1848.] Notes on the Nidification of Indian Birds. 689 



the side of the house, and had completed the nest and laid one egg, 

 when a rat destroyed it. I subsequently took two other nests in May, 

 both placed on the ground in holes in the side of a bank by the road 

 side. In form the nest is a ball with a rotmd lateral entrance and is 

 composed externally of dried grasses and green moss, lined with bits of 

 wool, cotton, feathers, thread and hair. In one I recognized more than 

 one lock of my own child's hair, which had been cut not long before, 

 and had been appropriated by the bird. The eggs are 3 in number 

 and pure white. Diameter \% % T 7 6 ins. 



No. 33. — " Cryptolopha cinereocapilla." (Vieillot.) 

 Cryptolopha ceylonensis. (S trick.) 

 C. poiocephala. (Swain.) 

 Platyrhynchus ceylonensis. (Swain.) 



I took a nest of this species on the 18th April in a deep and thickly 

 wooded glen at an elevation of about 4,500 ft. It was placed against 

 the moss-covered trunk of a large tree, growing by the side of a moun- 

 tain stream, and was neatly and beautifully constructed of green moss 

 fixed in the shape of a watch-pocket at the head of a bed, to the mosses 

 of the tree, (with which it was completely blended,) by numerous threads 

 of spiders' webs. The lining was of the finest grass stalks, no thicker 

 than horsehair, — and beneath the body of the nest depended a long 

 bunch of mosses fastened to the tree with spiders' webs, and serving 

 as a support or cushion on which the nest rested securely. Within 

 this beautifully constructed fabric were 4 small eggs of a dull white 

 colour, with a faint olive tinge and minutely spotted with pale greenish 

 brown, and having a broad and well defined ring of the same, near the 

 larger end. The eggs were set hard. Diameter T 9 6 yi T 8 ^- ins. Shape 

 bluntly ovate. 



No. 34. — " Parns erythrocephalus." (Vig.) 



Common at Mussooree and in the hills generally throughout the 

 year. It breeds in April and May. The situation chosen is various, 

 as one taken in the former month at Mussooree, 7,000 ft., was placed 

 on the side of a bank among overhanging coarse grass ; while another 

 taken in the latter month at 5,000 ft., was built among the same ivy 

 twining round a tree, and at least 14 feet from the ground. It is in 

 shape a round ball with a small lateral entrance, and is composed of 

 green mosses warmly lined with feathers. The eggs are 5 in number, 



4x2 



