XANTHOLiEMA RUBRIC APILL A. 217 



Nidification. — The breeding-season of this little bird lasts from March until June, and it usually nests 

 in the decayed branches of living trees, the bread-fruit (which is generally much encumbered with small, dead, 

 top branches) being a favourite resort with it. It plies itself to the task of excavating the hole with great 

 assiduity, first of all slowly tapping the wood all over until it has found what it imagines is a soft place; very 

 often, after working in for an inch or so, it will find that the wood is too hard for its capabilities, and will 

 then try another spot in the same branch. A nest I once found was in the topmost branch of a bread-fruit ; 

 the habitation was an old one, but close to it were one or two essays at making a fresh hole ; the wood had 

 evidently proved too hard and it had returned, perhaps reluctantly, to the old nest. The branch was about 

 4 or 5 inches in diameter, and the hole entering the cavity 2 inches and perfectly round ; the nest was about 

 6 inches below the aperture, and the young, which were three in number, reposed upon the bare wood 

 without any nest-lining whatever. The eggs are glossy white, rather spherical in shape, and measure about 

 0-9 by 0-65 inch. 



In the Plate accompanying this article the figure of the young bird represents the nestling after quitting 

 the nest. 



2f 



