276 . DICJEIDJE. 



entrance. The leaf to which it was attached was on the very top 

 of a ' Cliutnpa ' tree about 14 feet from the ground. 



" I went the following day to take the nest, and to iny disgust 

 found it gone ; what could have taken it I cannot imagine. 



" Belgaum, 7th April, 1880. Found a nest containing two tiny 

 slightly incubated pure white eggs, of an elongated form, and much 

 narrower at the small end than the other. 



" The nest was suspended from a small outside branch of a low 

 tree, about 15 feet from the ground, the foliage of which was 

 something similar to a banian but darker, and it was neatly con- 

 cealed by the surrounding leaves. 



" It was small, pyriform. and exquisitely built, with an entrance 

 near the top on one side, and composed almost exclusively of the 

 white silk-cotton from the seed-pod of Bombax malabaricum, with 

 a thin coating or network of fine dry grass to keep it together, the 

 cotton projecting above the entrance so as to form a slight portico. 

 A few days later, notwithstanding that I had shot one of the 

 parent birds, the survivor paired off with another mate, and built a 

 new nest exactly similar to the first on another branch of the same 

 tree, about 4 feet from the first nest. Strange to say, although I 

 watched this nest closely after it appeared to be finished, I never 

 saw the old bird sitting ; and thinking that the birds had forsaken 

 it, I sent a boy up the tree to look into it, and he reported it empty. 

 About a week later, on the 4th May, seeing the old bird fly to the 

 nest, I sent the boy up again, when to my great disappointment 

 he reported that there were young ones (two), so that I lost the 

 chance of getting the eggs from this nest." 



The late Capt. 0. ~R. Cock wrote to me some years ago : " I 

 have now taken four nests with eggs of this species besides several 

 nests containing young, and I find that the usual number of eggs 

 laid is three, that they are generally laid in March, and that at 

 Sitapur, Oudh, the nest is invariably placed in a mango-tree, often 

 under a thick cluster of leaves, at varying heights from the ground. 

 One I found was at the top of a middle-sized tree, another was on 

 a level with my face while riding. The nests are constructed of 

 fine vegetable fibres externally covered with cobwebs, loose pieces 

 of bark, dead shavings, and caterpillar excreta, this latter ornament 

 being found upon every nest I have examined. The interiors are 

 lined with little bits of cotton-w T ool, a few long hairs and pieces of 

 worsted thread. The shape w ? as much the same as that of 

 Piprisoma agile, but larger from not being of such compact material, 

 and differing in that it was suspended from the stalks of three or 

 four leaves, while that of Piprisoma is always on a single twig. 



" The nest is generally high up and placed under a thick bunch 

 of leaves to hide it from that pirate Dendrocitta rufa, but not 

 always successfully, as I have found to my sad experience. I may 

 here remark that I wage war with D. rufa and do not tolerate 

 them in my favourite baghs and topes, for many are the good eggs 

 they have deprived me of." 



The eggs taken by Captain Cock, some of which were sent me 



