Nidification of Indian Birds. 319 



together with cobwebs, while the outside is very completely 

 covered with scraps of bark, lichen, and moss, the edges of 

 the nest being neatly rounded and finished off with these, 

 and the outside, very often even of the bottom, being com- 

 pletely covered with the same. There is no real lining. 



The eggs are undistinguishable from those of other birds of 

 the genus, but typically they are rather warm, richly-coloured 

 eggs. I have no eggs with a white, or even with a very pale 

 pink ground. The majority are a rather deep pink — almost 

 approximating the tint of the eggs of Bhrinqa remifer — 

 blotched somewhat spaiingly with rather light reddish brown, 

 and again, with others, subordinate to these first, of pale 

 lavender. 



Twenty-five eggs average 0"-94' x0""74, and they vary 

 between 0"-88 and l"-02 in length and between 0"7 and 

 0"-81 in breadth. 



I found this bird breeding at a place called Guilang, at 

 altitudes between 3000 and 4000 feet, in the end of April 

 and early May, 1891, but since have never met them again. 

 In that year they were very numerous, and I sometimes 

 took three and four nests in a day. The nests were generally 

 taken from thin forest or the outskirts of the more heavy. 

 The site selected was usually from 10 to 20 feet from the 

 ground in small horizontal branches of young trees. 



Three seems to be the normal number of eggs laid, though 

 I have found two hard-set, and have once taken four from 

 a nest. 



35. DicRURUS ciNERACEUS. [Outes, op. cit. i. p. 318.) 

 The nest is not to be distinguished by its general ap- 

 pearance from those of D. ater and other Drongos, but, taking 

 into consideration the whole of the very large number which 

 I have seen, I should say that they are not quite so tidy as 

 are most nests of this genus, the inner part — it can hardly 

 be termed lining — often projecting over and beyond the 

 lichen and cobwebs. Nine nests out of ten are made of 

 exactly the same materials and of the same shape, viz. flat- 

 bottomed, shallow cups, averaging some 4^" in external 



