342 Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker on the 



nest of H. gutturalis. It is, however, just possible that the 

 Striated Swallows may lay spotted eggs as well as white ones, 

 as does H. fluvicola. 



53. ^THOPYGA iGNiCAUDA. [Outes, op. cit. ii. p. 351.) 

 The only two nests I have seen of this bird were both 

 taken from evergreen-forest on the very highest part of the 

 Hungrum Peak, close on 6000 feet altitude. All about 

 here the forest has an undergrowth of bracken, ferns, cala- 

 diums, and similar plants, and it was to tall fronds of the 

 first-mentioned that both the nests were attached. They 

 were composed entirely of very fine seed-down, collected 

 from the fallen pods of the simul-tree, and this down was 

 held together with cobwebs and a few tiny scraps of green 

 moss, and also about half a dozen fine, but very long shreds 

 of grass. The latter passed once round the nest, in and out 

 of the down, and then both ends were firmly attached to the 

 frond from which the nest hung. In shape the nests are 

 like pears, the thin end of which is extra thin and the lower 

 end unusually rounded. One nest is much more drawn out 

 than the other. The longer nest is full 5" in length, the 

 other under 4""5, and both are about 2"*5 in breadth, the 

 egg-cavity measuring about 2"' 5 in its perpendicular and 

 about V'Q in its horizontal diameter. There is no porch or 

 sign of a porch, and the entrance, which is near the top of 

 the chamber, is well under an inch wide. 



One nest contained three eggs, and the other only two. 

 The latter Avere given away by me without any notes having 

 been taken, but, so far as I remember, they did not differ at 

 all from the other three. These are white, speckled and 

 blotched with light brown, very faintly tinged with violet. 

 Some few of the blotches are very blurred and ill-defined, 

 but the majority are of a decidedly longitudinal character. 

 In all three eggs the markings are most numerous towards 

 the larger end, and they there form an indistinct ring, rather 

 more pronounced in one than in the others, and in this 

 egg also the blotches are somewhat darker. In shape they 

 are broad blunt ovals, measuring 0"-55 x 0"-42, 0"-55 X 0"-42, 



