202 Mr. J. D. D. La Touche on (he 



Suthora wehhiana ; and of the nine clutches taken in 1898 

 six are also unspotted (Nos. 44, 55, 70, 84, 93, and 95). 

 No. 34 has two eggs faintly spotted round the large end, two 

 with a very few very faint specks, and one quite unspotted. 



No. 35 has one egg faintly speckled all over, one with a 

 ring of very faint specks round the large end, two with a 

 few minute specks (very dark on one egg), and the fifth 

 e^^ quite unspotted. 



No. 94 has a distinct nimbus or cap of pale reddish- 

 brown spots on four eggs, the fifth e^^ being so faintly 

 marked that only the closest examination can reveal the 

 spots. 



The most ordinary shape of these eggs is a nearly true 

 oval, but a few are ovate. 



Thirty-three eggs average 0*73x0'57 inch; they vary in 

 length between 0*70 and 075 inch, and in breadth between 

 055 and 0'59 inch. An exceptionally long e^^ measures 

 0- 77x0-57 inch. 



The nest is a cup with the two side- walls raised up slightly 

 higher than the back and front. Thei'e is always a very 

 neat inner cup, made of grass and fine roots, with a more or 

 less thick lining of fine grass-stems, coir, or pigs' bristles. 

 This is built within a more or less large and irregular cup of 

 moss and coarse grasses, and which more or less fills up the 

 cavity or hollow in which the nest is placed. The depth of 

 the inner cup is about 2 inches, with a diameter of 2| inches. 

 The outer dimensions of one nest are 3 inches in depth and 

 4x4^ inches in diameter. 



35. Rhyacornis fuliginosa (Vig.). 



This bird is abundant in N.W. Fohkien, and breeds in 

 April and May. The nest is placed in a variety of situa- 

 tions. We have found it on ledges of rocks, on the banks 

 of torrents, once on a tree-stump on the bank of a stream, 

 under the thatch or on the top of the supporting parts of 

 sheds by streams, and a very favourite place is on the piles of 

 the wooden bridges that span the torrents in the mountains. 

 I have seen as many as two nests under one bridge ; but 



