414 RHIPIDUEA ALBIFRONTATA. 



Jerdon says that he has seen it alight on the back of a cow ; he states that its chief food consists of " ruosqnitos 

 and other small dipterous insects, as also the small Cicadellce " which arc abundant in India. 



Nidification. — This Flycatcher breeds in Ceylon during the early part of the year. I have not had the 

 good fortune to see its cleverly-constructed little nest myself; but Mr. Jefferies, of Gaugaroowa estate, 

 di scribed to me one, which was constructed in an orange-tree in his compound at Ilindugalla, as being a 

 beautiful little cup-shaped structure, placed on a thin branch, which oscillated to and fro with the wind, and 

 which the architect, with wonderful skill, had tied to an adjacent branch with a "stay " consisting of a fine 

 creeper-tendril. This is so extraordinary, that had not my friend been a well-known observer of bird life and 

 very fond of natural history, I could scarcely have credited the statement. The nest is described by various 

 writers quoted in ' Nests and Eggs ' as being a hemispherical or elegant oval little cup, composed of fine grass- 

 stems coated with cobwebs, or fine plant-stalks plastered with "cotton" and seed-down, the internal diameter 

 being about 2 inches and the depth 1 inch. Mr. Hume speaks of one he found at Bareilly as being a "delicate 

 tumbler-like affair, scarcely \ inch thick anywhere, closely woven of fine grass, and thickly coated over its 

 whole exterior with cobwebs." The eggs are usually three in number, the ground-colour varying from pure 

 w hite to yellowish brown or dingy cream-colour, spotted and speckled in a broad irregular zone near the large 

 end with greyish brown, "at times intermingled with spots or tiny clouds of faint inky purple." Average 

 size ()T)6 by 0-51 inch. 



Genus ALSEOXAX. 



Bill wide at the base, stout, triangular, the under mandible rounded beneath and pale at the 

 base ; rictal bristles long. Wings with the 2nd quill longer than the 6th, and the 3rd and 4th 

 the longest. Tail shorter than the wings and even at the tip. Legs and feet small. 



