96 Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker on the 



bird and it was from such a spot that Mr. Charles Tnglis 

 procured me my first specimens. The bird is seldom seen, 

 but its deep " hoot-hoot-hoot " may be heard in the early 

 mornings and late evenings almost anywhere where these 

 cane-brakes are plentiful. 



Most of my eggs are broad, blunt ovals, but abnormal 

 eggs are rather long and narrow, one pair in my collection 

 being very narrow and quite sharply pointed at the larger 

 end. 



They range in size between T23" by *87" and 112" by 

 •74". The average of 12 eggs is 1*20" by -83". 



Gampsorhynchus rufulus. 



Blanford, F. B. Ind. i. p. 135 ; Stuart Baker, Ibis, 1895, 

 p. 53 ; id. B. N. H. S. J. viii. p. 179. 



The nest which I described in the f Ibis ; for 1895 must 

 have been abnormal, as some that I have since seen were 

 very different. On the 9th of August, 1898, I took a nest 

 of this bird, containing four eggs, in the Laisung Valley, 

 North Cachar, at an elevation of some 4000 feet. It was 

 very flimsy and rough, made outwardly of dead leaves 

 extremely carelessly fastened together with a few cobwebs, 

 a scrap or two of moss, and one solitary twig. The thin 

 lining was of fine grasses and the slender tendrils of a 

 small convolvulus. Outwardly the nest was so untidy, with 

 scraps sticking out in all directions, that it was not easy 

 to measure, but, roughly speaking, it was about 7" diameter 

 one way and 5" the other, the depth being about 2'8". The 

 measurements of the interior were 2*5" by 2*8" by 1*5" in 

 depth. It was built in the small fork of a straggling 

 bush standing in dense evergreen-forest on the banks of the 

 Laisung stream. It could be reached easily by the hand, and 

 no particular attempt had been made to hide it. The birds, 

 both of which seemed to be about the nest, slipped into the 

 undergrowth I approached, but the female soon returned 

 and was shot. 



In general character the nest is much like that of some of 

 the Shrikes, such as Volvocivora, Graucalus, and others, and 



