Nidification of Indian Birds. 355 



63. TiGA SHOREi. {Blanford, op. cit. iii. p. 62.) 



I have only seen one specimen of this species^ a female, 

 caught on the nest and brought to me with its three eggs. 

 These are very long, decidedly pointed, and extremely stout, 

 close-grained, and glossy. They measure 1"'26 x 0" 80, 

 l"-23x0"-86, and l"-23 x 0"-80. They are the longest, in 

 proportion to their breadth, of Woodpeckcr^s eggs I have ever 

 seen. They were said to have been taken from a hole in an 

 oak tree standing in a scattered forest of that kind of tree. 

 The elevation was somewhere about a thousand feet, and 

 they wei'e taken on the 17th April, 1888. 



64. Chrysocolaptes gutticristatus. {Blanford, op. cit. 

 iii. p. 65.) 



This bird is mentioned in Hume's ' Nests and Eggs,' and 

 I only enter it here as Messrs, Davison and Darling say that 

 they have never taken more than one egg from a nest, whereas 

 here — and I have taken many nests of this most common 

 Woodpecker — they often lay four, and sometimes five eggs. 

 The eggs average about l"-20 x 0"-90. 



65. CoLUMBA PULCHRICOLLIS. 



Two nests of this Pigeon, taken at Hungrum, about 5000 

 feet elevation, were of the ordinary Wood-Pigeon type — mere 

 rough platforms of small twigs coarsely, but strongly, inter- 

 laced with one another; but they had one very distinctive 

 and unexpected feature, namely, a sparse lining of feathers. 

 The nests were rather large, nearly 9 inches in diameter ; 

 there was little or no depression for the eggs, these laying 

 amongst the feathers and prevented from falling out by some 

 of the twigs projecting beyond the others, and by the 

 numerous interstices and small hollows in between them, in 

 which the eggs would have caught had they moved about. 

 Each nest contained a single egg, perfect ellipses in shape, 

 rather coarse and stout in texture, with a dull surface, and 

 measuring l"-55xl"'15 and l""50xl"'17. Both nests were 

 found on the same date, the 22ud June, 1891. 



