38 



and then 1 noticed what I tooked to be its nest. Under promise 

 of a large reward I induced a native to go up for it. It was as 

 nasty a looking tree to climb as one could well imagine. The nest 

 was right at the end of a dead branch near the top. However, the 

 man being once started took a sensible view of it and went right 

 up, but of course he could not get quite close to the nest ; but by 

 tying a bamboo under the branch, cutting it through and then draw- 

 ing it in he eventually got hold of the part where the nest was. It 

 was a tedious business, but at last he got it down, and I. was very 

 glad when I safely got hold of the nest and egg. The nest was 

 made of a few bits of bark and feathers gummed on to the branch, 

 and apparently, in addition to the saliva of the bird, some of the gum 

 of the tree itself had been used. 



" It was just large enough to hold the one egg, which was of a 

 glossless white, an elongated oval, the same at both ends, and not 

 at all like a Swift's egg. It was much incubated." 



About two years ago I found a nest of this species in the Dar- 

 jeeling Terai in May placed exactly as above described, but both 

 nest and egg were smashed, and the lad who went up for them 

 was nearly killed by the bough breaking just before he reached the 

 nest. The egg was very long and pure white, and, as far as I 

 could measure the fragments, nearly 1 inch in length. 



I have as yet obtained only one single entire egg of this species, 

 and this I owe to Captain Mitchell of Madras. It is in colour a 

 pure dead spotless white, and in shape a very long almost cylindrical 

 oval, but slightly pointed towards the lesser end. 



It measures 0'85 by 0*55 inch, and is much smaller than the one 

 I saw. 



Family CAPRIMULGID.E. 



Batrachostonins moniliger, Layard. The South-Indian 

 Frog-mouth. 



Batrachostoinus moniliger, Blyth, Jerd. E. Ind, i. p. 189 ; Hume, 

 Cat. no. 105. 



Mr. Bourdillon, writing from Mynall in Travaucore, gives me 

 the following interesting account of the nidification of the South- 

 Indian Frog-mouth : 



" The nest was brought to me one evening by a coolie who had 

 been working in the jungle. The nest was composed of vegetable 

 down neatly and compactly interwoven with pieces of dead 

 leaves, fragments of bark and dry wood, and one or two pieces of 

 lichen. In shape it is a sort of disk about 2| inches broad and 1^ 

 deep, the upper surface being slightly hollowed out. 



" The young one, partially fledged, was unmistakably a Frog- 

 mouth from the colour of his plumage and bill and huge gape. On 

 receiving the nest I at once went with the man, and, restoring 

 it to its original position, sat down to watch. 



