DETAILED LIST OF BIRDS. 
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a half in diameter and having a depth of nearly four inches 
below the lower margin of the entrance-hole. At other times 
they are hung between bare twigs and are then nearly glo- 
bular, with the entrance-hole near the top ; they are then 
probably three and a half inches in external diameter in 
every direction. In other cases . they are hung to or 
between two or more leaves to which the birds attach 
the nest, much as a Tailor bird or Prinia would do, using, 
however, fine grass instead of cobwebs or cotton wool for 
the thread. I have never found more than five eggs in 
any nest, and four is certainly the normal number. 
The eggs are a moderately long and generally a pretty 
perfect oval, often pointed towards one end ; sometimes 
globular, seldom if ever much elongated. The shell is fine 
and glossy and comparatively thick and strong. The ground 
colour is normally a beautiful pale greenish blue, most 
richly marked with various shades of deep chocolate and 
reddish brown; nothing can exceed the beauty or intricacy 
of the markings, which are a combination of bold blotches, 
clouds and spots, with delicate intricately interwoven lines, 
recalling, though more elaborate and I think finer, those of 
our early favourite the Yellow-ammer's eggs. The markings 
are invariably most strongly defined at the large end, where 
there is very commonly a conspicuous confluent cap, and 
the delicate lines are almost without exception confined to 
the broader half of the egg. Very commonly the smaller 
end of the egg is entirely spotless, and I have a beautiful 
specimen now before me in which the only markings consist 
of a ring of delicate lines round the large end. Some idea 
of the delicacy and intricacy of these lines may be formed 
when I mention that this zone is barely one-tenth of an 
inch broad, and yet in a good light between twenty and 
thirty interlaced lines making up this zone may be counted. 
The intricacy of the pattern is in some cases almost in- 
credible, and what with the remarkable character of the 
patterns themselves, and the rich and varying shades of their 
colours, these little eggs are I think amongst the most 
beautiful known. Occasionally the ground colour of the 
eggs instead of being bright greenish blue is a pale rather 
