20 MTJSCICAPIDJE. 



In shape all the eggs are much alike, being long regular ovals, 

 only slightly compressed towards one end, and they have all a 

 very faint gloss. The eggs brought me by Dr. Jerdon are of a 

 uniform very pale fawn or dingy pinkish-white colour, faintly 

 clouded at the large end with reddish pink. Captain Masson's eggs 

 have a sort of pale buffy-white ground, more or less streaked, 

 clouded, or suffused, chiefly at the large end, with buffy-faw r n colour. 

 Both doubtless belong to this species. 



Eggs sent me by Mr. Garnmie are very broad ovals, slightly 

 compressed towards one end, but very obtuse at both. Looked at 

 from a little distance they are a very pale cafe an lait colour, darker 

 and slightly pinky in a broad undefined zone about the large end. 

 Looked into very closely they seem to have a creamy ground and 

 to be very faintly and closely freckled and mottled over, most 

 densely in the zone already referred to, with a sort of pale pinkish 

 brown. 



These eggs vary from 0*87 to O91 and from 0*7 to 0*73. 



Another egg subsequently obtained by him measures 0*89 by 0*69. 



Other eggs again obtained by Mr. G-ammie were altogether paler, 

 in fact white with the faintest possible pinkish-brown tinge, scarcely 

 perceptibly darker at the larger end. 



These eggs measure 0-93 and 0'99 by 0-7. 



594. Niltava su.nd.ara, Hodgs. The Rufous-bellied tfiltava. 



Niltava sundara, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 473 ; Hume, Rouyli Draft 

 N. 4- E. no. 314. 



The Rufous-bellied Niltava breeds everywhere in the Himalayas, 

 at any rate from Darjeeling to the valley of the Beas (I have no 

 record of its breeding further west), from the middle of April to 

 the middle of May. It places its nest in some rocky ledge or crevice, 

 or in or about some decayed stump or fallen trunk. 



A nest of this species, which I took near Kotegurh on the 

 15th May, was a mere pad of moss, about 5 inches in diameter 

 and 1^ inch in thickness, with a very broad shallow depression in 

 the centre. In and about the inner surface of this depression a 

 certain amount of very fine silky fur and one or two downy feathers 

 'were interwoven, making a kind of lining. The nest was placed 

 in a hollow at the base of an aged oak. Four is, I believe, the 

 normal number of the eggs. 



According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and drawings this species lays 

 in Nepal in April and May. It constructs its nest, which is compact 

 and large for the size of the bird, of green moss, lined with black 

 moss-roots ; it measures exteriorly about 5 inches in diameter and 

 3 in height ; the cavity is about 2'5 inches in diameter. Of another 

 nest he gives the external diameter as 4-5 inches, height 3 ; internal 

 cavity, diameter and depth 1*5. The nest is placed against the root 

 of some tree or on some ledge of rock, or in some crevice in a cliff 

 or bank. Three or four eggs are laid, measuring about 0'9 by 0-65 

 inch, of a nearly uniform pinky-fawn colour, slightly darker towards 

 the large end. 



