THAMKOEIA. 77 



The nest was built under a bank in a hilly and uncultivated field. 

 It was very neatly made of fine twigs or roots and lined with a 

 layer of hair. The egg-cavity was about 2 inches in diameter 

 and \k inch deep." 



Mr. E. Aitken remarks : " I have found many nests of this 

 Eobin at Poona, and one, I think, at Khandalla. Poona is about 

 2000 feet above the sea. 



" I cannot give the dates very particularly. I took fresh eggs 

 from a nest on 3rd April, 1871, and found another on the 15th of 

 the same month. By that time I noticed that some young ones 

 had left their nests. I believe I have found them building at all 

 times from the beginning of February, or earlier, to at least the 

 beginning of May. 



" They breed on the bare rocky plains, or in the cantonment 

 among houses. In the former case a hollow in the ground, either 

 wholly or partly covered by a stone, is almost invariably the situ- 

 ation. I believe this hollow is in many cases widened, if not 

 made altogether, by the birds. In the neighbourhood of houses 

 any suitable bole in a wall or roof is chosen. I have seen a nest 

 in a thatch roof. They never build so high as Gopsychus saularis. 

 I have not found a nest that I could not reach from the ground. 



" The nest, which I must describe from recollection, is not more 

 than 3 or 3 1 inches in diameter, internally neatly made of roots 

 and fibres. I think I found, once at least, a piece of snake's skin 

 in it. It has no very distinct lining. 



" I have never found more than three, or less than two, eggs. 

 These were very thickly spotted, especially at the larger end, with 

 dull purplish brown on a pale bluish-white ground. I do not think 

 they have two broods in the year. They only breed in the hot 

 season, and have hardly time for two successive nests. If they 

 build twice in the same place, or ever use the nests of other birds, 

 it is only by accident;' 



Colonel Butler writes : " Belgaum, 23rd June, 1880. A nest 

 in the hole of a bank about 3 feet from the ground by the roadside, 

 containing two fresh eggs. It appears to have been a second nest, 

 as I found a nest presumably of the same pair of birds in another 

 bank close by, in April, containing three young ones. The nest 

 was composed of fine roots and oakum (or coir), with one or two 

 small pieces of rag round the edge in front. The eggs were pale 

 greenish white, moderately speckled and spotted all over with dark 

 brown and pale and dark yellowish brown, underlaid at the larger 

 end with inky purple or slate-coloured markings, the whole forming 

 a dense cap at the large end." 



Mr. Benjamin Aitken has the following note : 



" The Black Kobin of the Bombay Presidency builds on the 

 ground, as well as in holes in walls, but its nest is often found in 

 haystacks, and I have seen one between the broad leaves of a 

 cactus and another in a lamp hanging under the porch of a 

 bungalow. 



" I have the following notes of dates of breeding : 



