6 JO URNAL, BOMBA T NA TURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



diameter. Internally the hollow descends 1*4" below the opening, or, 

 altogether measures 2*6" deep by 1'5" in diameter. The material used 

 is nearly all of the finest and softest vegetable down, kept together 

 with very fine shreds of sun-grass, cobwebs, and a few delicate 

 tendrils ; round the entrance and joining the nest to the fern where 

 the constant strain is greatest, the grasses and cobwebs are most 

 numerous ; and the top of the narrow portion, which encloses the 

 stem of the frond, is all of these materials. 



The second nest is far smaller and neater ; the major part of the stuflf 

 used is the same as in the nest already described, i.e., vegetable down, 

 but it is fastened together very compactly with the most minute scraps 

 of green moss and innumerable cobwebs, such being used as are so fine 

 that singly they are practically invisible and can only be seen clearly 

 where several cross one another or come together. This nest measures 

 only 4-6" X 2-2" and the inside 2-8" X 1"4". 



All the nests I have seen were, with one exception, fastened to 

 fronds of the common bracken, about six to eight inches from their 

 summits ; the one exception was attached to the pendant twig of a 

 small bush growing in amongst a quantity of bracken. All my nests 

 were taken at or near Hungrum, and all of them at an altitude of some 

 5,000 feet and over. They were placed in fairly close-growing 

 everoreen forest with a mixed undergrowth of ferns, bracken and 

 small bushes. The nests were all beautifully concealed, and it was 

 only by watching the birds that they were discovered ; indeed, on some 

 occasions, although I was engaged in watching a pair of birds which, 

 I feel sure, had their nest close by, I yet failed to find it. Once 

 I watched a pair for some time, and at last saw the male bird disappear 

 into a dense tangle of fern and bracken, carrying in his mouth a 

 small insect which I could plainly see with the help of my glasses. 

 Waiting until the bird was out of sight, I at once hurried to the spot 

 and searched every twig and fern, but without avail. At last, giving 

 it up as a bad job, I abandoned my search and passed on through the 

 piece of jungle and when on the other side, and nearly two yards 

 away, very nearly trod on the nest, the bird flying from it almost at 

 my feet. It was placed, hanging to a frond, about two feet from the 

 ground, and it was so completely hidden by the dead and dried bracken 

 which covered and surrounded it that, had not the bird left it as he 



