278 Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker on the 



had any doubt I would have shot it ; as there was none, 

 however, I walked back to the road and was moving off, 

 when the bird flew again over my head to the same tree, a 

 Matti. I glanced at it as it flew, and saw it light on a lump 

 in the branch, and returning saw that there was a nest. 

 I sent a boy up the tree and he reported four eggs, which 

 after some difficulty were safely brought down, and I shot 

 the bird as a proof of its breeding so far south. The nest was 

 large and solid, composed of moss and lichen, and lined 

 with a few fibres and some feathers, mostly Oriole's. It was 

 about fifteen feet from the ground and in the middle of a 

 horizontal branch. It contained four extremely small olive- 

 green eggs, a good deal smaller than others of this bird 

 received from the neighbourhood of Mhow." 



I have several clutches of this bird's eggs taken by different 

 friends, and the complete clutch seems to be either four 

 or three. 



They are typical little Cyornis eggs, as might be expected 

 from the very close affinities between Cyornis and Alseonax, 

 and I doubt if they could be distinguished from some of the 

 eggs of the smaller species of the first-named genus. 



In ground - colour they are very pale stone - colour, 

 varying somewhat iu tone between reddish and greenish. 

 The markings consist of microscopical specks of reddish, 

 which cannot be distinguished without a good glass, and 

 the eggs appear to be uniform, though rather deeper in 

 coloration at the larger end, where there is sometimes a 

 faint indication of a ring or cap. One clutch which I have 

 appears to be uniform pale grey-green and a second pale 

 olive-brown. 



In shape they are regular ovals, in one clutch rather 

 compressed and pointed towards the smaller end. 



The texture is smooth and close, but glossless, and the 

 shell is, perhaps, comparatively stronger than in the Cyornis 

 group. 



My eggs vary between *62 and "67 in. in length and between 

 •48 and '51 in. in breadth. 



