MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 621 



from moss, lichen or any sort of parasitic growth. The crux is to find the 

 haunts of the birds : once this has been discovered, the nest is not difficult to 

 see. The eggs are of an olive-greeu tinge with dim brick-red specks and fade 

 very rapidly. The cock has a very pretty low song, which is not very easily 

 heai-d. 



The Southebn-Indian Black BDLBVL~(Hy2)sipefes ganeesa) is very 

 common and very noisy, a regular scamp, at times they are almost deafening. 

 It is not very easy to obtain their eggs for they usually select a very tall 

 eucalyptus or similar tree and build about 30 to 40 feet up, one cannot get 

 up oneself and it is by no means easy to get any one else to. I found several 

 nests but only got eggs out of two. The best way to find the nest is to watch 

 the birds. They are noisy biids, as I have mentioned, when building 

 the male usually accompanies the female to and from the nest, which 

 I thirk she makes unaided, and shouts all the time at the top of his 

 voice. If you watch her yon can easily tell whether she is nesting as she will 

 then go to the same spot each time. They are very fond of the parasite resem- 

 bling mistletoe, which is common at Ooty and is leafy, in this the nest is well 

 concealed so that one may not even see it but merely surmise it is there. The 

 nest is of the bulbul type as are the eggs : 2 is the complement. I fancy if 

 they chose less inaccessible places one would get many eggs. .April and early 

 May I think is the best time to look for them. 



The Jungle Myna— (^^/u'o^jsar fuscus) is very common and behaves like 

 all other Mynas. They were breeding when I arrived and when I left, so I 

 fancy their season is long. They seem to prefer, if they have a choice, a hole 

 in a tree in jungle, though I found nests in houses, under bridges, in fact 

 almost anywhere. 



The NiLGHiKi Blue Flycatcher — {Stoparola alhicandata) is the common 

 Flycatcher and a very cheery fellow into the bargain : he is always singing and 

 is not ashamed of raising his voice. The site they like for nesting is a 

 mossy bank, if a hole or hollow exists in such, they fill it up with green moss 

 with no lining and on this lay 3 pretty little pinky-white eggs. At Ooty, deep 

 channels are cut to protect the forests from cattle and also to carry the water 

 off, these soon get coated with moss and make ideal nesting places for this 

 Flycatcher, although he is not averse to holes in trees and such like. When 

 walking or driving along by keeping ones eye's some way ahead, one can often 

 spot a nest by the hen darting off, at your approach, out of a bank or h.edge, 

 April and May are the best months to search for eggs. 



The Black- and-0 range Flycatcher — {Ochromela nigrirufa) is a pretty little 

 bird, very robin-like, and common at Ooty. He has no voice to speak of but 

 just chirrups. He is not a bit like a Flycatcher in his domestic arrange- 

 ments, building quite an unorthodox nest, A lot of old leaves are used as 

 a foundation and on this the nest proper is built up of strips of grass, leaves, 

 etc., globular in shape, very untidy, no lining and with an entrance more or 

 less at the top. I took one or two nests but could not preserve them as they 



