CIORXIS. O 



vertical rift in a tree about 8 feet from the ground and close to a 

 public road. The nest was deserted after the first day I touched 

 it, and the birds were very shy." 



The eggs are generally short broad ovals, slightly pointed towards 

 the small end ; a few are very decidedly pointed, and occasionally 

 the whole egg is somewhat elongated ; they have a slight gloss. 



Looked at from a little distance, the whole egg appears to be a 

 dull pale brownish pink or pinkish brown, somewhat deeper 

 towards the large end, the tint varying in intensity in different 

 specimens. Closely examined, the ground-colour appears to be a / 

 dull pale greyish green, almost entirely washed over with a more, 

 or less mottled shade of brownish red or pink, which, while it varies 

 in different eggs, is almost without exception considerably deeper 

 about the large end, where in some eggs it forms an utterly unde- 

 fined, but none the less apparent, cap. 



In length the eggs vary from 0'57 to 0-68 inch and in breadth 

 from 0-46 to 0-54 ; but the average of twenty-seven eggs is O62 

 nearly by rather more than 0'48 inch *. 



574. Cyornis unicolor, Blyth. The Pale Blue lit/catcher. 

 Cyornis unicolor, BL, Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 465 ; Hume, Cat. no. 303. 



Mr. Mandelli sends me a nest of this species taken near Namt- 

 chu, in Xative Sikhim, on the 1st August. It is a massive cup of 

 moss and fern-roots strongly felted together, about 3*75 inches in 

 diameter and 2 inches in height exteriorly, with a shallow central 

 cavity about 2 inches in diameter and O75 inch in depth. It 

 contained two eggs nearly ready to hatch off ; it was placed in a 

 depression in the trunk of a huge tree about 10 feet from the 

 ground. Another nest of this species sent me from Sikhim was a 

 felted mass of that peculiar grey stringy lichen that is commonly 

 called " old man's beard." It was little more than a pad 4 inches 

 in diameter and 1 inch in thickness, with a slight hollow in the 

 centre for the egg, and was placed in a hole at the junction of a 

 large branch with the trunk of the tree. 



575. Cyornis rubecnloides (Vigors). The Blue-throated 



Flycatcher. 



Cyornis rubeculoides ( Via.). Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 466: Hunie, Eouqh 

 ~ Draft N. $ E. no. 304! 



I have never seen the nest of the Blue-throated Flycatcher. 



* I omit from this edition the note which appeared in the Kough Draft 

 under the head of Erythrosterna pusiila (no. 324). This name denotes the 

 female of Cyornis -maculata ; but it is doubtful if Hodgson's note really applies 

 to this species. 



Mr. Ehodes W. Morgan ('Ibis,' 1875, p. 318) records particulars of the 

 finding of the nest of Erythrotfenia maculata in Southern India. There can be 

 little doubt that he mistook Hcmipus picatus for this species. ED. 



