34 



" On the 21st July, 1876, a nest containing 3 eggs slightly incubated. 

 29th 3 fresh eggs. 



31st 3 fresh eggs." 



Lieut. H. E. Barnes informs us that in Kajpootana this Fly- 

 catcher " breeds from the latter part of February to the commence- 

 ment of August, but most nests are found in March and July, 

 and from this 1 infer that they have two broods in the year." 



Messrs. Davidson and Wenden writing of the Deccan say : 

 " Tolerably common, and breeds." 



Captain Hutton tells us that " a beautiful small nest of this bird 

 was taken in the Doon on the 22nd of May ; it contained three small 

 eggs of a creamy white, longitudinally dashed with dusky brown or 

 pale sepia. The nest was a very elegant little oval cup, composed 

 of an open basket-work of very fine stalks of plants, and thickly 

 plastered over externally with cotton and the seed-down of plants 

 so as to render the whole compact and strong. 



"It ascends as high as 5000 feet in the summer months." 



From Murree Colonel C. H. T. Marshall records that "the 

 nest of this Fantail is very neatly made, shallow cup-shaped, care- 

 fully covered outside with cobwebs. It is built on a thin branch 

 about ten feet up a tree. The eggs much resemble diminutive 

 Shrike's eggs. Breeds in June." 



Dr. Jerdon says : " I have had the nest brought me, very neatly 

 made with fine roots, lined with hair, deeply cup-shaped, and 

 fixed in the fork of a bamboo. The eggs were white, with some 

 rather large reddish-brown spots." 



There is here some mistake ; this will not answer at all to the 

 nest and eggs of our bird. Clearly it is the same nest that Ward 

 erroneously took for that of Hypothymis azurea as already noticed. 

 I cannot imagine what the bird is to which this nest belonged, 

 and I wish some of my Southern Indian contributors would try 

 and solve the difficulty. 



Colonel Legge writes : " This Flycatcher breeds in Ceylon 

 during the early part of the year. I have not had the good 

 fortune to see its cleverly-constructed little nest myself ; but 

 Mr. Jefferies, of Gangawoora Estate, described to me one which 

 was constructed in an orange-tree in his compound at Hindugalla, 

 as being a beautiful little cup-shaped structure placed on a thin 

 branch which oscillated to and fro with the wind, and which the 

 architect, with wonderful skill, had tied to an adjacent branch 

 with a ' stay ' consisting of a fine creeper-tendril. This is so 

 extraordinary, that had not my friend been a well-known observer 

 of bird life, and very fond of natural history, I could scarcely 

 have credited the statement." 



The eggs are typically moderately broad ovals, a good deal com- 

 pressed towards one en'd, and almost invariably exhibit the typical 

 Shrike-like zone. The ground-colour varies from pure white to 

 very pale yellowish brown or dingy cream-colour, and the markings 

 are, as a rule, almost confined to a broad irregular zone, near the 

 large end, of greyish-brown specks and spots of greater or less 



