290 EUBYLJEMIDJE. 



reached. Unfortunately I had taken it too soon, for it was quite 

 empty. Both its position and structure agreed with Hodgson's 

 description. 



" I have only once taken the eggs of this Broadbill, but have 

 frequently seen and taken empty nests, which form rather con- 

 spicuous objects, hanging, as they do, from the tops of tall slender 

 trees. So slender are the nesting-trees that I have never seen a 

 nest that could be taken without first cutting down the tree. The 

 nest is well described by Hodgson, but those I measured were 

 some two inches longer and wider than the dimensions given by 

 him, and they were lined with a few green leathery leaves after 

 the manner of Seriloplms rubropygius. One nest I took on the 

 17th May at 2500 feet elevation contained five fresh eggs. I shot 

 the female off the nest. Her stomach was filled with beetles and 

 other insects, and did not contain a trace of fruit or seeds." 



Mr. J. Darling, Junior, says: "April 3rd. Noticed a nest of 

 Psarisomus dalhousice, halfway up JNwalabo in Teuasserim. A very 

 large round structure suspended about 30 feet from the ground. 

 Could not be got at." 



Major C. T. Bingham writes: "I procured several specimens 

 of this lovely Broadbill at Tounjah, halfway between Kaukaryit 

 and Meeawuddy, in April 1878. They were breeding then, and I 

 discovered no less than six nests in one tree, but all un-get-at-able, 

 the tree being covered with sharp, strong, curved thorns on 

 hexagonal bases." 



The nests, of which several beautiful specimens have been sent 

 me from Sikhim by Mr. Gammie, are enormous structures com- 

 pared with the size of the bird. They are egg-shaped or pear- 

 shaped, suspended from the end of a twig, and measure from a 

 foot to nearly 18 inches in length, and from 8 to 10 inches 

 in diameter. Exteriorly they appear to be composed of fine roots, 

 the tendrils of creepers and other fibrous and stringy vegetable 

 matter, and interiorly of grass, lined generally with broadish flags 

 or spathes of the bamboo. The entrance is about one third of the 

 way up, circular, perhaps from an inch and a half to two inches in 

 diameter. The cavity is nearly spherical, and from four to five 

 inches in diameter. In some cases a regular portico is produced 

 over the entrance, so that the nest is like an enormous Sun-bird's 

 nest, though devoid, in all the specimens that I have seen, of the 

 pendent streamers and exterior ornamentation which characterize 

 the nests of these latter. 



The eggs are always considerably elongated ovals, a good deal, 

 in some cases conspicuously, pointed towards one end. They vary 

 a good deal in size. The shell is extremely thin and fragile. 



The eggs appear to be of two types, just as are undoubtedly 

 those of Dicrurus ater. In the one type the eggs are pure white, 

 and have then a fair amount of gloss. In the other the ground 

 has often, though not always, a pinky tinge ; there is generally 

 scarcely any gloss, and the egg is blotched, chiefly about the large 

 end, with red and very pale reddish purple. Both types seem to 



