326 CAPITCXNTDjE. 



work. The holes vary considerably both with regard to the depth 

 of the entrance-tube, if it may be so called, and also with regard to 

 the depth of the egg-chamber. The hole is shaped something like 

 a retort with a very short neck. The eggs are pure white, rather 

 glossy, and generally nearly as thick at the smaller as at the larger 

 end, but in this, as well as in size, they vary very considerably. 

 The normal number of eggs is, I should say, four, but very often 

 only three are laid, while occasionally even five are found. Nothing 

 is used to line the hole, the eggs being merely laid on a few chips 

 of decayed wood. The bird appears rather to sit over than on her 

 eggs, as she may be seen for hours together with her head sticking 

 out of the hole. Breeds in March, April, and May, and sometimes 

 continues laying even as late as the first or second week in 

 June." 



Mr. J. Darling, Jun., remarks : " I can confirm what Mr. 

 Davison says about this bird breeding commonly on the Nilghiris. 

 From March 18th to June 4th, 1871, I took fifty-six eggs and 

 twenty-six young birds. In one tree-stump about 20 feet high I 

 took five nests. The number of eggs is either two or three, of a 

 dull pure white with a little gloss. There is no shadow of a doubt 

 about the bird making its own hole, as I have watched dozens of 

 them. The nest is a circular hole, leading a little way in, and then 

 down. I have also taken the nest in April in Calicut ; and in 

 Wynaad it breeds as commonly as on the Nilghiris. There is 

 never a lining of any sort, except the soft wood." 



Mr. Bourdillon, writing from Travancore, says : " This bird 

 breeds very commonly with us, laying its eggs about the middle of 

 March, but it is excessively shy, and I have never been able to 

 obtain the eggs. The nest is in a hole always in a dead tree, which 

 the bird excavates, making a new one each year, so that it is not 

 an uncommon thing to see six or seven holes in the same stump. 

 I have had young birds brought me on May 3rd and May 27th, on 

 both occasions almost fully fledged." 



Colonel E. A. Butler has furnished me with the following inter- 

 esting note from Belgaum : " On the 10th February I found a 

 nest containing three fresh eggs in the centre of the trunk of a 

 low tree (green wood, but slightly decayed inside), only about 

 8 inches in diameter ; and, replacing the wedge after taking the 

 eggs, I returned again on the 25th inst., and found four more fresh 

 eggs laid in the same hole. Unfortunately a gust of wind blew 

 the tree down a few days afterwards, or probably the birds would 

 have laid again. 



" Another pair of birds bored a hole in the trunk of a huge 

 climber (wood green, without any signs externally or internally of 

 decay), and on the 23rd March I cut into the nest and took three 

 fresh eggs. On the 8th April I opened the hole again by taking 

 out the wedge, and found three more eggs slightly incubated. On 

 the 23rd April I revisited the hole and found three more fresh 

 eggs, the egg-chamber being a little deeper than when I visited it 



