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THE LARGE INDIAN SPIDER-HUNTER. 327 
This bird breeds in Southern Pegu from May to July or August. The 
nest is hung from the tip o£ a branchy sometimes not far from the ground ; 
at other times high up in a mango tree. It is always well protected by 
leaves. The nest is a beautiful pear-shaped structure,, constructed in most 
cases entirely of black hair-like fibres and ornamented exteriorly with 
cocoons^ pieces of bark and small twigs. The nest is sometimes, but 
rarely, made of grass. The entrance, which is about halfway up the nest, 
is protected by an ample portico or awning, which extends down to below 
the base of the nest and laterally over pretty nearly half the structure. 
The eggs, two in number, are pinkish white, marked with brown and 
purplish brown. 
Subfamily AEACHNOTHERIN^. 
Genus AEACHNOTHEEA, Temm. 
309. ARACHNOTHERA MAGl^A. 
THE LARGE INDIAN SPIDER-HUNTER. 
Cinnyris magna, Hodgs. Ind. Rev. 1837, p. 272. Arachnothera magna, Jerd. 
B. Ind. i. p. 360 ; Hume, S. F. ill. p. 85 ; Bl. B. Burm, p. 140 ; Gammie, 8. F. 
V. p. 385; Shelley, Mon. Nect. pp. xlix, 347, pi. 112; Hwne S;- Bav. S. F. vi. 
p. 173 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 89 Bingham, S. F. ix. p. 169. 
Description. — Male and female. Forehead and crown olive-yellow, each 
feather with a large black patch in the centre ; lesser and median wing- 
coverts the same; remainder of the upper plumage olive-yellow, with 
distinct broad black shaft-stripes of black ; greater wing-coverts and 
tertiaries olive-yellow, with black shafts; primaries and secondaries dark 
brown, margined with olive-yellow ; tail olive-yellow, each feather with a 
band of black near the end, followed on all but the central pair by a 
lighter patch of pale yellowish ; sides of the head like the back, but paler ; 
the entire under plumage pale yellowish, each feather with a broad streak 
of black. 
Bill black ; iris brown ; legs orange-yellow ; claws yellow. 
Length 7 inches, tail 2, wing 3*7, tarsus "8, bill from gape 1*8. The 
female is smaller. 
The Large Indian Spider-hunter has been found in the Arrakan and 
Tenasserim Divisions; Mr. Blyth records it from the former and Mr. 
Davison from the latter ; he met with it as far south as Tavoy ; and Capt. 
Bingham procured it in the Thoungyeen valley. I have never observed it 
in the Pegu Division ; but it probably occurs there. 
