6 JO UMNAL, BOMB A Y NA TVRAL HISTOR Y SOCIETY, Vol IX. 



been stripped. One nest I have is, with the exception of the interior, 

 entirely composed of tiny scraps of shavings, these having been col- 

 lected from near my bungalow, where some sawyers had been at work 

 cutting posts. The nest is quite white, except where covered with grey 

 cobwebs ; the inner part is much as usual. There is never any lining 

 to the nest, but invariably the finest pieces of grass are placed inner- 

 most. 



Most nests are placed in a semi-pendant position between the bifur- 

 cating branches of some small fork ; at other times they are placed in 

 an upright position, but these latter only number about one in five. 

 Most of those I have taken were found on slender branches at some 

 height, between 15 and 20 feet, from the ground, but I have seen a 

 nest not 5 feet from it, and others again over 40 feet up and quite 

 inaccessible. 



The dimensions of one nest are : external breadth, 4*2", depth 1 "8"; 

 internal breadth 2*8", depth 1*6." Generally speaking, they are very 

 strongly and compactly made, but a few nests are rather flimsy in 

 appearance, and the base can almost be seen through. 



The eggs are either three or four in number. I have never seen 

 more than four eggs or young, and have never taken less than three 

 eggs which showed any signs of incubation. In coloration they 

 remind one at once of the eggs of Terpsiphone paradiseus ; indeed, but 

 for their greater size, I have seen many that could not be distinguished 

 from those of that bird or of T. afinis. In ground-colour they are a 

 pale fawn or cream, and they are marked at the larger end with indis- 

 tinct spots of a darker shade of the sanie colour. In some specimens 

 there are also underlying spots of grey or faint neutral tint and a few 

 of a rather darker purplish ; these are either distributed over the larger 

 half of the egg or tend to form a zone or cap at that end. They differ 

 as a rule very considerably from the eggs of the other members of this 

 sub-family both in coloration and shape, but I have one clutch of eggs 

 which are exact miniatures of the paler type of egg of D. ater. As 

 regards shape, they are typically a fairly long oval, but little pointed. 

 The shell is smooth and fragile, exhibits no gloss, and is very porous. 

 The average size of all my eggs is *78" X '59". The greatest length is 

 •80" and the greatest breadth "60"; the least both ways is respectively 

 •73" and *56"j the next smallest egg to that is *77" X *57". The earliest 



