26 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



escapes detection as the bird sits so close that one has almost 

 to bundle it off the eggs, while the tints of the upper plumage 

 harmonize with the colours, in light and shade, of the foliage. 



Our other Green Pigeon {Osmotreron 'pompadora) also nests in 

 the North-Central Province. The nest and eggs are precisely- 

 similar to those of the last-mentioned species, and could not 

 be told apart, but I have found it building as much as 20 feet 

 up in a tree, and it seems to prefer trees or bushes on the edge 

 of the jungle round tanks. 



Another common bird with well-marked breeding pecu- 

 liarities is the beautiful Paradise Fly-catcher {Terpsiphone 

 paradisi). As many of you know, the long-tailed male 

 gradually changes its plumage, the most striking change being 

 that, broadly speaking, the chestnut of the upper plumage 

 and tail turns to pure white. The change is fully completed 

 in the fourth jeaT. Now the young birds breed freely in the 

 North-Central Province, and I have also taken their nests in 

 the Tangalla district. But the males in their third and fourth 

 year would appear to migrate. They are never very common, 

 and I have only once seen a black and white male in the 

 North-Central Province during the south-west monsoon. 

 The nest is a little thin walled cup, about 2| inches in 

 diameter and 1| inch deep, built of grass and fibres, unlined 

 inside, and bound round on the outside with cobweb and 

 sometimes small cocoons. I have nearly always found 

 it placed from 6 to 12 feet from the ground, on a down- 

 ward hanging branch, where a small twig shoots upward to 

 form, more or less, of a fork. The nest is placed in the angle, 

 but is mainly built up from its base on the larger branch. I 

 do not think that I have ever seen a nest in the outer branches. 

 The bird seems to prefer a spot well in the shade, close to the 

 trunk, and as often as not it chooses a leafless branch. The 

 eggs are generally three in number, of a pinky white ground- 

 colour, with reddish brown spots chiefly at the larger end. 

 The average size is '78 by "57 of an inch. 



So far I have shown how an egg collector may add to our 

 knowledge of the nidification of individual species ; but when 

 one has collected data for a number of species in any one 

 district, one may begin to speculate on a wider and most 



