LIOTHBIX,	149
This year Mr. Gammie writes to me:—" I have taken many nests
o£ the Eed-billed Liothrix here in our Chinchona reserves, at all
elevations from 3500 to 5000 feet. They breed in May and
June, amongst dense scrub, placing their nests in shrubs, at heights
of from 3 to 5 feet from the ground, and either suspending them
from horizontal branches, or hanging them between several upright
stems, to which they firmly attach them. The nest itself is cup-
shaped and composed principally of dry bamboo-leaves held together
by a few fibres, and a few strings of green moss wound round the
outside. The lining consists of a few black hairs, and the usual
number of eggs is three. A nest I recently measured was extern-
ally 4 inches in diameter and 2-7 in height, while the cavity was
2-6 across by 1-9 in depth."
Mr. Gammie subsequently found a nest on the very late date of
17th October at Bishap, Darjeeling. It contained three eggs, two
of which were addled.
Dr. Jerdon says that at Darjeeling he " got the nest and eggs
repeatedly; the nest made chiefly of grass, with roots and fibres,
and fragments of moss, and usually containing three or four eggs,
bluish white, with a few purple and red blotches. It is generally
placed in a leafy bush at no great height from the ground. Gould,
quoting from Mr. Shore's notes, says that the eggs are black spotted
with yellow: this is of course erroneous. I have taken the nest
myself on several occasions, and killed the bird, and in every case
the eggs were coloured as above."
I wish to add here, as I have abused him occasionally, that
Mr. Shore was, I understand, a most excellent man, and that I have
now come to the conclusion that the extraordinary fictions that he
recorded about the eggs of birds can only have been due to colour-
blindness of a peculiarly aggravated nature. It is not that he
mistook eggs, but that he describes impossible eggs—Kingfishers'
eggs variegated black and white, and here in this case black eggs
spotted with yellow! "Why, there are no such eggs in the whole
world, I believe. On the' other hand, his whole life proves that he
could not have deliberately set to work to invent falsehoods. To
return.
The eggs vary a good deal in shade and size, but are more or less
long ovals, slightly pointed towards the lesser end. The ground-
colour is a delicate very pale green or greenish'blue, in one, not
very common type, almost pure white, and they are pretty boldly
blotched or spotted and speckled as the case may be, and clouded,
most thickly towards the large end, and very often almost ex-
clusively in a zone or cap round this latter, with various shades of
red or purple and brown. Some blotches in some eggs are almost
carmine-red, but the majority are brownish red or reddish brown,
varying much in depth and intensity of colour. There is some-
thing Shrike-like in the markings of many eggs; and where the
markings are most numerous, namely at the large end, they are
commonly intermingled with streaks and clouds of pale lilac. The
smaller end of the egg is often entirely free from markings. I