1 2 MUSCICAPlDvE. 



built with moss, and liuecl with hair, and were made very warm 

 and comfortable. They always lay four eggs of a light fawn- 

 colour, the circle at the thick end being a darker shade. The 

 months in which they breed are March and April."' 



Mr. W. Davison remarks : — " fSto^ntroJa aVncaudata breeds on 

 the Xilghiris in the latter end of Api'il and May ; it nests in holes, 

 either of trees or banks, not unfrequently under the eaves of 

 houses. The nest is built entirely and always of green moss ; the 

 egg-cavity lined with moss-roots. The eggs, generally three in 

 number, are of a pale salmon-pink, indistinctly ringed at the larger 

 end and sparingly spotted over the entire surface with a somewhat 

 darker shade. These eggs vary very much in shade of colour, 

 sometimes being very dark, at others nearly white ; during the 

 breeding- season the males are continually singing, though the song 

 is not much to speak of." 



Mr. H. E. P. Carter writes :— " On the 12th March I found one 

 egg in a nest near Conoor ; on the 13th a second had been laid. 

 1 tried to catch the bird on the nest several times, but failed, and 

 on the 17th 1 shot it. The nest was placed in a hole in a small 

 cutting made to level a road, 2\ feet from the ground. It was 

 cup-shaped, and composed of coarse moss with no lining. I think 

 three eggs seem to be the normal number. The eggs have a 

 yellowish-w^hite ground, mottled brownish at one end, and with 

 very faint raottlings all over. This bird is very shy. I tried 

 several times to catch it with horse-hair nooses, but without 

 success, as it never came to the nest whilst they were set. It 

 always builds in banks. On the 1st April I found a nest in a 

 cuttiug by the side of a road near Conoor with three young ones 

 about nine days old." 



Mr. J. L. Darling, Junior, tells us that this species nests "in 

 banks, trees, rocks, in any convenient hole, at all heights from the 

 ground, sometimes as high as 30 feet. I have fouiid two nests in 

 bridges between the planking and beams, and two under the eaves 

 of houses. The nest is round, and is built entirely of moss ; very 

 rarely a few twigs are used as a foundation. There is no regular 

 lining, but sometimes a few of the breast- feathers of the bird do 

 duty as such. The nest may measure on the outside from 4 to 6 

 inches in diameter, inside from 2 to 2| inches in diameter, 2 in 

 depth. The eggs are from two to four in number, generally three, 

 rather oblong in shape, about |- inch in length, and little less than 

 •i inch in breadth. 



"The colour is whitish brown, getting darker towards the thick 

 end. There are sometimes specks of brown. The eggs might be 

 mistaken by an inexperienced person for those of the Orange-and- 

 black Flycatcher." 



Mr. Ehodes AV. Morgan, writing from South India, says : — "It 

 breeds in holes of trees from February to May. The nest is 

 constructed of moss, and is lined with fine fibres. The eggs are 

 from two to three in nunil)er, being almost entii'ely covered with 

 numerous pale rusty-rcil spots running into one another, some- 



