PERICROCOTUS. 337 



Mr. J. Darling, junior, sends me the following note : " I had 

 the good fortune to find a nest of the Orange Minivet at Neddivat- 

 tum, about 6000 feet above the level of the sea, on the 5th September, 

 1870. It was placed on a tall tree near the edge of a jungle and 

 was built in a fork, about 30 feet from the ground. 



" The nest was built of small twigs and grasses, and covered on 

 the outside with lichens, moss, and cobwebs, making it appear as 

 part and parcel of the tree. I noticed it merely from the fact of 

 seeing the bird sitting on her nest, and even then could not- make 

 up my mind, and came away. Being of an inquisitive nature, next 

 day I went again and saw the bird in the same place, so I climbed 

 up and managed to pull the nest towards me with a hook, and took 

 t\vo eggs, one of which I send you. 



" In August 1874 at Vythery I saw a bird sitting on her nest, and 

 watched her rear and take away her brood, but could not get at 

 the nest," 



An egg sent me by Mr. Darling is very similar to the eggs sent 

 me by Miss Cockburn, except that the brown markings are rather 

 more numerous, especially in a broad zone round the large end, and 

 that with these a good many pale purple or lilac spots or specks 

 are intermingled. It measures 0'88 by 0*68 inch. 



495. Pericrocotus brevirostris (Vigors). The Short-billed 

 Minivet. 



Pericrocotus brevirostris ( Vig.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 421 ; Hume, 

 Rough Draft N. Sf E. no. 273. 



The Shortr-billed Minivet breeds in the Himalayas at elevations 

 of from 3000 to 6000 feet in Kumaon, and again in Kulu and the 

 valley of the Sutlej. It lays in May and June, building a compact 

 and delicate cup-shaped nest on a hoizontal bough pretty high up 

 in some oak, rhododendron, or other forest tree. I have never seen 

 one on any kind of fir-tree. 



Sometimes the nest is merely placed on, and attached firmly to, 

 the upper surface of the branch ; but, more commonly, the place 

 where two smallish branches fork horizontally is chosen, and the 

 nest is placed just at the fork. I got one nest at Kotgurh, however, 

 wedged in between two upright shoots from a horizontal oak-branch. 

 The nests are composed of fine twigs, fir-needles, grass-roots, fine 

 grass, slender dry stems of herbaceous plants, as the case may be, 

 generally loosely, but occasionally compactly interlaced, inter- 

 mingled and densely coated over the whole exterior with cobwebs 

 and pieces of lichen, the latter so neatly put on that they appear 

 to have grown where they are. Sometimes, especially at the base 

 of the nest, a little moss is attached exteriorly, but, as a rule, there 

 is nothing but lichen. The nest has no lining. The external 

 diameter is about 2| inches, and the usual height of the nest from 

 1| to 2 inches ; but this varies a good deal according to situation, 



VOL. i. 22 



