28 MUSCICAPID^. 



about 3000 feet, in the forest-tracts at their bases, and generally 

 throughout India and Burma. They lay from May to August, 

 but the majority of them, I believe, in June and the early part of 

 July. Five is, I believe, the maximum number of eggs, and four 

 the normal number. 



The nests are usually placed in slender forks of the exterior 

 branches of trees, at no great height from the ground, or attached 

 to some pendent bamboo-spray. They are deep, compact little 

 cups, more massive than those of the Rkipidwra, though much of 

 the same general type. The diameter of the cavity is from 1*5 to 

 1'75 inch, the depth from 1 to nearly Ij, and the sides and bottom 

 of the nest may be about inch thick. The nest is composed 

 internally of fine grass-stems, well woven together ; externally of 

 rather coarser grass and vegetable fibres ; the whole partially 

 coated with cobwebs, by which numerous small white cocoons and 

 commonly some tiny pieces of dry leaves and lichen are attached 

 to the nest. In nests from the Nilghiris (found on the 10th and 

 24th June, placed as usual in forks of branches and twigs at 

 heights of from 7 to 8 feet from the ground) a good deal of green 

 moss is intermingled with the cocoons in the exterior coating. 

 The nests, too, are somewhat larger, I think, than our northern 

 ones, having internal cavities of fully 2 inches in diameter and 1| 

 inch in depth. 



Mr. J. Davison, C.S., when bird-nesting on the Kondabhari 

 Grhat on the 12th July, writes : " I also found four nests of H. 

 azurea, one with a fresh egg, which I left, and the rest either 

 empty and old or with big young. This bird is very common on 

 this Grhat, and makes its nest generally on an umar tree." 



Mr. W. Davison says : "I found a nest of this bird on the 

 28th August, 1871, between Groodalore and the Ouchterlony Valley. 

 It was an exceedingly neat cup-shaped nest, fastened to one of the 

 sprays of a bamboo that overhung the road ; it contained three 

 very young birds." 



Dr. Jerdon informs us that " Mr. Ward procured the nest at 

 Honore, in a bamboo-clump, made with bamboo-leaves and fibres, 

 and containing two eggs, white, with a few large blotches of pur- 

 plish red." There must be some mistake here, as this will not 

 answer either to the nest or eggs of our bird. 



Colonel W. V. Legge writes of the breeding of this Flycatcher 

 in Ceylon as follows : " H. azurea, which is an inhabitant of our 

 forests and damp jungle from the sea-level in all parts of the 

 island to an altitude of 4000 feet and more, breeds from April to 

 July. I know of no little bird architect in our province who can 

 excel it in the neatness and finish of its little habitation. A nest 

 I found in a Western Province forest on the 2nd June, 1870, was 

 fixed into the fork of an upright sapling at about 4 feet from the 

 ground, and was made in the shape of a deep cup with an internal 

 diameter of 1| inch; the materials of which it was constructed 

 were fine strips of thin bark and moss, very neatly woven together, 

 and the rim and exterior were fancifully decorated and bound with 



