Tim BIRDS OF NORTH CACHAR. 549 



They were composed almost entirely of the moss of which the bears 

 iiad made their couch, much matted and pressed together with raud„ 

 That the makers of the nests had taken the bear's moss and had not 

 themselves collected fresh material we could easily tell by the presence 

 of the numerous long black bear's hairs .which had adhered to the 

 moss and had been taken up with it. 



In shape the nests were large, shallow, oval cups of which the rock 

 formed the back wall. The other three sides were about an inch in 

 breadth at the top gradual)}' increasing towards the base, where there 

 tvas a quantity of loosely matted moss, twisted and bound into the 

 nest itself as well as wound all round and twisted into the rou^h 



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splinter of rock on wdiich it rested. In one nest the bottom was about 

 an inch and a half in depth, in tho other it was less than an inch deep, 

 The nests were ones from which the young had recently flown, but 

 there was no lining Ie them beyond a few loose pieces of moss. 



The measurement of the two nests AY€re taken on the spot and were 

 as follows :— 



Lengtii of exterior oval ... 5*8'' and 6"o". 



Breadth of do. do. ... o'5" and 3'7". 



Length of interior do. ... I'l^' and I'S". 



Breadth of do. do. ... 2-6" and 2-95", 



Depth of exterior do. ... I'S" and 2o". 

 Do. of interior do. ... '9" and '8". 

 Besides these nests there had been others in the cave, their sites 

 still shown by tlie patches of mud and moss which adhered to the walls. 

 There were no signs either of eggs or young birds in this cave, nor 

 were there any old birds flying about it on the 28th ; but a cave 

 visited after we left the first produced better results. In the first and 

 second nests we found nothing, but in the third we found three fully 

 fledged young ones almost ready to fly. These young were like the 

 adult birds, but the spines on the rectrices were very soft, the loreal 

 white spot was hardly defined, and the white band next the rump 

 almost imperceptible. 



I searched all round about most carefully for fragments of eo-o-s 

 though with but little hope of finding any] for I expected that these 

 birds, like others of the family, would probably carry them to some 

 distance from the nest. I was quite unsuccessful mvself but this 



