THE BIRDS OF NORTH CACHAR. 133 



of these birds fly into a deep rift in a massive piece of flat rock, and, 

 on examining the place, saw the nest with the bird on it and, before 

 she had time to fly out, thrust my hand into the hole and caught 

 her. The nest was oblong in shape, being about 3" across and fully 

 6*5'' in length, fitting the bottom of the rift, well into the back of 

 which it was placed. It was made of moss as usual, but of very 

 small, short pieces, and was also lined in the typical fork-tail manner 

 with skeleton leaves, though these were rather small and scanty. The 

 cup was almost a perfect hemisphere, measuring 2*3" by 1*2". 



There were only two eggs, those being of a very pale clear stone- 

 colour blotched with pale reddish, and, where they form a ring at the 

 large end, they are also intermixed with a few others of pale lavender- 

 grey. The character of the markings are longitudinal in the same 

 way as with all the eggs of this family. The shell is smooth and 

 fragile with a slight gloss ; still the texture is not at all fine. In shape 

 they are long ovals compressed suddenly for fully two-thirds of their 

 length, and they are decidedly pointed. They measure *77" X '53" 

 and •72"X-53". 



This member of the sub-family is decidedly rare here ; twice 

 during the cold weather I have seen it on the Jetinga, a big stream, 

 and a few times on smaller ones. Like some of its larger brethren, 

 it is a bit of a bully, and I once watched a pair for some time engaged 

 in bully-ragging a plumbeous redstart (Khyacornh fuliginosus). 



(271) Chimakrhoknis leucocephalus.— The White-capped 

 Redstart. 

 Oates, No. 638 ; Hume, No. 506. 



About the most common of the frequenters of rivers and streams 

 in North Cachar during the cold weather, and a few birds undoubted- 

 ly do breed on the higher streamlets, as I have on the following dates 

 recorded having seen them : — 11th and 13th May, 1891, 24th May, 

 1892, 7th June, 1891, and 10th July, 1892. The remains of a nest 

 were brought to me by a Naga, containing two sound and one broken 

 egg, together with the remnants of a white-capped redstart which 

 was said to have been caught on the nest. 



This (the nest) was too much broken and torn to give any idea 

 of what its original shape was, beyond that it was a somewhat bulky 

 affair of moss, lined with moss roots and dead (not skeleton) leaves. 



