OCHROMELA. 15 



a dirty-white, somewhat brownish ground, shaded more with 

 reddish brown towards and at the large end." 



Mr. Davison says : " The nest of this bird is quite unlike that 

 of any of the Flycatchers with which I am acquainted ; it is (for 

 the size of the bird) a large globular structure, composed chiefly of 

 the dry leaves of a kind of reed common on the Nilghiris and its 

 slopes ; the opening is near the top, and the egg-cavity is very 

 deep ; the eggs, two or three in number, of the true Flycatcher 

 type, being of a pale brownish-salmon colour, indistinctly mottled 

 with a darker colour, the markings coalescing to form a zone or 

 cap at the larger end. Usually it lays only two eggs, but I have 

 taken three. It is a permanent resident from 5000 feet to the 

 summit of the Nilghiris, and when found at a lower elevation than 

 5000 feet, I believe it is only as a straggler. It breeds from April 

 to the early part of June. The nest is usually placed close to the 

 ground in a clump of ferns or reeds, or some similar situation." 



Miss Cockburn remarks : " The Orange Flycatcher had chosen 

 a clump of reeds, in which they had built their nest (rather a large 

 one for so small a bird). The shoots of the reeds were growing 

 all round. It was commenced with large pieces of dry common 

 fern-leaves and continued with a quantity of dry grass, some of 

 which was brought so as to form a hood over the small round 

 opening left at one side. The interior was lined with very fine 

 grass, but contained nothing soft or warm. This nest was found on 

 the llth of May, and another found on the last day of the same 

 month was built with exactly the same materials." 



Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says : 

 " This very beautiful little Flycatcher breeds in ravines where 

 the shade and cover is very dense. The nest is built entirely of 

 bamboo-leaves, and is lined with fine fibres. It is placed very low 

 down, from six inches to two feet from the ground ; a clump of 

 fern is a very favourite situation. The eggs are two in number, 

 and are very minutely and thickly speckled with faint reddish 

 brown on a pale olive ground, the whole of the upper part having 

 a regular cap of reddish brown. Dimensions of one, - 74 inch in 

 length by 0-54 in breadth/' 



Mr. T. Fulton Bourdillon, writing from the Mynall Estate in 

 Travancore on the 29th March, says : " Two nests, each containing 

 two fresh eggs, and a new nest, all found in dense jungle at an 

 elevation of 3700 to 4000 feet. The bird is not uncommon here. 

 The nests were composed of the leaves of the eerul (a reed peculiar 

 to the Western Grhats, which has been called Beeslia travaneorica), 

 and domed. From 3 to 8 feet from the ground. Size of egg 0*65 

 inch by 0-5.'' 



The first egg of this species which I obtained I owed to Messrs. 

 H. Carter and Wait, who sent it from Conoor (Nilghiris). It is a 

 long oval egg, an exact miniature of some eggs of Myiophoneus 

 temmincki, but also having obvious affinities with the Stoparola and 

 Niltava group. The shell is very fine and delicate, with a very 

 faint gloss. The ground is a pale greyish white, thickly and very 



