154 CBATEROPODIDJE. 



sent you, hi the Teriat Hills on the 24th May, at an elevation o£ 

 about 2300 feet. It was placed on, and near the extremity of, 

 a bough, at a height of about 10 feet from the ground. It is round, 

 about 2 inches in height and the same in diameter, and the cavity 

 was about an inch or a trifle more in depth. It is built of grass 

 and reed-bamboo-fibres, and is coated with spider's web. It only 

 contained two eggs." 



Both parents (sexes ascertained by dissection) are in the typical 

 tiphia plumage, without one particle of black on either head, nape, 

 or back. 



Mr. Davidson writes : — " In the Satara and Sholapur districts 

 the cock puts on his summer plumage in May and the whole back 

 of head, neck, and back (not rump) is glossy and black. 



" This bird lays from the end of June to beginning of August. 

 It is very shy when building and is easily caused to forsake ite 

 nest ; if a single egg is taken from the nest it does not forsake it, 

 however, but lays on (three instances this year)." 



Mr. W. E. Brooks has favoured me with the following very 

 interesting note on the habits of this Iora : — 



" Ioras are very numerous and have such a variety of notes that 

 I thought at first there were several sorts ; but as far as I can see 

 there is but one species. Iora spreads its tail in a wonderful 

 manner, and comes spinning round and round towards the ground 

 looking more like a round ball than a bird. All the time it de- 

 scends it utters a strange note, something like that of a frog or 

 cricket, a protracted sibilant sound. This bird is close to Liothrix 

 and Stachyrhis, although it belongs to the plains." 



Colonel Butler writes : — " A nest on the 17th August, 1880, on 

 the outside branch of a silk-cotton tree in Belgaum about 12 feet 

 from the ground, containing three fresh eggs. 



" I found many other nests building all through the hot weather 

 and rains ; but in every single instance except the present one 

 they were deserted before they were completed." 



Major Bingham writes from Tenasserim : — " This species is 

 common throughout the country. As a rule its nest is well hid, 

 but one I saw in the compound of a house in Maulmain was placed 

 in the exposed leafless fork of a tree, not above six feet from the 

 ground. It contained no eggs when I examined it, and was 

 deserted a day or two after. This was in the beginning of May." 



Mr. Oates remarks on the breeding of this bird in Pegu: — 

 " Nests are found chiefly in June and July, but the birds probably 

 lay also in May." 



In shape the eggs are moderately broad ovals, slightly pointed 

 towards one end. They vary, however, a good deal, some being 

 much more elongated than others. They are almost entirely 

 devoid of gloss. The ground-colour is generally greyish white, 

 but some have creamy and some a salmon tinge; typically they 

 have numerous long streaky pale brown or reddish-brown blotches, 

 chiefly confined to the large end, where they often seem to spring 

 from an irregular imperfect zone of the same colour. The colour 



