DISSEMURULUS. 215 



upright shoots, at times resting on a horizontal bough against and 

 attached to some more or less upright shoots. They are composed 

 mainly of roots thinly but firmly twisted together, have sometimes 

 a good deal of cob\veb twisted round their outer surface, often a 

 good deal of vegetable fibre used for the same purpose, and, though 

 they have no lining, are always composed interiorly of finer mate- 

 rial than that used for the outer portion of the structure. Exte- 

 riorly the diameter varies from 6 to nearly 7 inches, the height 

 from nearly 2 to 2| ; the cavity is usually about 4 inches in 

 diameter and 1'5 to 1'75 in depth. I have taken the nests in May 

 and June alike in small and large trees, at elevations of from 10 to 

 30 feet from the ground. 



Typically the eggs are rather broad ovals, a good deal pointed 

 towards the small end, but they vary a great deal both in size and 

 shape, are occasionally very much elongated, and again, at times, 

 exhibit the characteristic pointing but feebly. The ground-colour 

 varies from greyish white to a delicate pale pink ; as a rule the 

 markings are small and inconspicuous frecklings and specklings of 

 pale purple reddish where the ground is pink, greyish where it is 

 white, tolerably thickly set about the large end and somewhat 

 sparsely elsewhere ; but in some eggs these markings are every- 

 where almost obsolete. In many there is a dull pale purplish cloud 

 underlying the primary markings, extending over the greater part 

 of the large end of the egg. Xot uncommonly a few specks and 

 spots of yellowish brown are scattered here and there about the 

 egg. In one egg before me the markings are larger, more decided, 

 and fewer in number distinct spots, some of them one tenth of 

 an inch in diameter; and in this egg the spots are decidedly 

 brownish red, while intermixed with them are a few specks and 

 clouds of inky purple. The ground in this case is a pale pinky 

 white. 



As a rule the eggs are entirely devoid of gloss, but one or two 

 have a very faint gloss. 



The eggs measure from 1-01 to 1-21 in length, and from 0-79 to 

 0-86 in breadth ; but the average of twenty-nine eggs is 1-12 

 by 0-81. 



338. Dissemnrnlus lophorhinns (Vieill.). The Ceylon Blade 

 Drongo. 



Dissemuroides lophorhinus ( F.), Hume, Cat. no. 283 quat. 



Colonel Legge says, in his ' Birds of Ceylon ' : " This species 

 breeds in the south of Ceylon in the beginning of April. I have 

 seen the young just able to fly in the Opate forests at the end of 

 this month ; but I have not succeeded in getting any information 

 concerning its nest or eggs." 



