90 TTJEDID^. 



favourite, the eggs are sometimes elongated and often perfectly 

 oval, the smaller end being rounded and obtuse. The ground- 

 colour varies somewhat, being sometimes of a beautiful bright 

 blue-green, at others of a dull olive-green, and various intermediate 

 shades occur. They are richly speckled, mottled, and streaked, 

 and at times even boldly blotched, with brighter and duller, deeper 

 and lighter shades of brownish red, not unfrequently underlaid by 

 faint spots and clouds of purplish pink or grey. The markings 

 vary a good deal in extent and frequency, but, in perhaps a 

 majority of the eggs, form a more or less conspicuous and confluent 

 cap at the large end. In some eggs all the markings are very fine 

 and minute, laid on, as it were, with a very fine-pointed brush ; in 

 others they are coarse and streaky, and occasionally bold, blotchy, 

 and well defined. Specimens occur which could scarcely be sepa- 

 rated from varieties of the English Ring-Ouzel's egg. The eggs 

 have usually a slight gloss, and some specimens are highly glossy. 

 As already mentioned, in some specimens secondary markings, 

 small purple clouds and spots, appear to underlie the red-brown 

 blotches. 



In length the eggs vary from 1*1 to 1*3 inch, and in breadth 

 from 0-82 to 0-93 inch ; but the average of thirty-five eggs mea- 

 sured was 1*17 nearly by 0*86 inch. 



668. Merula kinnisi, Blyth. The Ceylon BlacUird. 

 Merula kinnisii, BL, Hume, Cat. no. 360 bis. 



Colonel Legge, recording the breeding-habits of this species in 

 Ceylon, writes : " The Blackbird breeds from April until June, 

 building in a niche of a trunk, on a stump, or in a forked branch 

 of a low tree ; its nest is composed of grass, moss, and roots, 

 strengthened with a few twigs, and is somewhat massive in struc- 

 ture, the interior being a deep cup lined with fine roots, most 

 probably underlaid by a foundation of mud, as in the nests of other 

 species. The eggs are four in number, of a pale green ground- 

 colour, blotched evenly all over with faded reddish-brown and 

 light umber, overlying smaller reddish-grey spots. Dimensions 

 1-05 by 0-82 inch. 



44 In the matter of situation, it has, however, a variety of choice, 

 sometimes nesting, according to Mr. Holdsworth, in out-buildings 

 at Nuwara Elliya, and occasionally choosing the site of a rock, as 

 will be seen from the following experience of Mr. Bligh. He 

 writes me : * I have often found this charming bird's nest ; on 

 one occasion it proved to be a strange structure, composed of seven 

 distinct nests, which were fixed among the roots of a bush which 

 grew out of a perpendicular rock above the " Swallow's Cave " at 

 Dambetenne : it contained three young ones. The situation no 

 doubt proving very safe and suitable, induced perhaps the same 

 pair to build successively on the old nests, all of which still pre- 

 sented a fresh green appearance, from the moss not readily drying 

 in such a moist climate. Usually the nest is very like the English 



