THE BIRDS OF NORTH CACHAR. 11 



breadth between -58" and -72". Gates (" Nest and Eggs " loc. cit.) 

 gives the greatest breadth as '75". 



(362) Arachnotheea longirostris. — The Little Spider-hunter. 



Hume, No, 224 ; Oates, No. 909. 



The little spider-hunter is not nearly as common as its larger 

 relative, nor is it as universally distributed, alike over the plains 

 and the highest hills. It keeps much to the lower valleys and to 

 the foot of the mountains, and is more numerously met with in the 

 broken land lying along the borders of Cachar and Sylhet. It breeds 

 wherever found, and I have had several nests and eggs sent me from 

 Jellalpore, a Tea Estate just on the borders of North Cachar. 

 Once I shot a pair of these birds evidently breeding at an altitude of 

 some 4,000 feet, and, on two other occasions, I have shot them at 

 places over 2,000 feet. In the Darjeeling ranges they would appear 

 to ascend far higher than they do here, and I have been told that 

 they are not uncommon in the warmer valleys about Darjeeling 

 itself. 



The nest is very similiar to that made by A. magna, averaging a 

 little smaller and more often being cup-shaped than oblong. From 

 Mr. Davidson's interesting notes in a previous number of this journal 

 (No. 3 of 1891, Vol. VI, p. 337), it would seem that the western birds 

 breed far earlier than they do here ; most of my nests and eggs 

 were taken in July, August and September. None of my nests have 

 had two entrances, nor have they been anything like as big as 

 those found by Mr. Davidson. The ground-colour of the eggs is a 

 creamy-white, and they are marked with freckles and blotches (small) 

 of rather brownish-pink with others of pale lavender underlying 

 them. In nine eggs out of ten, the markings form a dense ring 

 about the larger end and are sparse everywhere else, but in one or 

 two eggs they are fairly numerous everywhere in addition to the ring. 

 One egg in my series has the markings very much more grey in 

 hue, and this one, except as regards its size, is very like many eggs 

 of the genus ^thopyga. In shape they are generally broad, obtuse 

 ovals ; but they vary a good deal. The texture is fairly close and 

 smooth but glossless, and the shell is very fragile. 



The average of the twelve eggs I have measured is •72"X'54". 



