3G8 JOURNAL, BO,MBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X. 



found a nest of StacTcyris nigriceps^ and in accordance with his usual 

 custom set a hair noose at the entrance of the nest and went away. 

 Returning an hour or so afterwards he found a female Emerald 

 Cuckoo still alive in the noose, which was one made with an extra 

 long mithna hair. On examining the nest I was delighted to find that 

 in addition to the two white eggs it origically contained there was a 

 third of ti very different character. 



This is an egg with a very pale pinkish-cream ground, and is 

 blotched rather profusely with pale neutral tint and greyish-pink and, 

 less freely, with spots and short lines of rather dark reddish-brown. 

 There is no definite cap or zone, but the markings are more numerous 

 and more confluent at the larger end. The shape is a blunt oval, 

 somewhat -compressed towards the smaller end. The shell is very 

 fine, rather fragile, and has a slight gloss. It measures "78" X*62". 

 Another egg very similar, but less marked, sent me by Mr. Hole from 

 Jellalpur, was found in a nest of Turdinus abhotti which also contained 

 two eggs of the rightful owner. This egg is '82"X*60". 



A third egg I took myself from the nest of a common tailor-bird 

 atGunjong. * When first found it had two tailor-bird's eggs in it as 

 well as the cuckoo's, but I waited a day and the owner of the nest 

 laid another egg. I shot an emerald cuckoo, in the same piece of 

 jungle, but nowhere near the nest, the following day to that on which 

 it was found. I am satisfied as to the ownership of the cuckoo's egg, 

 as there is no other small cuckoo here which could have laid it, the 

 eggs of the genus Cadomantis being so totally different. This third 

 egg is more minutely speckled than either of the others, but is of the 

 same colour and shape. It is •78"X°63". I have had other eggs sent 

 me from Cachar as being the eggs either of this or the next species, 

 and these agree well with those already described. 



The bird is very rare in North Cachar, but is almost common in the 

 plains at certain seasons. Mr. Hole had a lovely series, of both this 

 and the following species, collected at Jellalpur. 

 (433) Chalcococcyx xa.nthokhynchus. — The Amethyst Cuckoo. 

 Hume, No. 211 bis; Blanford, No. 1115. 



I have not a single specimen of this bird in my collection, and it 

 is very rare in the Hills, although quite the contrary in certain 

 portions of the plains. 



