342 lANIIDJE. 



few cobwebs incorporated and wound round the outside to keep it 

 together, assimilating so perfectly with the branch upon which it 

 was placed, which was also overgrown with the same kind of lichen, 

 that without watching the old birds closely it never could have 

 been discovered. 



" It contained no regular lining, though a few coarse dry leaf- 

 stems of a dark colour were encircled within. I observed the birds 

 building first on the 21st August, and the nest from below looked 

 then almost finished. The cock and hen worked together, flying 

 to and fro very busily with bits of lichen picked off the branches 

 of another tree adjoining. On the 25th I watched the nest for 

 some time, but the birds only came to it once, and then the hen 

 bird went on and smeared some cobwebs round the outside, at 

 least that is what she seemed to me to be doing. On the 28th I 

 watched it again, and although both birds were in the adjoining 

 tree, I did not see them go to the nest. On the 31st, about 

 10 a.m., I found the hen on the nest, and she remained on till 

 about 10.30, when she flew off and joined the cock, who was 

 sitting pluming himself on a branch of the next tree the whole 

 time she was on the nest. Immediately she joined hiiu, he com- 

 menced catching flies and feeding her, as if she were a young 

 bird, and eventually they both flew away together. Arriving at 

 the conclusion that she only went on the nest to lay, 1 decided on 

 taking the nest three days later, and accordingly returned for 

 that purpose with a small boy on the 3rd Sept., and found, as I 

 expected, the hen sitting and the cock in another tree close by. 



" I sent the boy up the tree, and as he approached the nest, 

 which was some 30 or 35 feet from the ground, the hen bird 

 became very uneasy, moving her head from side to side, and 

 looking down to see what was going on below. When the boy 

 was within about 10 feet of the nest she flew off and joined the 

 cock, after which I saw her no more. The eggs were then secured 

 with difficulty, as the branches surrounding the nest were very 

 thin and blown about a good deal by the wind. 



" After breaking off the bough, nest and all, the boy descended. 

 One branch of the fork in which the nest was placed was rotten, 

 and broke off at the junction at the base of the nest as the boy 

 was descending the tree ; but the nest, which was firmly bound to 

 it with cobwebs, remained in its place and was not injured, and I 

 had the nest and bough beautifully painted for me by a lady friend 

 the same day. The eggs were pale bluish green, speckled and 

 spotted, most densely at the large end, with two shades of dusky 

 purple, the markings of the lighter shade appearing to 'underlie 

 those of the darker. On the 6th (Sept., the same pair of birds 

 commenced a new nest on another mango-tree about 20 yards off. 

 This time it was placed in a fork of one of the small outside lateral 

 branches about 25 feet from the ground, and resembled in every 

 respect the first nest. On the 15th Sept., the hen bird beo-an to 

 sit, and on the 18th I sent a boy up the tree by means of a fadder, 

 and secured two more fresh eggs, similar to those already described! 



