296 



ground, where we left it. Next day I visited the nest again and 

 found a second egg of the same type laid, and both birds close by ; 

 day after day for nearly a week did I continue to visit the nest, 

 but no more eggs were laid, though both birds continued to pass 

 in and out of the nest, but they didn't seem inclined to sit. On 

 the morning of the day I left Kussoom I visited the nest for the 

 last time in company with Darling. We hid ourselves close to 

 the nest and saw both birds pass in and out of the nest, Darling 

 at last shooting one, which proved to be the female, as she left the 

 nest. The two eggs from this nest had no black spots at all, but 

 were so thickly covered with spots and blotches of rusty red as 

 almost to appear entirely of this colour. In this case, as in the 

 other, the eggs were laid on a layer of green leaves. This second 

 nest was not so large by a third, I should say, as the first, but 

 seemed to me more compactly put together." 



Mr. J. Darling, Junior, says : * April 20th. Nest of Cymbo- 

 rTiynchus macrorliynchus, with three fresh eggs, on side of small 

 stream, suspended from end of a branch of a tree, some 20 miles 

 east of Tavoy." 



The nest of this species taken by Mr. Darling was suspended 

 across a horizontal twig, the point of suspension being fully 

 4 inches broad. Below this the nest is oval in shape, about 

 9 inches in length and 4 to 4| in diameter. The aperture, which 

 is rather more than halfway up, is circular, and 2| inches in 

 diameter. The upper part of the nest is almost entirely composed 

 of green moss firmly felted together, only very slightly inter- 

 mingled with vegetable fibre. The lower part of the nest is 

 almost wholly composed of dry flags and bamboo-spathes, thinly 

 netted over exteriorly with moss and vegetable fibre, just sufficient 

 to keep the dry flags together. The cavity, which is 6 inches in 

 height and 3 inches in diameter, is lined, especially towards the 

 bottom, with fine stiff grass, which equally serves to keep these 

 flags in their places. 



The eggs are regular ovals, but vary a good deal in size and 

 shape, some being broader, others markedly elongated. The shell 

 is extremely fine in texture, and, for the size of the egg, thin ; but 

 it is almost entirely devoid of gloss. As in most of these Broad- 

 bill's eggs, they vary much in type of coloration. In one type the 

 ground is pure white, and they are densely spotted, and occasionally 

 by the fusion of several spots blotched, about the large end, and 

 thinly elsewhere, with black and dusky grey. In another type the 

 ground-colour is pale pinky buff, or pale salmon-buff, and it is 

 everywhere pretty thickly speckled, spotted, or in some eggs even 

 freckled, with brownish red, which in some eggs of this type is 

 more or less intermingled with specks and spots, or here and there 

 tiny clouds, of a pale inky purple. In this type, too, the markings, 

 though everywhere pretty thickly set, are by far most dense about 

 the large end. 



Six eggs measure from 0-99 to 1-13 in length, by 0-73 to 0-76 

 in breadth. 



