EHOPODYTES. 399 



Major C. T. Bingham notes that this species is "a connnoii bii-d 

 in the Thoungyeeu valley. The following is a note of finding its 

 nest and eggs that I ]-ecorded long ago : — 



" On the 13th March I found a nest of the long-tailed Malkoha 

 near Poodeesaki village in the Meplay forest, shooting t]ie female 

 as she flew off the nest. Itwas a lo ose and very untidy mass or 

 pad of half-dried leaves and twigs, and contained three pure white, 

 chalky cylindrical eggs, placed in the head among the dense leaves 

 of a pollarded evergreen of some kind. I had some difficulty in 

 Huding it, and two hours waiting before I managed to trace the 

 bird back and shoot her. 



" Since sending my last note on the breeding I ha\e taken five 

 more nests — two containing one egg each, two, three eggs, and 

 one, one egg. The nests were all of the same typc^ as tliat first 

 described, some perhaps a little firmer and better built. All were 

 placed low, varying from three feet to ten, in bamboo and other 

 bushes, invarial)ly a thick and leafy one. One or two of the eggs 

 1 got are ciu-iously stained, probal)]y by the leaves with which the 

 nest was made. 



"It would seem that this bird breeds from March to July, as 

 Davison shot one in July with a fully formed egg.'' 



The eggs taken by Major Bingham are of the usual type, very 

 regular, moderately elongated, in some cases somewhat cylindrical, 

 very broad and obtuse at both ends, which in most of them are 

 precisely similar. The shell, though smooth to the touch, looks 

 somewhat coarse and cliall^y. They are entirely deAoid of any 

 gloss. In some the shell is pure white, in othei's, as is customary 

 in eggs of birds of this family, soiled and smeared with yellowish- 

 brown stains. They vary from 1-32 to 1"6 in length, l3y 0-U8 to 

 1-12 in breadth. 



Rliopodytes viridirostris (Jerd.). The Small Greca-hUlcd Malkolat. 

 Zanclostomus viridirostris, Jcrd., Jerd. 11. Ind. i, p, 340. 



Mr. A.G.Cardew, G.S., writing from Madras, says : — " I obtained 

 a single nest of this bird on the lUth March, 1885, near Wandiwash 

 in the North Aroot District. It was a slight structure, made of a 

 few twigs and with a few green leaves as liniiig, and was placed 

 about 5 feet from the ground in a thorn-bush near a stream. The 

 nest contained two dull chalky-white eggs, in shape very round 

 ovals, measuring 1-15 \)j l-O." 



Mr. lleiuy Wenden writes :— " My shikary found a nest of this 

 bird in the middle of July 1875, in the dense jungle-covered 

 Granite Hills about 8 miles IN.E. of Nulwar station, which is on 

 the S.E. branch of the G.I. P. Eailway, 384 miles from Bombay. 



" He shot, sexed, and stuffed both male and female. 



" He has for a long period been working for me in collecting 

 specimens, eggs, &c., and has been fairly well trained as to what 

 points to observe and how useless eggs are to me unless all iufor- 



