OF SOME BURMESE BIItDS. 147 



dry grass and bamboo leaves, put rather loosely together, and 

 surrounded by the ends of the bent stems which are twisted 

 right over it and partly worked in with the dry material. In 

 shape it is a roundish oval, measuring externally about 10 inches 

 in height by 8 inches in width. The cavity is 4 to 5 inches in 

 diameter, and is lined with a few green leaves. The entrance which 

 is at the side is 3 inches in diameter. 



" The usual number of eggs is three, and the breeding 

 months May and June." 



The eggs obtained by Mr. Gammie are broad ovals, obtuse 

 at both ends. White with a faint gloss, and a good deal 

 stained here and there with dirty brownish yellow. They 

 measured 1 - 15 and 1'24 in length, and 0'96 and 099 in 

 breadth.— A. O. H.] 



19.— Chalcoparia phcenicotis, Tern. (233 bis.) 



This Sunbird appears to nidificate from the middle of May 

 to about the end of July. On the 3rd June I found a nest 

 with two eggs nearly hatched. It was suspended from a branch 

 of a Mangoe tree about 20 feet from the ground and well 

 surrounded by leaves. On the 25th June another nest was 

 found from which the young had apparently just flown. It 

 was about 8 feet from the ground. On July 6th a nest with 

 two nearly fresh eggs was discovered hanging on a shrub 

 about 4 feet high and on the 8th of the same month another 

 quite completed, but with no eggs. It was attached to the 

 extreme tip of a bamboo about 25 feet from the ground. 



The eggs appear to be always two in number. Three eggs 

 measure '66, '64, and *63 in length by '46, '43 and '44 iu 

 breadth, respectively. They have little or no gloss. The 

 ground colour is pinkish white and the whole shell is thickly 

 streaked and otherwise marked with brown, in which a purplish 

 tinge is distinctly visible. The marks are very evenly distributed, 

 but round the thicker end they tend to coalesce and form a 

 more or less distinct ring. Very little of the ground colour 

 is visible. 



The nest is a very lovely structure, closely resembling that 

 of Ploceus bar/a in shape, Avith the tube cut off at the level 

 of the bottom of the nest. At a short distance off, it looks 

 like a mass of hair combings. Three nests are composed 

 throughout of black hair-like fibres very closely woven. 

 With these are intermingled numerous small cocoons, pieces 

 of bark, a few twigs here and there and large lumps of the 

 excreta of caterpillars. The interior is sparingly lined with 

 fine grass. A fourth nest was made almost entirely of strips 

 of grass, a very small quantity only of black fibres being 



