128 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. IX. 



with chestnut ; remainder of lower plumage ruddy-orange, inclining 

 to albescent on the belly. (This is not invariably the case.) 



Second year the bird assumed the black plumage of the adult, but 

 the chestnut plumage remained the same, the breast below the 

 black and the belly turning white, and two long chestnut tail feathers 

 appearing. 



In the third year the bird was in a sort of transition stage, retaining 

 the chestnut upper tail coverts and many chestnut feathers in the 

 wing coverts and scapularies. 



Amongst the peculiar forms I have seen was a young cock with the 

 quill feathers of the wing mixed chestnut and white, most of the 

 primaries being of the former and most of the secondaries of the latter 

 colour. Another young male shot on the nest had the following 

 plumage : head and crest, black; cheeks, shoulders, chin and breast, grey 

 below albescent ; remainder of plumage that of male of second year, but 

 with the long feathers white, and a single white feather in the upper 

 tail coverts. A remarkable form, which I once saw, consisted in the 

 retention of the grey plumage of the young bird on the nape and 

 breast, whilst elsewhere the plumage was that of the adult. 



Old males often have the pair of feathers next the central ones much 

 lengthened, sometimes as much as to 7 or 8 inches. 



In May, 1890, I took a most peculiar nest of this bird, the outside 

 of one half and the bottom of the interior were entirely coated with 

 mud. The nest contained three eggs, and I shot the female as she flew 

 off the nest. 



My eggs — and I have measured about 80 — average far smaller than 



those mentioned in Hume's " Nests and Eggs " (Vol. II, p. 47), being 



only "75" X '55''. April 14th is the earliest date on which I have 



taken eggs and July 10th the latest. 



(257) Hypothymis azurea. — The Indian Black-naped Fly-catcher. 



Oates, No. 601; Hume No. 290. 



The commonest fly-catcher in North Cachar. 

 (258) Chelidorhynx hypoxanthum.— The Yellow-bellied Fly-catcher. 

 Oates, No. 603 ; Hume, No. 294. 



I have had two nests brought to me, said to belong to this species. 

 The first nest was brought without the bird, but a bird of this genus 

 was trapped and brought in afterwards. In shape the nest was a very 



