MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 695 



No. VI.— ON THE OCCURRENCE OF MARSHALL'S lOEA 



{.EGITHINA NJGRILUTEA) IN CUTCH. 



This bird is very fairly plentiful all the year round, but is less conspicuous 



during the months from September to May, owing to the fact that the male 



bird does not don his courting dress till the latter month. Still he may be 



heard calling occasionally during the hot weather^ though it is not till June 



that his pleasant loud note makes itself heard everywhere. His principal 



calls sound something like : " Chee-tchoo-tchoo-tchee," sounding very loud and 



almost metallic, and " Chee-cho-chi-choo"— the former in common time, 



the latter in two-fourths, with the accent on the second syllable. Occasionally 



he bursts into a short song, the principal notes being of- the " tchoo-tchoo " 



order, but he generally winds up with " Chee-tchoo-tchoo-tchee." When 



making love to his mate or wrangling as to the site for their nest, he often 



breaks into a chattering sort of note resembling so much that of the " Blue 



Titmouse " at home that I have often pulled up sharp and started, looking 



for one of the " Ampelidce.p apparently in the tree overhead. The male bird 



during the breeding season (June and July) is a resplendent creature. The 



top of his head is shiny coal black ; the sides of the head, throat and 



upper breast of an intense gamboge colour, extending, though paler in colour, 



so as to form a sort of collar round the neck ; this collar though, I believe, 



is rarely perfect. The wings are coal-black, with two conspicuous broad 



white bars. The upper back is also black, but less intense than that of the 



head, the feather showing yellowish just below the collar at the back of the 



neck and greenish-yellow towards the rump ; there are two fluffy sets of 



greenish- white feathers in the axillaries ; the lower parts, i.e., the abdomen 



and vent, are of a paler yellow than the throat, cheeks, and breast, and some 



silky whitish feathers show al^out the sides and vent ; the upper tail coverts 



and tail are glossy black like the head, but the tail feathers are broadly 



tipped and margined with pure white. The female is mealy-green above, with 



brown-green wings, white-banded and pale yellowish-green below. In fact, 



she much resembles the male " Siskin " at home. The eggs average 0'68" by 



0'54:", and are white in colour, with long streaks of lavender-grey and brown, 



forming a broad zone round many eggs. The nests are usually placed in a 



Mimosa of sorts — that species which has a gnarled sort of bark and twisted 



branches, with excrescences like oak-apples on them and short curved thorns 



like those on a rose-bush, I believe the Mimosa is that known in Hindustani 



as " Kheir," but not being a botanist I cannot say for certain. The nest is a 



shallow cup, rather broad for its depth, very neatly made of fibre with a few 



hairs inside and cobwebs outside. It somewhat resembles a minivefs nest, but 



is broader and less ornate, and equally hard to find. Occasionally, but rarely, 



the nest is built in a forked twig of the " pipal " {Ficus religiosa'). I have only 



obtained one nest thus placed, and that, I feel sure, was that of a pair whose 



nest I had previously taken in a Mimosa tree close by. The birds frequent 



