22^ 
The Black-headed Sib'ia. 
matter with a l)ird so shy which nests up in the big trees of these 
jungles. Watching is not very feasible unless the whereabouts 
of the nest is known to a fairly exact degree; on the steep hill- 
sides the area which one can watch from any given spot is very 
circumscribed, both from the number of the trees and from the 
ease with whicli a bird is lost when it drops and rises on the 
liilbside, or disappears round a ridge. 
How'ever, on the lyth of June, chance threw a clue in my 
way, as. climbing a hill-side, 1 saw a pair of Sibias collecting 
moss off the trunk of a tree, w-ith which they disappeared down 
the hill-side. It was too late that night to devote any time to 
them, but I determined that the chance thus afforded would 
not be given up without a very strong effort to avail myself of 
it. Accordingly, at the next opportunity I went to the spot 
and sat and watched in various places for three hours, but 
without success- Indeed, for a long time I could not see the 
pair at all, but at last hit upon them, and after a time had great 
hopes of finding the nest, as one of the birds was carrying 
material. However, the bird was obviously aware of my 
presence and too shy to go to the nest : in fact, after hovering 
about for a long time it went off up the hill and was seen no 
more. 
On June 22nd further watching again put me in touch 
with the pair, and after some time I saw one of them hopping 
about the boughs of a large silver fir with some material in its 
beak in a very undecided fashion. This material was eventually 
deposited in one of the boughs, where I could see the small 
beginning of the nest. The Sibia must be a very lazy and 
desultory builder, or else a former site was deserted owing to 
my watching, as the extent to which the nest had progressed 
seemed no adequate result for the three days at least, for which, 
to my knowledge, building had been in progress. 
After this discovery I was careful not to disturb the pair, 
but went again to the place to see how matters were progressing 
on jcjth June, when the nest as seen from the ground appeared 
to be complete. 
On the 2nd July I went with a light hill boy and another 
man to secure the nest; this was no easy job. The nest was 
