TUAMNOBIA. yO 



Colonel E. A. Butler writes : — " The Brown-backed Indian 

 Robin breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa in February, March, 

 April, and May. The nest is usually placed in holes of walls, 

 banks, gate-posts, &c. I have taken nests on the following 

 dates : — 



"1870. March 27th, a nest containing 3 fresh eggs. 

 ,, zJtn, ,, 4 ,, 



April 3rd, „ 2 „ 



„ 5th, ,, 3 ,, 



4 



55 55 55 ^ 55 



9th, „ 4 „ 



,, 20th, „ 3 incubated eggs. 



May 3rd, „ 2 fresh eggs. 



„ 5th, „ 3 ,, 



" One of the nests taken in April was built in a room of a bunga- 

 low inside one of the pigeon-holes of an office writing-desk which 

 was in constant use. 8ome nests are very carelessly put together, 

 consisting of tufts of goat's hair, dry grass, ifec, and there is 

 generally a piece of snake-skin, lead paper, tinsel paper, or some 

 coloured paper in the lining. 



" The eggs taken in May were always much smaller than those 

 taken earlier in the breeding-season, which is probably attributable 

 to exhaustion. 



" This species breeds at Mount Aboo, probably twice during the 

 hot weather, but March is the best month to look for fresh eggs." 



Mr. J. Eeid, writing fi^om Lucknow, says : — " It generally — 

 almost iiivariably — nests in holes in houses, masonry or mud walls, 

 and old deserted buildings of any kind, occasionally in nullahs and 

 ravines." And he records the finding of nests from March 10th 

 with incubated eggs to July 7th with hard-set eggs. 



The late Captain Beavau noted that "this bird (the 'Suya' 

 of the Bowries) is found in great abundance in the Manbhoom 

 District, but more especially so in the breeding-season ; and I am 

 inclined to think that many migrate thither in March for that 

 purpose. At the end of March and the beginning of April the 

 jungles swarm with them, and as many as fifty eggs of this species 

 alone have been brought to me in one day. As observed by Mr. 

 Theobald, it shows a great partiality for fragments of cast snake- 

 skins in the construction of its nest, which is in general a loose 

 structure roughly made of grass bents and fibres, and lined with 

 horsehair. It lays from three to four eggs, of a dirty white colour 

 speckled with reddish-brown spots, most thickly massed about the 

 blunt end, in some forming an ill-defined ring." 



He added, w riting from Umballa towards the end of October : — 

 " I have noticed that this species, which is so very abundant here 

 a little later, and which breeds here in numbers in February and 

 March, has almost entirely disappeared and is conspicuous by its 

 absence." 



I have not myself as yet been able to verify the fact of this 



