CAPBIMULG-US ASIATICUS. 345 



Nidification. — The breeding-season on the western side of the island is during the first three or four 

 months of the year. It lays usually two eggs on the bare ground, often without any depression or nest- 

 formation ; but the shelter of a bush or stump is generally chosen. The eggs are ovals in shape and smooth 

 in texture, of a light salmon or reddish-grey ground-colour, marbled slightly and blotched openly throughout 

 the surface with sienna-red over faint clouds of bluish grey. An egg obtained in the cinnamon-gardens 

 measured T12 by 0"73 inch; but in 'Nests and Eggs' the average is given at T04 by - 77 inch. The eggs 

 are much more salmon-coloured than those of the last species and smaller. In India this species breeds 

 chiefly in April and May, but its eggs have been taken in July ; and Captain Butler is of opinion that it lays 

 twice in the year, he having shot a hen bird, in company with a young one just fledged, on the 20th of July, 

 and found, on dissecting her, that she was about to lay again. It is said not to be so particular in choosing 

 its situation as other Nightjars. Mr. R. Thompson, as quoted by Mr. Hume, says that he has found the eggs 

 " in a quite unsheltered spot in the middle of a dry pebbly nullah." 



Order PASSERES. 



Primaries usually 10, in one section only 9 ; greater coverts arranged in a single row, not 

 reaching beyond the middle of the secondaries ; rectrices usually 12, rarely 10. Hallux stout, 

 furnished with a larger claw than the other toes. 



Sternum with a single notch at each side of the posterior margin. 



Sect. A. Turdoid or Thrush-like Passeres*. Wing ivith 10 primaries, the 1st reduced in size. 



Fam. CORVID^E. 



Bill without a distinct notch in the tip of the upper mandible ; stout and straight in most 

 genera, curved in some. Wings variable. Legs and feet stout, the tarsus strongly scutate. 

 Hind toe very strong, claws well curved. 



Sternum broad, the keel rather high, the posterior edge with a wide deep notch in each 

 half near the side. 



Subfam. CORVINE. 



Bill more or less long and straight, stout, and the culmen high and much curved, an obsolete 

 notch near the tip of the upper mandible. Nostrils placed in a deep depression, and protected 

 by an impending tuft of bristles. 



* The system of classification of the great Order Passeres which I shall follow in this work will be that of Mr. "Wallace, 

 as drawn up in ' The Ibis ' for 1874, with such modifications adopted by Mr. Sharpe in the ' Catalogue of Birds ' as seem 

 to me justified by my own personal experience. 



2t 



