198 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



the birds, but on climbing 1 up to the nest found it empty. Again 

 on the 17th February I found three nests, two empty, one with 

 two very young birds." 



The nest is quite that of an Arachneclithra, very similar to, 

 but larger and more coarsely made than, that of A. asiatica. 

 The nest, a good deal drawn out towards the twig it hangs from, 

 is a pendant elongated e^g, nine inches in length, and three 

 in diameter, composed chiefly of dry grass and cocoanut fibre, with 

 a few feathers intermingled in the body of the nest, and the 

 interior thickly lined with these. About an inch below the point 

 of suspension, the portico projects for T25 inches, it is about 1*5 

 thick, and below this is the little oval entrance to the nest about 

 1-25 by 1*0. Interiorily the cavity is about 3 - 5 deep below 

 the lower margin of the entrance hole, and nearly 1*75 in dia- 

 meter. The portico and the upper portion, or neck of the nest, 

 is chiefly coir, while the lower and broader portions are mostly 

 grass and pieces of bamboo sheaths, a dead leaf or so, and a scrap 

 or two of bark. There is no attempt to decorate the nest 

 externally, as is so common in this genus, but perhaps the nest 

 was not quite finished, though Davison says they were all alike. 



This species occurs I believe not only in Java, but in many 

 of the islands of the Malayan Archipelago. 



235 ter.— Araclmechthra andamanica, Hume. 

 (41.) 



This species is fully described, Stray Feathers, 1873, p. 404 ; 

 fit seg, and I have nothing to add in regard to it to what I 

 have there recorded. 



This also is a permanent resident, at any rate we have it 

 killed in every month from December to September. 



237 bis— Dicaeum virescens, Hume. (4.) 



This species has already been characterized, Stray Feathers, 

 1873, p. 482, and I have nothing now to add in regard to it. 

 I am entirely ignorant alike of its habits and distribution, but 

 1 am pretty confident that it does not occur in the Nicobars, 

 as otherwise some of us must at any rate have seen it there. 

 At Port Mouat Davison saw it, but failed to procure a speci- 

 men, and our birds were procured somewhere in the immediate 

 neighbourhood. 



261.— Lanius cristatus, Lin. (10.) 



This species is apparently very rare in the Andamans during 

 the cold season ; for amongst thirty-two shrikes which we pre- 



