S Ml'SCrCAPID.E. 



ground and iu the close proximity of water. The nest was com- 

 posed ahnost entirely of moss and n^.oss-roots, the latter forming 

 the lining, a good many dead leaves being incorporated iu the 

 exterior surface. The nest was between 3 and 4 inches in diameter 

 externally ; the egg-cavity very shallow. 



A\^riting about bird-3iesting on the Kondabhari Ghkt Mr. J. 

 Davidson remarks :—" July 12th. A little Blue Eobin darted 

 from its nest. This was placed in a crevice of a bank and might 

 have been mistaken for one of our own familiar Robin Iledbreasts. 

 It contained three olive eggs, perfectly fresh. The Blue Kobhi is 

 one of the commonest birds at this season along the ghats, and its 

 pretty metallic song seems never to cease if you wander along any 

 of the nullahs. Its nests, of which I found many, including four 

 or five with eggs, were placed in hollows either in banks or in the 

 roots of trees, and were composed of dead leaves lined with tine 

 roots, sometimes intertwined with hair." 



Capt. Horace Terry tells us that he found a nest of this bird on 

 the Pulney Hills, in the Pittiir Valley, made of fine grass, far down 

 the slopes in a hole in a bank. 



Writing of Ceylon Colonel Legge says :— " In the Western 

 Province I have shot the young in nestling-plumage at the end of 

 June and in the Northern Province in the middle of July, so that 

 the breeding-season of this Flycatcher may be said to be May and 

 June throughout the island.'' 



Two eggs of this species, which, with the nest and parent bird, 

 were sent me by Mr. Nunn, are of a moderately elongated oval 

 shape, somev^hat obtuse at the small end. The ground-colour is 

 dingy grej^ish white, and the egg is throughout excessively finely 

 freckled and mottled with dingy reddish brown. The markings 

 are everywhere indistinct and feeble, but they are greatly concen- 

 trated and nearly confluent towards the large end, where they form 

 in one a fairly marked zone, in the other an irregular and ill- 

 defined cup. These eggs differ a good deal in their character both 

 from those of ^toparoJa and JSiltava. Other eggs, taken in May 

 and June, and sent me by Miss Cockburn from Kotagherry, Kil- 

 ghiris, are very similar to those ah'eady described ; but in one of 

 them the markings are so closely set that the egg appears through- 

 out a pale brownish rufous, regularly mottled all over, slightly 

 paler. 



Another egg is similar, but the general lint is rufescent aifr an 

 lait. As a rule the eggs have a faint gloss, but one or two of 

 them are absolutely glossless. 



It must be understood that the niai kings aie usually so exces- 

 sively fine that, unless closely looked into, the egg appears to be a 

 sort of pale drab \\ith a faint reddish tinge, rather more marked 

 about the large ( nd. 



In length the eggs vai'y from (••74 to O'S iii(h,ajul in l)na(hh 

 from (>"53 to 0-5^ inch : hut the average of fiAc < ggs is O-'Ji) l)y 

 ('•50 inch. 



