CHALCOPA.BIA. 269 



email end, have a tine compact shell, and a very fair amount of 

 gloss. The ground is a drah or sepia-brown, with, in one, a decided 

 purplish tinge, and they are minutely striped and speckled some- 

 times all over, but even then most densely about the large end, 

 and sometimes there only, with a deep dingy purple which is almost 

 black. 



In length they vary from 0-85 to 1*05, and in breadth from 0'61 

 to 0'75. As will be seen from these dimensions, the eggs vary 

 immensely in size. 



Chalcoparia phcenicotis * (Temm.). The Ruby-Cheek. 

 Chalcoparia singalensis (<7w.), Hume, Cat. no. 233 sex. 



Mr. Gates records the following note on the nidification of this 

 bird in Pegu : 



" This bird appears to nidificate from the middle of May to 

 about the end of July. On the 3rd June I found a nest with 

 two eggs nearly hatched. It was suspended from a branch of a 

 mango tree about 20 feet from the ground, and well surrounded 

 by leaves. On the 25th June another nest was found from which 

 the young had apparently just flown. It was about 8 feet from 

 the ground. On July 6th a nest with two nearly fresh eggs was 

 discovered hanging on a shrub about 4 feet high, and on the 8th 

 of the same month another quite completed, but with no eggs. 

 It was attached to the extreme tip of a bamboo about 25 feet from 

 the ground. 



" The eggs appear to be always two in number. Three eggs 

 measure -66, '64, and '63 in length, by -46, -43, and -44 in breadth, 

 respectively. They have little or no gloss. The ground-colour is 

 pinkish white, and the whole shell is thickly streaked and other- 

 wise marked with brown, in which a purplish tinge is distinctly 

 visible. The marks are very evenly distributed, but round the 

 thicker end they tend to coalesce and form a more or less distinct 

 ring. Very little of the ground-colour is visible. 



" The nest is a very lovely structure, closely resembling that of 

 Ploceus baya in shape, with the tube cut off at the level of the 

 bottom of the nest. At a short distance off, it looks like a mass 

 of hair-combings. Three nests are composed throughout of black 



* I have shown in ray work on the Birds of India that this species does not 

 belong to the Kcctariinid<e. Its proper position is probably among the Liotri- 

 chince. ED. 



