Vol. xxxiii.] 36 



Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker exhibited a nest arid 4 eggs of 

 Chcetura sylvatica and also a clutch of 3 eggs of Chcetura 

 indica, both of which had been taken by Mr. J. Stewart of 

 Aneichardi, Travancore, and presented by him to the 

 exhibitor. Mr. Stuart Baker also made the following 

 remarks upon the nidification of the genus generally and 

 upon these two species in particular :- — 



" Hitherto the only known Asiatic eggs of this genus, with 

 the exception of some imperfect oviduct eggs in my own 

 collection, are those of Chcetura caudacuta, but in 1912 

 Mr. T. R. Bell discovered that Chcetura sylvatica bred inside 

 large hollow trees, and during the course of the year took 

 eggs and nests of this species. This year Mr. J. Stewart 

 has discovered further breeding-places of C. sylvatica, and 

 also of the large species C. indica, and has been good 

 enough to send me specimens of both. 



" All his eggs, some three or four clutches of each, have 

 been taken from hollow trees, but whilst C. sylvatica builds 

 beautiful little nests like the one I now exhibit, C. indica 

 appears either to make the roughest of nests on ledges 

 inside the stems of rotten trees, or else lays its eggs in 

 hollows on the top of the accumulated rubbish which always 

 lies in a dense pile at the bottom of the trees. The nest of 

 C. sylvatica is made entirely of tiny twigs or stems of dead 

 leaves fastened together and to the side of the tree by inspis- 

 sated saliva. 



" In 1890 I discovered Chcetura indica breeding in small 

 hollow tunnels connecting deserted limestone quarries with 

 one another. These quarries were some which appeared to 

 have been worked many generations ago by the hill tribes, 

 and were overgrown with dense jungle, and a favourite 

 haunt of bears. The nest and young then discovered I 

 described in 1896 in the ' Journal of the Bombay Natural 

 History Society/ x. p. 549, but the eggs I failed to find. 



" According to Mr. Stewart the birds, of both species, lay 

 from two to four eggs in a clutch. They are, of course, 

 white, but the eggs of the two species differ greatly, not only 

 in size but in texture. The small eggs are in all respects like 



