EIIIPIDUKA. 37 



dense woods, keeping well within a thickly-wooded forest country, 

 whereas the other prefers more open and cultivated tracts." 



i>om Wikhim Mr. Gamniie writes : — " 1 have only once found 

 a nest of this Fantail. This was in the Cinchona reserves, ontho 

 21st May, at an elevation of 5U00 feet, in a bramble thicket on 

 the outskirts of a large forest. It was about five feet from the 

 ground, aiul attached to a pendent, dead bramble-stem about as 

 tliick as a man's thumb, which was quite enveloped by the building 

 material the whole length of the nest. It was an extremely neat 

 and remarkable-looking structure ; in form a cup-shaped funnel with 

 the end lengthened out, and composed of fine grasses firmly bound 

 together by cobwebs. The outside was almost completely covered 

 over with cobwebs, which exactly corresponded in colour with the 

 silvery lichens covering the dead brauible-stem, so that anyone 

 might have passed within a yard of the nest without observing it. 

 It measured externally 4 inches in height by 2-3 inches in diameter. 

 The cavity was 1-9 inches wide by 1 inch in depth, and contained 

 three fresh eggs, which is said to be the normal number." 



Mr. Benjamin Aitken has the following note on this Fly- 

 catcher : — " I have nothing to add to what you already know of 

 the nidification of this species and the preceding one. Both birds 

 are extremely common in Poona, frequenting the gai'dens and 

 patches of low babool jungle. I have often been struck with their 

 tameness and familiarity, which exceed that of any other bird I 

 know. M. albifrontata, I can safely say, is unknown in Bombay, 

 and if M. alhicollis exists in Akola (Berar), it must be A^ery rare. 

 The latter, however, is quite common in Bombay, and the former 

 tolerably so in Berar. 



" I once saw R. alhicollis collecting cobweb, with which both 

 species seem invariably to cover the exterior of their nests. There 

 was a large spider's web on the ground, and the bird caught a 

 thread in its bill and flew round and round in sr>iall circles witliin 

 a foot of the nest, till a quantity was coUeett^d on its bill, but 

 taking the greatest care not to let its wings or tail touch the 

 thread. The Flycatcher then flew off to its nest, and wound the 

 web round it with great rapidity, exactly as you would wind 

 thread on a reel, only that the bird's short neck required it to hop 

 round about the nest, which it always did one way." 



Mr. J. E,. Cripps, writing from Furreedpore in Eastern Bengal, 

 says : — " A few pairs always seen in the mango topes, in which 

 they delight to remain; is a permanent resident; has a sharp 

 twittering note, very like that of T. paradisi, for which I have often 

 mistaken it ; is continually snapping its beak and going from 

 branch to branch with a short jerky tumbling flight. I took one 

 nest on the 18th May, 1878, with two fresh eggs ; it was attached 

 to one of the outer twigs of a mango-tree which overhung a dry 

 nullah overgrown \\ith cane-jungle, and was about 8 feet otf the 

 ground. External diameter 2-16 inches and depth 2; internal 

 diameter 1-75 and depth 0-75. The nest was of the shape of a 

 wine-glass and composed externally of \ery fine grass and cobwebs, 



