ABACHNECHTHRA. 261 



sionally only luo, and in one instance about six feet from the 

 ground. 



" The nest is generally pear-shaped, the upper part tapering up 

 to the point of attachment. Occasionally the shape is more that 

 of a long cylinder. The total length varies from 6 to 8 inches and 

 it is 3 in its widest part. The entrance 1| by 1 is centrally 

 situated, and is overhung by a rude porch, an inch wide and about 

 1| long. The walls are half an inch thick, but at the base fully 

 an inch. 



" The materials are chiefly fine grasses mixed up with scraps of 

 dead leaves, moss, bark, and cobwebs. The interior is entirely of 

 very fine grass, and the egg-chamber has usually a lew' feathers in 

 it. Pieces of bark are suspended from the nest by cobwebs, occa- 

 sionally extending a foot down." 



And he subsequently added this note : — " This bird appears to 

 breed twice a year, if not oftener. I had found numerous nests in 

 July and August, but this year I got two nests in March, one with 

 young birds on the 16th, and one with two fresh eggs on the 17th. 

 Jn my former note I carelessly omitted to give the measurements 

 of the eggs. In length they vary fi*om 0"65 to 0*57, and in breadth 

 from 0*48 to 0*41 ; the average of ten eggs is 0*6 by 0*45." 



Mr. J. Darling, Junior, writes : — " I took this nest at Taroar on 

 the 12th February. It was hanging from the end of a thin bough 

 of a large bush in open land, 10 feet from the ground. The nest 

 was built of moss, cobwebs, and mixed with a great deal of some 

 small brown seed, and some fine bark, like thin brown paper, lined 

 with fine grass and some silk-cotton stuff, with a few feathers ; 

 the aperture 1^ inches in diameter; length of nest 6 inches, 

 diameter 3 inches ; with a long tail hanging to it. The two eggs 

 were so hard-set, that I broke one altogether; the shell of the 

 other I send. 



" I found another nest on March 1st, and shot the hen off the 

 nest, which contained two fresh eggs. The nest was suspended 

 from a twig of a bamboo put up for a pandal to grow pumpkins 

 on, 10 feet from the ground ; it was built of rotten bamboo-leaves, 

 moss, cobwebs, and fibrous bark on the outside, cocoanut-fibre on 

 the inside, and lined with fine feathers. The ornamentation 

 consisted of a great many droppings of lizards bound with cobwebs. 

 The nest was 6 inches long, 3 in diameter, with an aperture 1 inch 

 in diameter ; the wall ^ inch thick all round, and 1 inch thick at 

 bottom." 



The eggs are rather elongated, more or less decidedly pyriform, 

 much compressed towards the small end ; the shell is extremely 

 delicate and fragile, but dull and glossless ; the ground-colour is a 

 dull greenish white, and the greater part of the surface is mottled 

 and clouded with pale dingy brown, which in some eggs has a faint 

 purplish tinge. Besides this a very few spots and specks, almost 

 black in colour, sometimes partially extended into short lines, are 

 sparsely dotted about. 



The few eggs I have measured vary from 0-56 to 0*63 in length, 

 and from 0-41 to 0-48 in breadth. 



