OHIBIA. 213 



Niltava and others of the Flycatchers. They are moderately elon- 

 gated ovals, in some cases slightly pyriform, in others somewhat 

 pointed towards the small end. The shell is fine and compact, 

 smooth and silky to the touch, but they have but little gloss. The 

 ground-colour varies from a pale pinkish fawn to a pale salmon- 

 pink, and they exhibit round the large end a feeble more or less 

 imperfect and irregular zone of darker-coloured cloudy spots, in 

 some cases reddish, in some rather inclining to purple, which zone 

 is more or less involved in a haze of the same colour, but slightly 

 darker than the rest of the ground-colour of the egg. 



The eggs vary in length from 0-76 to 0-88, and in breadth from 

 0-6 to 0-64. The average of fifteen eggs is 0-82 by 0-61. 



335. Chibia hottentotta (Linn.). The Hair-crested Drongo. 



Chibia hottentota (X.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 439 ; Hume, Rough Draft 

 N.$E. no. 286. 



■ Mr. E. Thompson says: — "The Hair-crested Drongo is ex- 

 tremely common as a breeder in all our hot valleys (Kumaon and 

 Grurwhal). It lays in May and June, building in forks of branches 

 of small leafy trees situated in warm valleys having an elevation 

 of from 2000 to 2500 feet. The nest is circular, about 5 inches in 

 diameter, rather deep and hollow ; it is composed of fine roots and 

 fibres bound together with cobwebs, and it is fined with hairs and 

 fine roots. They lay from three to four much elongated, purplish- 

 white eggs, spotted with pink or claret colour." 



Dr. Jerdon remarks : — " The Lepchas at Darjeeling brought me 

 the nest, which was said to have been placed high up in a large 

 tree ; it was composed of twigs and roots and a few bits of grass, 

 and contained two eggs, livid white, with purplish and claret spots, 

 and of a very elongated form." 



The Jobraj, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes and figures, begins 

 to lay in Nepal in April. It builds a large shallow nest, 8 or 9 

 inches in diameter externally, with the cavity of about half that 

 diameter, attached, as a rule, to the slender branches of some hori- 

 zontal fork, between which it is suspended much like that of an 

 Oriole, though much shallower than this latter ; it is composed of 

 small twigs, fine roots, and grass-stems bound together, and it 

 is attached to the branches by vegetable fibre, and more or less 

 coated with cobwebs; little pieces of lichen and moss are also 

 blended in the nest. It lays three or four eggs, rather pyriform 

 in shape, measuring 1-25 by 0-86 inch, with a whitish or pinky- 

 whitish ground, speckled and spotted pretty well all over, but most 

 densely towards the large end, with reddish pink. 



From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes : — "I took two nests of the Hair- 

 crested Drongo this year in June, both at about an elevation of 

 1500 feet in wooded valleys, placed well up in the outer branches 

 of tall, slender trees ; they are of a broad saucer-shape, openly 

 but firmly made of roots and stems of slender climbers, and desti- 



