THE BIRDS OF NORTH CACHAR. 116 



colour is a very faint brownish- white, and the markings, which are very 

 numerous, are nearly all brown with only a few big underlying ones of 

 dull purplish. The character of all the marks is distinctly longitudinal, 

 and they form no distinct ring or cap at the larger end though they 

 are so numerous there that they become blurred and ill defined. 



They, the eggs, measure -94"X-70" and -93"X'68". 



The third clutch of eggs in shape and colour closely resemble the 

 eggs of the common Wood-shrike. 



(203) T. pondiceeianus.— The Common Wood-shrike. 

 Oates, No. 488 ; Hume, No. 265. 



Quite a rare bird and never, 1 believe, found here above 2,000 feet. 

 (204) Pekicrocotus speciosus. — The Indian Scarlet Minivet. 

 Oates, No. 490 ; Hume, No. 271. 



The typical P. speciosus is decidedly rare here. I obtained a pair of 

 these birds and a nest containing two eggs on the 31st May, 1891. 



I may say at once that in no single detail do these eggs or the 

 different nests I have seen agree with those described by Hutton. 

 (Hume's " Nests and Eggs," Vol. I, p. 335.) The first nest I ever saw 

 was one which was pointed out to me by a Naga boy on the 

 13th May, 1891, and which was built low down in a fork of a small 

 dead sapling. In shape it was a shallow, broad cup, measuring 

 internally 3*2" by 1'5" and inwardly 2" 5" by less than half an inch in 

 depth. It was made, just like all other minivets' nests, of fine grasses, 

 fern and moss roots, a few fine soft twigs and thin weed stalks, all 

 massed closely together with innumerable cobwebs, and finally complete- 

 ly covered, outwardly, with lichen. Another nest, which contained 

 two young ones, was brought to me towards the end of the same 

 month, and I myself found a nest in April, 1892, from which the young 

 flew as I climbed the tree. Both these nests agreed almost exactly in 

 every detail with that already described. 



The only two eggs I have seen were in shape and texture typical 

 minivets, but I have come across no other eggs of this genus coloured 

 the same ; the ground-colour is a decided greenish-white and the 

 markings are all of the same kind, i.e.^ pale reddish or purplish*brown 

 spots rather smeared longitudinally in their shape and character, 

 sparsely scattered all over the eggs. There are no real secondary 

 spots though some few markings are pale and indistinct* 



