THE BIRDS OF NORTH CACHAR. 7 



date at which I have taken a nest with eggs was the 3rd of April, 1892, 

 and they breed generally during that month and May, and sometimes 

 in early June. This little drongo is exceedingly common everywhere, 

 perhaps even more so than Dicrurus ater and D. longicaudatus. It 

 descends to the plains over a great part of India and may be found up 

 to 5,000 feet. During the cold season great numbers are always to 

 be seen together, though one can hardly say that they keep in flocks, 

 as each bird appears to act quite independently of the rest. They are 

 very bold birds and seem to fear neither hawk, owl, nor crow, tackling 

 any such which may make their appearance, driving them away from 

 where they wish to feed. 



(132) Chibbia hottentota. — The Hair-crested Drongo. 



Oates, No. 335; Hume, No. 286. 



A most remarkable ooligical occurrence once came under my expe- 

 rience in connection with one of these birds. In the latter end of 

 April, 1891, 1 discovered a nest of this bird in a small sapling, and by 

 getting on a bank above the nullah in which the tree grew I could see 

 into the nest, in which there were two eggs. Wishing to get the bird, 

 a man who was with me set a noose of fine thread over the nest and 

 we came away. The next morning I sent the native to the nest, but 

 as the bird was not caught, he reset the noose and returned, and at 

 about noon again went to inspect it, this time returning with the bird, 

 and the nest ; the latter contained, to my astonishment, four eggs, but 

 I concluded that one must have been laid directly after we left the 

 nest and the other just before the man visited it in the morning. On 

 examining the bird I found yet another egg quite ready to be deposit- 

 ed, and it would certainly have been laid within six hours. Thus 

 altogether three eggs would have been laid between 10 A.M. one day 

 and about 6 p.m. the next. The fourth egg must have been laid 

 at about 5 a.m. in the morning. The five eggs were all quite perfect, 

 and there was nothing abnormal either in their appearance or their 

 contents. 



The eggs vary in ground-colour from an extremely faint to a rather 

 warm creamy-pink ; it is never quite white, and never, I think, as dark 

 as the darkest eggs of D. ater or D. longicaudatus. In some eggs the 

 colour is rather a livid pink. The markings consist of small irregular 



