24 MTTSCTCAPIDJE. 



took two days ago. They were white, with a very pale salmon- 

 coloured tinge, with numerous dull red specks and spots, nearly all 

 gathered into a large patch at the broad end, \vhere they were 

 partly confluent, and their interspaces filled up by a haze of a 

 paler shade of the same colour, as if the colouring of the spots 

 had partially run." 



I took a lovely nest of this species on the 10th of May in the 

 Calcutta Botanical Gardens. Exteriorly it was a broad cone, base 

 uppermost, 3 inches in diameter, and 3 inches in vertical height ; 

 interiorly a deep cup 2*5 in diameter and 1*7 in depth. The inside 

 was a light basket-work of the finest grass-stems there was no 

 attempt at a lining. It was placed between two twigs, the main 

 one down drooping, the smaller standing up and forming an angle 

 of about 60. Bound the slight basket-nest and round these twigs 

 was closely twined a series of firm bandages of vegetable fibre, and 

 the whole was so closely plastered over with small white cocoons, 

 bound on by their silk and with cobwebs, as to leave scarcely any- 

 thing else visible. The twigs were quite at the outside of the tree, 

 but the nest was well surrounded and concealed from view by 

 surrounding leaves. 



The nest contained four partly incubated eggs of the usual type. 

 A short-tailed chestnut female was sitting on the nest and a long- 

 tailed chestnut male was close at hand. 



Major C. T. Bingham writes : " I found seven nests of this 

 bird in a mango and peach garden here at Delhi on the 27th May 

 and 12th June. Of these four were on peach-trees not above six feet 

 from the ground, and three on mango-trees about fifteen feet from 

 the ground. All the nests were beautifully made, firm, deep cups, 

 plastered outside by tiny w T hite cocoons and constructed of fibres 

 of plantain and grass-roots no lining. Five contained four eggs 

 each, one five, and the seventh two rather hard-set ones. They are 

 all white (rather a straw-coloured white), with reddish-brown spots 

 chiefly at the larger end. Strange to say, the males belonging to the 

 nest containing five and the nest containing two eggs were in chest- 

 nut garb, w 7 hile the males of the other nests were white ones. The 

 females in all seven cases were chestnut with white bellies and short 

 tails. The average of 12 eggs was 0*8 inch in length by 0-65 inch 

 in breadth." 



Captain Hutton remarks : " Several nests of this beautiful 

 species were taken during the month of June in the Dehra Doon. 

 They are generally perched high upon some tree that overhangs the 

 side of a ravine, and are consequently somewhat difficult of access. 

 The bird is likewise to be found during the summer months in 

 some of the warmer valleys of the hills, and breeds up to an eleva- 

 tion of 5500 feet on the outer hills. 



" The eggs are four in number, and w r hite, sparingly dotted over 

 with brick-red spots, with an open ring of the same at the large 

 end. The nest is small, beautifully and compactly constructed of 

 very fine blades of grass and a little green moss neatly interwoven 

 into the shape of a small cup, and well plastered over externally 

 with cobwebs ; the lining is of very fine grass-stalks, sometimes 



