HEyrcunxTs. 



61 



moss and lined with a few skeleton leaves and a few fibres. It 

 measured 4'5 in diameter and 2 inches in height externally ; the 

 cavity was 3'1 inches wide and 1-5 deep. This nest contained 

 four hard-set eggs." 



Another nest of this species was sent me from Native Sikhim, 

 where it was found in July, at an elevation of about 5000 feet, in 

 the hollow of a rock on the bank of a mountain-torrent. 



Tlio nest was a small shallow cup, about 4 inches in diameter, 

 composed externally of fine dry moss and a few blades of dead 

 grass, and with a quantity of skeleton leaves incorporated in the 

 substance of the nest, and more or less forming its inner surface, 

 for it cannot be said to have had any regular lining. It contained 

 a single perfectly fresh eg<^. 



Major C. T. Bingham, writing from Tenasserim, says : — 

 " Toiling along the steep ascents and descents on the road from 

 Kaukarit to Meeawuddy, on the Thoungyeen river, on the 1st 

 March, I came to a small stream, rocky and covered uith boulders. 

 As I wished to get a few^ Forktails for my collection, I approached 

 cautiously. On the left I could see nothing. On the right — yes, 

 there, hopping out from under a fallen log, was a specimen of 

 H. schistaceus, Next moment I had rolled it over, and secured the 

 body as it came floating do\^'n the stream. With some trouble I 

 worked my way up to the fallen ti^ee, and after a good hunt suc- 

 ceeded in finding the nest, beautifully concealed in a crevice 

 between the roots on the underside of the tree. Xest made of 

 moss felted together into a cup about 2 inches deep and the 

 same in diameter, lined with the skeletons of peepul leaves, and 

 containing three slightly-set bluntish oval eggs, pure dead white, 

 sparsely speckled and spotted, chiefly at the larger end, with pale 

 brown. 



" On the 13th March, lower down in the valley of the Meplay 

 river, a feeder of the Thoungyeen, I found a second nest, similarly 

 wedged into the crevices of the roots of a fallen tree, in a little 

 rocky stream. Nest, not two pins different to the last one, con- 

 tained three unfledged young ones. Two of the eggs taken as 

 above described measured 0-87 X 0-62 and 0-S5 x 0-63 inch re- 

 spectively." 



Mr. J. Darling, Jun., also records the finding of the following 

 nests in Tenasserim : — 



"On the 8th April I shot a female H. scJiistaceus, and on the 

 10th in the same spot a male, which had been with the hen, and 

 which was flitting about with an insect in its bill. On the 12th, 

 passing the same spot, I noticed a young one, half-fledged, lying on 

 the ground dead, and saw it had fallen out of its nest. This was 

 built in a hole of a tree overhanging a stream, 5 feet from the 

 ground, and was constructed entirely of moss : a good large nest, 

 and lined with dry thin leaves ; "the cavity was 2| inches in 

 diameter and 2 inches deep. 



" On the same day I found an exactly similar nest, built on a 

 ledije of rock on the bank of a stream. These two nests were 



