196 :Mr. J. D. D. La Touclie on the 



feathers on bind neck and upper back (remains of nestling 

 plumage). Tbe young taken from the incubated eggs 

 mentioned below, are covered with black down. 



This Shoitwing is found in the forest on the top of 

 Mount David from April to November. Our collectors 

 have always obtained it, while I have seen it, in the dwarf 

 bamboo-undergrowth of the forest, and as yet we have 

 found it nowhere else. It keeps to this low jungle, and is 

 very difficult to observe, owing to the thickness of the 

 vegetation, which prevents one seeing anything beyond a few 

 yards. The song of the male is very sweet, and is composed 

 of six or seven clear but rather shrill notes. The food, as 

 ascertained by dissection, consists of tiny beetles, ants, flies, 

 butterfly-eggs, and one of those collected had eateu a small 

 centipede. 



Our collectors brought us two nests, each with three eggs 

 (the full clutch) in 1897. These were taken on the 

 24th of April and the 25th of May, and were placed against 

 the moss-covered trunks of trees, near the foot of the tree. 

 During the last trip 1 saw two nests in situ ; while another, 

 with one egg, was seen by our collectors, who also took 

 one with the full complement of eggs. 



I saw the first nest on the 15th April. It was empty, but 

 newly built ; an oblong domed mass of moss, with the aperture 

 in front near the top, and built, just as our men had told us, 

 on the trunk of a tree, about 18 inches from the ground. It 

 was afterwards deserted by its owners. The second nest was 

 taken on the ] 1th May. It had been found on the 9th, but 

 we were unable to take it then, as the birds were absent, and 

 a prolonged watch under torrents of rain was dangerous in 

 the damp and cold forest. On the 11th, the weather being 

 somewhat better, we went up the mountain again, and 

 having induced our collector Chunkai to set coir-fibre 

 nooses about the entrance, the female was soon caught, and 

 we took the nest. The three eggs were unfortunately on the 

 point of hatching, the shell being already pierced. This nest 

 was oblong and domed. It was placed, like the one seen on 

 the 15th April, against the moss- covered trunk of a tree about 



