CYORNIS. 3 



Flycatcher breeds iii Xepal and about Darjeeling from April to 

 June. They build on the ground under the roots, or in some 

 cavity at the base, of a tree. The nest is composed of moss and 

 moss-roots, closely lined with the latter ; it is a deep cup, with an 

 exterior diameter of 2*75 inches and a height of about 2 inches, 

 with A cavity about 1'5 inch in diameter and depth. Four eggs is 

 the usual number laid, sometimes only three. The eggs are rather 

 elongated ovals, having a pale greyish or brownish-white ground, 

 finely freckled and mottled, chiefly at the large end, with dingy 

 bro \vnish red. As figured, the eggs measure 0-63 by 0-44 inch. 



567. Cyornis leucomelanurus (Hodgs.). The Slaty-blue 

 Flycatcher. 



Siphia tricolor (Hodys.\ Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 478. 

 Siphia leucomelanura (Hodg.\ Jerd. torn. cif. p. 479. 

 Digenea leucomelanura, Jfodys., Hume, R-mgh Draft N. $ E, 

 no. 320. 



The Slaty-blue Flycatcher breeds, we know, throughout the 

 Himalayas from Xipal to Cashmir, at elevations of from 5000 ta 

 7000 feet : but the only persons I know of who have taken the eggs 

 are Captain Cock and Mr. Brooks, who found several nests in 

 Cashmere, and to whom I owe both nests and eggs. 



The nests are massive little cups, with an external diameter of 

 from 3 1 inches to nearly 4 inches and from 1| to 2\ inches in 

 height. The egg-cavity is comparatively small, not exceeding 2 

 inches in diameter and lj inch in depth. The principal material 

 of the nest is fine moss, but with this is intermingled a quantity 

 of fine wool and fur, a few cobwebs, and, especially towards the 

 base of the nest, tiny dry leaves, lichen, and fir-needles. There is no 

 separate lining, but the interior of the egg-cavity has the moss and 

 wool very compactly and smoothly woven together, so as to form a 

 beautifully soft and even bed for the eggs. Nests taken in Cash- 

 mere on the 3rd and 4th June contained three and four eggs 

 respectively. Mr. Brooks remarks that " this species is not un- 

 common in Cashmere wherever there are pine-woods. As in the 

 case of lanfhia rufilata, many pairs of these birds which were 

 breeding had the male in the plumage of the female ! Only two 

 pairs which I shot had blue males. 



" The nest is a neat little cup, placed in a hollow in the side of 

 a tree-trunk. The eggs, four in number, are of a pale buff-colour, 

 clouded with dull pale rufous towards the larger end ; size *62 by 

 48 inch." 



The eggs of this species vary very ranch in size and shape. Some 

 are comparatively elongated ovals, some short and broad ; all are 

 somewhat compressed, and some are slightly pointed towards the 

 smaller end. The ground-colour is a dull white, but only in a few 

 of the eggs is any portion of this visible, the major portion of the 

 surface even in these, and the whole surface in most eggs, being 



1* 



