262 Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker on the 



in the moss and other vegetation covering some old tree. 

 In the latter case it is always more or less built into some 

 shallow hollow, but is never, so far as I know, placed inside 

 a hole. 



The eggs, which have not been described hitherto, arc, of 

 course, pure white. They are the least glossy of all the eggs 

 which I have seen of this genus and are not so strong, though 

 by no means fragile in proportion to their size. In shape they 

 are typically broad ovals, with the smaller end decidedly 

 compressed and quite pointed. 



They measure about '55 by '11 in. on the average, but 

 vary in length between "53 and 57 aud in breadth between 

 •10 aud "42. The birds are, as a rule, early breeders, the 

 majority laying in April and early May, but I have taken a 

 single fresh egg as late as June the 12th and have found 

 young still in the nest in August. I have, however, seen 

 nearly fully fledged youug in the first few days of April. 



I have not taken the nest below 3500 feet, and the majority 

 were between 4000 feet and 5000 feet. 



101. CttYPTOLOPHA CANTATOR. 



Oates, P. B. Ind. i. p. 427. 



Tickell's Flycatcher- Warbler occurs throughout the hills 

 of Assam, both north and south, but is nowhere at all 

 common, and in the fifteen years that I was stationed in the 

 North Cachar Hills I took less than half a dozen nests. 

 These were, however, sufficient to shew that the accounts 

 of its nidification as given in Hume's ' Nests and Eggs ' 

 (second edit.) were wrong. 



My first nest was taken at Laisung in 1893. This 

 was a most beautiful little moss-ball wedged in between 

 the branches of a dead sapling lying on the ground amongst 

 dense bushes. The moss used in its construction was of the 

 brightest and greenest, and all in very fine bits, so that the 

 nest was very compact and well made, measuring barely 

 4i inches high by under 4 inches wide. The lining was 

 entirely of down from Bombax-seed, but this had been 

 flattened down by the three young birds which the nest con- 

 tained. The parents hovered round in a great state of anxiety 



