48 ON THE SPECIES OF HYPSIPETES 



for its station. So far as my experience goes, they always build in low 

 bushes. The nest is flat, shallow, and ill built of coarse grass, roots, and 

 moss, and lined with finer materials, such as the flower-stems of umbeUiferous 

 plants. 



" The eggs of H. madagascariemis^ are of a creamy white, blotched and 

 spotted thinly with lead-grey and more thickly with deep pinkish brown. In 

 some specimens the lead-grey spots are entirely wanting and the pinkish 

 brown spots are more numerous, in one example forming a complete zone 

 round the larger end. The eggs measure from '93 to 1*05 by from 71 to 

 •78 inch. . 



" The eggs of H, olivaceus are much like the former ; but I have only 

 seen two specimens. They are of a salmon-colour, blotched and spotted 

 with two shades of lilac and pinkish brown, chiefly at the larger end, and 

 forming a zone around it. They measure 1*23 by '83 inch." 



As the above description shews, the eggs of these two species indicate a 

 greater affinity to those of the Ixidce than to those of the true Turdid(B—\i the 

 former be allowed to rank as a separate family ; and it would seem that the 

 eggs of i/. psaroides (the type species of the genus), according to Hutton's 

 account, as quoted by Jerdonf, and of H. nilghirensis, as described by 

 Mr. Hume J, are of the same character, I am not aware that those of any 

 other Hypsipetes are known §; but if any dependence is to be placed on 

 oological features, they would certainly intimate the alUance of this genus to 

 Icons rather than to Turdus and its allies. 



There seems here no need to repeat the notes on the four species of 



■^ One has been figured by Mr. Hewitson, Ibis^ 1863, pi. xiii, fig. 5. 



t Loc, cit, t Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, pp. 280, 281. 



§ MM. Pollen and Van Dam were evidently deceived as to those passed off to them as eggs of 

 H. borbonicus : — '' de la grosseur d'une noisette et d'un bleu pale verdtoe^^ [op, cit, p. 98). They 

 were most likely the produce of Acridotheres tristis. 



