JEGITHINA. d41 
secondaries and primaries very narrowly edged with white; ear- 
coverts, sides of head and whole lower plumage yellow, washed 
with green on the flanks, vent and under tail-coverts, brightest 
on throat and upper breast. 
Colours of soft parts. Iris yellowish white to bright pale yellow ; 
bill slaty-blue, the culmen blackish ; legs and feet clear slaty- -blue 
to dull plumbeous. 
Measurements. Length about 140 mm.; wing 59 to 68 mm.; 
tail about 50 min.; tarsus about 18 to 19 mm.; culmen about 
12 to 13 mm. 
Female. Above green or yellowish green, the tail rather 
darker and faintly edged with yellowish white, the black of the 
wings in the male replaced by brown; entire under plumage 
yellow, tinged with greyish green on flanks. 
Male in winter plumage is similar to the female but has the tail 
black and the undersides rather brighter. 
The description of the male given above is quite exceptional, 
more green and much less black being the rule and many breeding 
males have practically no black oa the upper parts other than 
the wings and tail. 
Distribution. All India, except 8. Travancore, Hast of a line, 
roughly speaking, drawn from the head of the Gulf of Cambay 
through Abu to Simla and See that portion of South, 
Central India occupied by 4’. ¢. humei. It extends through 
Assam, Burma, certainly to the north of the Malay Peninsula, 
east to Western Siam, Annam (Robinson d: Kloss) and the 
Kachin Hills. There is a specimen in the British Museum 
collection received from Khorasan in Persia. 
Nidification, The Common Iora breeds from April to July, 
making a very neat, cup-shaped nest of fine, soft grasses lined 
with the same and well matted outside with cobwebs and spiders’ 
ege-bags. It measures about 24” (62°3 mm.) in diameter by 
about 2 2" (50 mm.) deep, the w alls” being very thin, only some 8 or 
4 mm. thick. It may be placed in either a horizontal or vertical 
fork of any bush or small tree at any height from 2 to 380 feet 
from the ground. The eggs number two to four, most often 
three, and are very unusual in coloration; they are of two ty pes— 
one with a pale creamy or greyish-white ground-colour, with a few 
irrecular longitudinal raat of grey and underlying ones of 
neutral tint. The second type has the ground-colour a beautiful 
pink and the markings are reddish. Eggs from Siam are much 
more speckly in their character. 60 eggs average 17°6 x 13'°9 mm., 
the greatest and least length and breadth being 19:0 x 14°35; 
18:1 15:0; 16:2 x 14:0 and 18:2 x 13:2 mm. 
Habits. The lora is a bird of the plains and lower hills, seldom 
being found much over 2,000 feet, though stragglers may rarely 
wander up as high as 8, 000 feet (Simla). It is a familiar little 
bird, haunting gardens, ‘orchards and the outskirts of villages as 
