inches, and in 

 depth about 2"'2, the measurements of the egg-cavity being 

 about 2"-5 by 1"-1. 



The first two nests I touk were placed in forks formed by 

 a number of twigs sprouting horizontally from a thin branch, 

 which stretched well out and away from the parent bushes, 

 very tall and straggly ones, the nests being some 4^ feet 

 from the ground. Both nests were very firmly fixed to the 

 tv\igs, a considerable portion of these being well covered by 

 the materials with which the nests were made ; both nests 

 were visible from some yards away. Another nest was 

 found in much the same position, and a fourth differed only 

 in that it was placed in amongst a vertical bunch of twigs. 

 Yet a fifth, which was brought to me, looked as if it had 

 been placed in a stout upright fork. 



All the nests were taken in the interior of low-lying forests, 

 in most places rather scanty and with a considerable amount 

 of straggling undergrowth, here and there interrupted by 

 short stretches of sun-grass. The most noticeable thing 

 about the nests was the extreme neglect of all concealment, 

 they not only being built on branches devoid of foliage, but 



