G88 Notes on the Nidification of Indian Birds. [Dec. 



nest. The shape is circular, somewhat shallow and diameter within 3 

 inches. The eggs are 3 to 4, — generally the latter number, and so 

 variable in colour and distribution of spots, that until I had shot several 

 specimens and compared them narrowly, I was inclined to think we had 

 more than one species of Dicrurus here. I am however now fully con- 

 vinced that these variable eggs belong to the same species. Sometimes 

 they are dull white with brick red spots openly disposed in form of a 

 rude ring at the larger end ; at other times the spots are rufescent claret 

 with duller indistinct ones appearing through the shell ; — others are of 

 a deep carneous hue, clouded and coarsely blotched with deep rufescent 

 claret ; while again some are faint carneous with large irregular blotches 

 of rufous clay with duller ones beneath the shell. Diameter varying 

 from 1 * if;— to \% % \\ ins. 



No. 31. — " Campephaga fimbriata." (Temm.) 



Campephaga lugubris. (Gray's Cat.) 



Ceblephyris lugubris. (Sundevall.) 



Volvocivora melaschistos. (Hodg. Gray.) 



Graucalus maculosus. (McClelland.) 

 This too is a mere summer visitor in the hills, arriving up to 7,000 

 ft. about the end of March, and breeding early in May. The nest 

 is small and shallow, placed as in the last in the bifurcation of a 

 horizontal bough of some tall oak tree, and always high up ; it is com- 

 posed externally almost entirely of grey lichens picked from the tree, 

 and lined with bits of very fine roots or thin stalks of leaves. Seen 

 from beneath the tree, the nest appears like a bunch of moss or lichens, 

 and the smallness and frailty would lead one to suppose it incapable of 

 holding two young birds of such size. Externally the nest is compactly 

 held together by being thickly plastered over with cobwebs. The eggs 

 are two in number, of a dull grey green closely and in parts confluently 

 dashed with streaks of dusky brown. Diameter \% %\\ ins. 



The bird has a plaintive note which it repeatedly utters while search- 

 ing through a tree, after the manner of Collurio Hardwickii, for insects. 

 No. 32. — " Abromis schisticeps. (Hodg.) 



Culicipeta schisticeps. (Gray's Cat.) 



Phyllopneuste xanthoschistos. (Hodg.) 

 A common species at 5,000 ft. and commences building in March. 

 A pair of these birds selected a thick China rose bush trained against 



