258 NECTAEINIID.E. 



generally adorned with the excrement of caterpillars, small bits of 

 rag, paper, &c. A pair that built in front of my office at Kuruool, 

 in an acacia-tree, had the most extraordinary nest I have ever seen. 

 It was ornamented with bits of blotting-paper, twine, and old 

 service-stamps that had been left lying about. The whole structure 

 was most compactly bound together with cobwebs, and had a long 

 string of caterpillar excrement wound round it. This excrement 

 had most probably fallen on to a cobweb and had stuck to it, and 

 the cobweb had afterwards been transported in strips to the nest. 

 It breeds from February to June, the majority of the nests being 

 constructed in March and April. The eggs are thickly spotted with 

 dusky brown on a greenish-grey ground, the usual number being 

 three. Dimensions of an egg in my collection 0-65 inch in length 

 by 0-46 in breadth." 



The eggs of this little bird vary so much that the two extremes 

 of a good series of its eggs could hardly at first be believed to 

 pertain to the same species. In shape they are typically a mode- 

 rately broad oval, considerably pointed towards one end ; but some 

 are nearly perfect, rather -elongated ovals, and a few are short and 

 pyriform. The ground-colour is greenish-, greyish-, or brownish- 

 white ; in some but little, in others almost entirely obscured by 

 the markings. These latter, always minute and ill-defined, are 

 grey, purplish grey, brown, or greyish brown. A certain number 

 of the eggs are pretty uniformly speckled and freckled over the 

 whole surface, but in the majority the markings are densest towards 

 the large end, where many exhibit more or less perfect caps or 

 zones, and to which locality in some few specimens the markings 

 are exclusively confined. Dull, dingy little eggs, giving small 

 promise of the brilliant offspring they are destined to produce, 

 their colouring recalls the eggs of the Sedge- Warbler, of several 

 species of Wagtail, and of many of our Larks ; and I have before 

 me now specimens which, so far as tint and character of markings 

 are concerned, are undistinguishable from specimens of the eggs of 

 these various species. 



In length the eggs vary from O6 to O68 inch, and in width 

 from O45 to 0*48 inch ; but the average of fifty eggs is 0-64 by 

 0*46 inch. I have one monstrous and absolutely abnormal egg of 

 this species, taken by Mr. W. Blewitt at Hansee on the 18th April, 

 which measures 0*78 by O49 inch. 



Arachnechthra hasselti (Temm.). Van Hasselt's Sun-bird. 

 Cinnyris brasiliana (Gm.) } Hume^ Cat. no. 233 bis. 



A correspondent * writes : " I found this nest five days ago, 

 building, and this morning was fortunate enough to find the bird 

 on the nest and two fresh eggs. I waited for nearly an hour, 

 then saw the female on the nest, flushed, and shot her. The cock 



* This note is without name, locality, or date. ED. 



