154	CEA.TEEOPODIDJB.
sent you, in the Teriat Hills on the 24th May, at an elevation of
about 2300 feet. It was placed on, and near the extremity of,
a bough, at a height of about 10 feet from the ground. It is round,
about 2 inches in height and the same in diameter, and the cavity
was about an inch or a trifle more in depth. It is built of grass
and reed-bamboo-fibres, and is coated with spider's web. It only
contained two eggs."
Both parents (sexes ascertained by dissection) are in the typical
tijpJiia plumage, without one particle of black on either head, nape,
or back.
Mr. Davidson writes :—" In the Satara and Sholapur districts
the cock puts on his summer plumage in May and the whole back
of head, neck, and back (not rump) is glossy and black.
" This bird lays from the end of June to beginning of August.
It is very shy when building and is easily caused to forsake its
nest • if a single egg is taken from the nest it does not forsake it,
however, but lays on (three instances this year)."
Mr. W. E. Brooks has favoured me with the following very
interesting note on the habits of this lora:—
" loras are very numerous and have such a variety of notes that
I thought at first there were several sorts; but as far as I can see
there is bufc one species. lora spreads its tail in a wonderful
manner, and comes spinning round and round towards the ground
looking more like a round ball than a bird. All the time it de-
scends it utters a strange note, something like that of a frog or
cricket, a protracted sibilant sound. This bird is close to Liotlirix
and Stacliyrliis, although it belongs to the plains."
Colonel Butler writes :—"A nest on the 17th August, 1880, on
the outside branch of a silk-cotton tree in Belgaum about 12 feet
from the ground, containing three fresh eggs.
" I found many other nests building all through the hot weather
and rains; but in every single instance except the present one
they were deserted before they were completed."
Major Bingham writes from Tenasserim:—" This species is
common throughout the country. As a rule its nest is well hid,
but one I saw in the compound of a house in Maulmain was placed
in the exposed leafless fork of a tree, not above six feet from the
ground. It contained no eggs when I examined it, and was
deserted a day or two after. This was in the beginning of May."
Mr. Gates remarks on the breeding of this bird in Pegu:—
" Nests are found chiefly in June and July, but the birds probably
lay also in May."
In shape the eggs are moderately broad ovals, slightly pointed
towards one end. They vary, however, a good deal, some being
much more elongated than others. They are almost entirely
devoid of gloss. The ground-colour is generally greyish white,
but some have creamy and some a salmon tinge; typically they
have numerous long streaky pale brown or reddish-brown blotches,
chiefly confined to the large end, where they often seem to spring
from an irregular imperfect zone of the same colour. The colour