PEEICROCOTTTS. 335 



the eggs are very faintly coloured, and have a dull white ground, 

 while the markings consist of only a few spots and specks of very 

 pale purple and pale rust-colour confined to a zone near the large 

 end. 



In length the eggs vary from 0-69 to 0*8 inch, and in breadth 

 from 0'57 to 0-65 inch ; but the average of a dozen eggs is O75 

 by 0*61 inch nearly. 



490. Pericrocotus speciosus (Lath.). The Indian Scarlet 

 Minivet. 



Pericrocotus speciosus (Lath.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 419; Hume, 

 Rouf/h Draft N. $ E. no. 271. 



Captain Hutton records that the Indian Scarlet Minivet breeds 

 both on the Doou and in the hills overlooking it, to an elevation 

 of about 5000 feet. He says : " The nest is generally placed high 

 up 011 the branch of some tall tree, often overhanging the side of 

 a fearful precipice. On the 6th and 17th of June I procured two 

 nests in ravines opening upon the Doon, one of which contained 

 four, and the other five eggs, of a dull-white colour, sparingly 

 spotted and blotched with earthy brown, more thickly so at the 

 larger end, where they form an open ring of spots ; other small 

 blotches of a fainter colour are seen beneath the shell. 



" It is a curious fact that in the latter nest, out of the five eggs 

 three were ringed at the larger end, and the other two at the smaller 

 end. The nest is rather coarsely made, being very thick at the 

 sides, and the materials not neatly interwoven ; it is composed 

 externally of dried grasses and the fine stalks of various small 

 plants, interspersed with bits of cotton and grass-roots, and lined 

 with the fine seed-stalks of small grasses." 



I am not at all sure that there is not some mistake here. The 

 nest described is rather that of L. erythronotus than of any of the 

 Pericrocoti, and but for the excellent authority on which the above 

 rests, I should certainly not have accepted it. 



This species breeds in the forests of the central hills of Xepal : 

 pcrording to Mr. Hodgson's notes and drawings they begin laying 

 about April, and lay three or four eggs, which are neither described 

 nor figured. The nest is a beautiful deep cup externally about 

 IJ-25 inches in diameter, and rather more than 2 inches high, com- 

 posed of moss and moss-roots lined internally with the latter, and 

 entirely coated exteriorly with lichen and a few stray pieces of 

 green moss firmly secured in their places by spiders' webs. The 

 nest is placed in some slender branch between three or four 

 upright sprays. This, I may note, is just the kind of nest one 

 would have expected this Large Minivet to build. 



The only specimens, supposed to be the eggs of this species, that 

 I possess I owe to Captain Hutton. They closely resemble the 

 eggs of L. erythronotus, but are perhaps shorter, and hence look 

 broader than those of this latter. They are slightly bigger than 

 the eggs of L. vittatus. In shape they seem to be typically a 



