344 



simillima from the NUghiris, which, though immensely larger, so 

 far as tint, colour, and character of ground and markings go, is 

 positively identical with eggs that I have of this species. 

 " In length the eggs vary from 0-6 to 0-7 inch, and in breadt 

 from 0-5 to 0-56 inch, but the average of twenty-eight eggs is 0-67 

 nearly by 0-53 inch. 



501. Pericrocotus erythropygius (Jerd.). The White-bellied 

 Minivet. 



Pericrocotus erythropygius (Jerd.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 424; Hume, 

 Cat. no. 277. 



Mr. J. Davidson, C.S., is apparently the only ornithologist who 

 has discovered the nest of the White-bellied Minivet. Writing on 

 the 25th August, from Khandeish, he says : " Yesterday I took 

 two nests of Pericrocotus erythropygius. Both nests were like those 

 of P. peregrinus, and were placed about 2| feet from the ground 

 in a fork of a straggling thorn-bush among thin scrub-jungle. 

 One contained 3 young birds, and one 3 hard-set eggs. I watched 

 the nest, and found the cock sitting on the eggs, and watched him 

 for a minute, so there is no possibility of mistake ; but the eggs are 

 not the least what I expected. They are fairly glossy, one being 

 very much elongated, of a greenish-grey ground, with long longi- 

 tudinal dashes of dark brown, as unlike Mini vets' eggs as they can 

 possibly be. They were the only two pairs I saw in a long morning 

 walk, and the nests were easily found by watching the birds. I 

 wish I had known the birds were breeding where they were, as by 

 going three weeks ago I should probably have found many nests, 

 as there are miles and miles of similar jungle, and it is barely 12 

 miles from Dhulia. It is very provoking. I have had great 

 trouble trying to make the Bhils work for me. They will bring in 

 eggs but not mark them down." 



Later on, Mr. Davidson wrote : " I happened to be staying a few 

 days at Arvee, in the extreme south of Dhulia, and found this bird 

 breeding there in considerable numbers. This was in the end of 

 August (26th to 31st), and I was rather late, most of the nests con- 

 taining young, and in some cases the young were able to fly. I, 

 however, found eight nests with eggs (most of them hard-set). All 

 the nests, which are small and less ornamented than those of P.pere- 

 grinus, were placed from 3 to 4 feet from the ground, in a small 

 common thorny scrub. They were all placed in low thin jungle, 

 and never where the jungle was thick and difficult to walk through. 

 A great deal of the jungle round Arvee is full of anjan-trees, but 

 none of the birds seem to breed in these." 



The nests are elegant little cups, reminding one of those of Ehipi- 

 dura albifrontata, measuring internally about 1-75 inch in diameter 

 and 1 inch in depth, the thickness of the walls of the nest being 

 usually somewhat less than a quarter of an inch. Interiorly the 

 nest is composed of excessively fine flowering-stems of grasses, and 

 externally and on the upper edge it is densely coated with fine, 



