52 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Contents of stomach a few small Crustacea. 



The specimen was caught in a drift net in the offing of Alibag. 



The dental formula which he sent me in a subsequent letter gives -§5 — I?- 



The specimens reported on by Professor Owen had ff — §§ — 129, which differs 

 somewhat, but I find that much stress must not be laid on the teeth in Dolphins. 

 Delphinus gadamu varies in individuals from 96 to 108 teeth. 



R. A. STERNDALE. 



NEST AND EGGS OF CINNYRIS LOTENIA. 



As far as I know there is nothing on record about the breeding of this sunbird, 

 and since I went to Uran on the so-called Island of Karanja, where the bird is 

 not uncommon, I have been on the watch for its nest. It is a permanent 

 resident, frequenting the sides of the hills, and incessantly uttering the loud 

 cheery note which serves at once to distinguish it from the other members of its 

 family- It seems fonder of flowers than either asiatica or zeylonica, and often 

 hovers over them like a hawkmoth, inserting its long tongue. 



In October I suspected strongly that a pair had a nest somewhere in a well- 

 wooded slope close to my house, but I did not succeed in finding it. Later on I 

 saw a pair followed by two young ones, and my heart sank within me. But the 

 birds themselves came to the aid of science, and, about the beginning of November, 

 made a beautiful nest in the middle of a small tree close to my verandah. I had 

 to watch it carefully, for there was a pair of zeylonica in the garden. However, 

 the birds were not shy, and I soon had abundance of opportunity of assuring 

 mvself about the ownership of the nest. As I frequently saw the female going in 

 and out, I concluded the eggs were not yet laid ; so I waited a week and then one 

 morning I went cautiously vip and touched the nest with a long stick. In a 

 moment the bird darted out and flew round and round me, screaming and calling 

 all the birds of the neighbourhood together. It is one of my rules not to take 

 nests in my own garden, but on this occasion I thought the rule would be more 

 honoured in the breach than the observance, so I mounted a chair and cut the 

 nest down. What was my horror on discovering that it contained one egg and 

 one young one, just hatched. I plunged the other egg at once into cold water, 

 and left it in it for five minutes in order to kill the chick, if there should be one. 

 Alas ! next evening, thirty-six hours after, this egg too was broken, and a little 

 naked thing was struggling to get out. I have therefore only the broken shell 

 of one egg and the nest for my spoil. The nest, as you see, is remarkably long, 

 measuring fully ten inches. Otherwise it is very similar to that of zeylonica, 

 having the entrance near the top, protected by a portico. It is constructed of 

 fine fibres and grass, and covered all over with small pieces of bark and other 

 rubbish, chiefly that favourite material with all sunbirds, the woody refuse with 

 which wood-boring caterpillars cover the entrances of their holes. 



The egg is not an ornamental one. The ground colour is a dirty brownish 

 white, the smaller end being thickly covered with dull brown spots, which pass 

 into larger confluent blotches and form a cap on the other end. 



E. H. A1TKEN. 



