CYORNIS. 7 



previously obtained, and vary in length from O7 to 0*75 and in 

 breadth from 0-51 to O57. 



The Tenasserim birds are intermediate to the Indian and Suma- 

 tran Blue-throated Flycatchers, but nearer, it seems to me, to the 

 latter than the former. Whether with a complete series from all 

 parts of the Malayan peninsula and Burma it will be possible to 

 separate the two appears to me doubtful. 



Mr. Davison says : " On the 30th March at Ye, Tenasserim 

 Provinces, I found a nest of this species. The nest was built in 

 the hole of a rotten stump about 4 feet from the ground, and was 

 composed of dry, rather coarse grass, without any lining whatsoever, 

 resting on a foundation of dry dead leaves. It was so loosely and 

 carelessly put together that it was impossible to preserve the nest. 

 The bird was exceedingly shy, for although I was well hid a short 

 distance off the nest, it was some time before the bird came back 

 to its nest.' 7 



The eggs are moderately elongated ovals, somewhat pointed 

 towards one end. The shell is fine and smooth and has a faint 

 gloss. The ground-colour is apparently a creamy white, but the 

 whole egg is thickly freckled and mottled all over with a sort of 

 pale brownish pink and pinkish grey, that very little of the ground 

 is anywhere visible. The freckling is much most dense at the 

 broad end, where it forms a more or less uniform but very ill- 

 defined cap, which I should call a dull pale brownish pink. The 

 three eggs all measure O73 in length, and in breadth two measure 

 0-56 and one 0-55. 



576. Cyornis tickelli, Blyth. TickelTs Blue Flycatcher. 



Cyornis banyumas (Horsf.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 466. 

 Cyornis tickelliae, 1., Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 467 ; Hume, Rmyh Draft 

 N. 8f E. no. 303. 



Tickell's Blue Flycatcher breeds in May and June throughout 

 Central India and in the Xilghiris and Western Ghats to an eleva- 

 tion of at least 5000 feet. 



Mr. Nunn, the first of my correspondents who observed this 

 bird breeding, procured a nest with two fresh eggs at Hoshunga- 

 bad, Central Provinces, on the 24th of June, 1868. The nest was 

 placed in a niche in a wall on the banks of the Xerbudda. It was 

 a small, rather deep cup, compactly woven of fine grass-roots, and 

 lined with similar materials, but of a still finer quality ; externally 

 a few dry leaves were incorporated in the structure, much in the 

 same manner as is habitually done by the Bulbuls and many Sylviine 

 birds. The nest measured internally 2 inches in diameter by 2| 

 deep. 



Mr. Nunn -shot the parent bird off the nest and kindly sent it to 

 me with the nest and eggs, so that no doubt as to the authenticity 

 of the eggs can exist. A nest taken by Miss Cockburn below 

 Kotagherry on the 27th May was placed iu a hole between two 

 decaying branches of a tree at a height of 6 or 7 feet from the 



