32 MUSCICAPID^E. 



"April \Wi. Saw a nest of this just ready to lay in. It never 

 appears to lay more than three eggs." 



" July 22nd. Agra. Nest and one egg. The nest was built on 

 the junction of a stout three-pronged branch on which it was 

 firmly seated, having the cobwebs with which, as usual, it was 

 coated, entwined round each of the branches successively. It was 

 found in a mango-tree. The interior of the nest was lined with 

 several pieces of flowering grass. The nest was 2 inches in 

 diameter, T37 inch in depth exteriorly, and 1 inch interiorly." 



" Auyust 1st. A beautiful little nest containing three hard-set 

 eggs. The nest was of the usual type, round, cup-shaped, wound 

 round entirely with cobwebs and fastened to a branch of a mango- 

 tree. It was lined \vith fine grass-roots and a little horsehair." 



" July 15th. Adam found a nest of this species at Muttra in a 

 shrub of Cerbera thevetia ; it contained three fresh eggs. We have 

 a large series of these now, and altogether they show a sort of 

 family likeness to the eggs of many of the true Shrikes, and 

 especially to those of the pretty little Lanius vittatus" 



Writing from Bareilly, I said : " The crow whose eggs we had 

 just taken kept flying about uneasily from tree to tree, when 

 suddenly out darted at it a little bird about one-twentieth of 

 its weight ; white below, smoke-coloured above, with a conspicuous 

 white eyebrow plainly visible as it darted after the dusky giant, 

 whose approach it evidently so strongly disapproved. The flight, 

 and the long fan-shaped outspread tail, left no doubt that it was 

 R. albifrontata, one of the Fan-tailed Flycatchers. The nest was 

 seated on a horizontal branch of a mango-tree, a very delicate 

 small tumbler-like affair ; scarcely | inch in thickness anywhere, 

 closely woven of very fine grass, and coated over its whole 

 exterior with cobwebs. The interior diameter was about 1-75 

 inch, the depth about 1*12 inch. Although the little bird returned 

 and sat across it, its beak and half the head projecting in front, 

 and the whole tail from the vent overhanging behind the nest, the 

 latter contained no eggs." 



Mr. F. E-. Blewitt, writing of his experiences in Jhansie and 

 Saugor, says : " Breeds in July and August. I obtained four 

 nests, all on neem trees and firmly attached to the upper surface 

 of a branch where it divided into two slender stems making a fork, 

 on which, in each case, it was placed. The nest is very neatly 

 made ; on the exterior composed entirely of vegetable fibre, with a 

 pretty thick coating of some spiderweb-like substance over the 

 vegetable fibre. It is cup-shaped, the lining of it consisting of 

 very fine grass. The outer diameter fairly averages 2-4 inches, 

 inner cavity 2 inches, depth 1 inch." 



Mr. R. M. Adam remarks : " In North Behar I found this 

 bird building on the 21st April. In Oudh I took two nests in 

 May ; one contained three, the other two eggs. About Agra I have 

 taken- nests in June and July." 



Major C. T. Bingham says : " I found one nest of this bird at 

 Allahabad on the 3rd of July placed on the fork of a mango-tree, 



