HTPOTHYMIS, 29 



a cocoon-liko substance ; the lining eousisted of fine creeper- 

 tendrils unmixed with any other material. The nest was firmly 

 attached to the two arms of the fork by means of the cobwebs and 

 cocoons used to decorate the exterior surface of the nest. The 

 eggs were two in number, of a buff-white ground, spotted, mostly 

 at the obtuse end, with light sienna-red and a few specks of darker 

 hue. In shape they were round ovals, and measured 0-66 inch in 

 length by 0*54 in diameter." 



Mr. Oates, writing from Pegu, says : — " May 28th. Nest with 

 three eggs slightly incubated." 



Mr. J. Darling, Jun., writes : — " -ith April. Found a nest of 

 H. azurea, some 30 miles from Ta\'oy, in the heavy forest at the 

 foot of Nwalabo hill; it was built in the fork of a small sapling, 

 5 feet from the ground. Nest built of fibres and moss, plastered 

 with spiders' webs, intertwined with the long feathery substance 

 off the 'mealy bug; ' the bottom of the nest was continued down 

 to a point over an inch long. The nest contained three fresh eggs. 



" 21st April. Took two nests of H. azurea, both built in small 

 saplings in jungle with plenty of undergrowth, at heights of 2^ 

 and 3 feet from the ground ; east of Tavoy." 



A lovely nest of this species, found with three fresh eggs on the 

 21st April near Tavoy by Mr. Darling, deserves separate descrip- 

 tion. It is placed between the fork of two upright twigs, each 

 about \ of an inch in diameter ; it is an extremely regular inverted 

 cone, 3"5 inches in height and 2*2.5 in diameter at the top, which 

 is the base of the cone. It is composed of fine vegetable fibre 

 closely and carefully wound together, completely enveloping the 

 two twigs between which it is placed ; it is then coated with green 

 moss, bound together with cobweb, and dotted all over with tiny 

 white cocoons and scraps of these. The cavity is a deep and 

 perfect cup, 1*9 inches in diameter and 1*5 inches in depth, lined 

 first with ver)j fine grass-stems no thicker than horsehair, and then 

 again very thinly lined with black horsehair. 



The eggs of this latter species, which I have myself taken and 

 which I owe to Miss Cockburn of Kotagherry, Mr. F. E. Blewitt, 

 and others, are of much the same type as tliose of so many of this 

 family. In shape they are moderately broad and xevy regular ovals, 

 occasionally slightly compressed towards the smaller end: the shell 

 is very fine and smooth, but they have little or no gloss ; the 

 ground-colour varies from almost pure white to a pale salmon-pink ; 

 the markings consist of specks or spots of red or reddish pink, 

 varying much in intensity, amongst which a few small pale-purple 

 spots are in some eggs intermingled. As a rule, the markings are 

 chiefly about the larger end of the egg, to which in some they are 

 exclusively confined, and where they often form a more or less 

 strongly marked, and more or less confluent zone, or cap, as the 

 case may be. In some the markings are small spots, in others the 

 minutest specks imaginable : and where the markings are pretty 

 dense, as they are in some eggs about the large end, they are com- 

 monly more or less enveloped in a reddish halo. The eggs, as will 



