periceocotus. 339 



section of a cylinder, rather than a cup, the walls standing up 

 outside almost perpendicularly. It is 2-5 inches in diameter and 

 nearly 1 -75 in height. The rim of the nest is \ inch wide, and the 

 cavity, a shallow cup, 2 inches wide by scarcely an inch deep ; the 

 walls of the nest increase in thickness as they approach the base. 

 Externally the whole surface is entirely covered by small scales 

 of lichen, firmly bound into their respective places by gossamer 

 threads ; internally the nest is a very loosely put together basket- 

 work of excessively fine twigs and grass-stems not thicker than 

 common needles. A morsel or two of moss have become involved 

 in the fabric, as well as two fine blades of grass ; but there is no 

 lining, and the eggs are obviously laid upon the soft loose basket 

 frame of the nest. 



The egg which accompanied the nest is a regular oval, slightly 

 compressed towards one end. The ground-colour is pale greenish 

 white entirely devoid of gloss. The egg is richly blotched, spotted, 

 and speckled (most densely so towards the larger end) with reddish 

 brown and greenish purple, there being two conspicuously different 

 shades (a much darker and a much lighter, the latter of which 

 appears like subsurface tints) of each of these colours. This egg 

 measures 0*82 by 0-6 inch nearly. 



Another egg of the same clutch was less richly coloured, the 

 markings being merely brown, with scarcely a perceptible reddish 

 tinge, and dull mostly inky, but here and there somewhat reddish, 

 purple. The markings, too, were fewer in number, but there was 

 a more marked tendency for these to form a zone about the larger 

 end. 



In another clutch the markings were almost entirely confined 

 to a dense zone round the larger end about a third of the way up 

 from the middle of the egg. In this zone they were so densely set 

 as to be quite confluent, and they consisted of yellowish brown 

 and inky purple. 



Mr. .1. E. Oripps found the nest of this Minivet in the Bhaman 

 tea-garden, in the Dibrugarh District of Assam, on the 31st May, 

 1879. The nest contained three eggs, and was placed on the upper 

 side of a large lateral branch of a tree that grew on the main 

 garden road, about 15 feet from the ground. 



Seven eggs of this bird vary in length from 0-75 to 086, and 

 in breadth from 0*58 to - 6. 



500. Pericrocotus peregrinus (Linn.). The Small Minivet. 



Pericrocotus peregrinus (Linn,), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 423 ; Hume. Rough 

 Draft N. $ E. no. 276. 



Our Small Minivet lays during the latter half of June (as soon, 

 in fact, as the rains set in), and throughout July and August. I 

 believe it breeds pretty well all over India and Burma. 



The nest is small and neat, and done up generally like a Chaf- 

 finch's, to resemble the bark of the tree on which it is placed. 



22* 



