138	CEATEBOPODIBJE.
speckled and freckled, usually most densely towards the large end,
with red or brownish red. His nests were taken both in ISikhim-
and Nepal.
221. Siva cyanuroptera, Hodgs.    The 'Blue-winged Siva.
Siva cyanouroptera, ITode/s., Jerd. £. 2nd. ii, p. 253 ; Hume, Rouyli
Draft N. $ E. no. 617.
The Blue-winged Siva breeds, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes,
in the central regions of Nepal, and in the neighbourhood of
Darjeeling, in May and June. The nest is placed in trees, at no
great elevation above the ground, and is wedged in where three or
four slender twigs make a convenient fork. A nest taken on the
2nd June was a large compact cup, measuring exteriorly 4*75 in
diameter and 3*75 in height, aud having a cavity 2*6 in diameter and
1-87 in depth. It was composed of fine stems of grass, dry leaves,
moss, and moss-roots, bound together with pieces of creepers, roots,
and vegetable fibres, and closely lined with fine grass-roots. They
lay from three to four eggs, which are figured as moderately broad
ovals, considerably pointed towards the small end, 0*85 in length
by 0-6 in width, having a pale greenish ground pretty thickly speckled
and spotted, especially on the broader half of the egg, with a kind
of brownish brick-red.
Mr. Mandelli found a nest of this species at Lebong (elevation
5500 feet) on the 28th April. It contained four fresh eggs; it was
placed in a fork of a horizontal branch of a small tree at a height
of only 3 feet from the ground. The nest is, for the size of the
bird, a large cup, externally entirely composed of green moss firmly
felted together. This outer shell of moss is thickly lined with the
dead leaves of a Polypodium, and this again is thinly lined with
fine grass. The nest was about 4 inches in diameter, and 2-5 in
height externally; the cavity was about 2*5 broad and 1*5 deep.
The nests of this species are very beautiful cups, very compact
and firm, sometimes wedged into a fork, but more commonly sus-
pended between two or three twigs, or sometimes attached by one
side only to a single twig. They are placed at heights of from
4 to 10 feet from the ground in the branches of slender trees, and
are usually carefully concealed, places completely, encircled by
creepers being very frequently chosen. The chief materials of the
nest are dead leaves, sometimes those of the bamboo, but more
generally those of trees; but little of this is seen, as the exterior is
generally coated with moss, and the interior is lined first with
excessively fine grass, and then more or less thinly with black
buffalo- or horse-hairs. The cups are about 3 inches in diameter
and 2 in height externally, the cavities barely 2 in diameter and
perhaps 1*5 in depth: but they vary somewhat in size and shape
according to the situation in which they are placed and the manner
in which they are attached, some being considerably broader and
shallower, and some rather deeper.