MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 147 



experience fully corroborates him. Not only have I lived in a house within 

 a hundred yards of Sholas in which 0. nilgiriensis breeds every year and 

 have never heard its song, but I have now had a pair of this bird in my 

 possession for over twelve months and can vouch for the fact that this pair 

 at least never sing. They are almost entirely silent, their nearest approach 

 to song being a low twittering in the spring. They possess a curious power of 

 making a drumming, vibrating noise ; no outward movement is visible, 

 though if they are standing on paper or a leaf, it vibrates. I have 

 often observed 0. tiilgiriensis feeding in the Nilgiri Sholas, and it is always 

 the most silent, as well as the shyest of birds. It would be interest- 

 ing to know whether other members of the genus, such as 0. dauna, for 

 example, sing, 



Mr. Gates tells us in his " Birds of India " (i, 294), that nothing whatever is 

 known regarding the nests and eggs of the Genus Micropus (Swainson). Since 

 then, Mr. Stuart Baker in Oachar has taken nests of M. melanocephalus as well 

 as of M. cinereiventris (if the species are really distinct), and has published a 

 notice of the same in the Society's Journal (vol. viii, No. 1). I am not aware, 

 however, that any one has yet given any account of the nidification of the 

 southern member of the genus, Micropus phaeooephalus (Jerdon). This bird 

 though probably very local, is not rare on some of the slopes of the Nilgiris, 

 and I was fortunate enough to find several nests. The nest is . of the usual 

 Bulbul type, but exceedingly slight and flimsy in structure, so that it can 

 easily be seen through, and it is usually fastened by a few spiders' threads to 

 the branch of a small shrub at about three feet from the ground. The nest 

 is very shallow, being less than an inch deep inside by over two inches and 

 a half broad. The birds breed in deep forest at an elevation of about 4,000 

 feet above the sea in the months of June and July and lay two eggs, which, 

 when new, are very handsome. The ground-colour is a faint pinky-white, 

 almost free from markings at the smaller end, while at the larger end it is 

 covered with deep red markings, forming a complete zone and spreading 

 in scattered blotches and spots over two-thirds of the egg. The colour is at 

 first particularly deep and rich, but within a week of the eggs being blown 

 it fades to such an extent that the eggs become duller in tone than those 

 of the common Bulbuls, Otocompsa and Molpastes, The eggs measure 

 9"x6" and are decidedly elongated ovals, compressed at the smaller end. 

 The birds are bold and noisy while their nest is being taken, and their 

 outcry at my approach first led me to search the locality. I have found not 

 less than a dozen nests of this bird within a small area, all exactly alike, but 

 only two contained eggs, while in another there were young birds. 



In the same month I also found the nest of another bird, of whose nidifica- 

 tion I can find no record, namely, the somewhat scarce little Flycatcher, Oyornis 

 palUdipes (Jerdon). This bird seems to be extremely local in its distribution. 

 The female was first described by Mr. Davison in 1883. The nest was found at 



