206	DXCRURIDJE.
salmon-coloured, with brick-red blotches sparsely scattered over
them, and are -95 by *7 inch."
Dr. Scully records the following note from Nepal:—" This
species lays in the valley in May and June, the nest being placed
high up in trees, often in Pinus lonyifolia. The eggs are usually
four in number, fairly glossy, in shape moderate ovals, smaller at
one end. The ground-colour is pinkish white, with a tinge of buff,
sparingly spotted and blotched with brownish red, chiefly at the
large end, where the marks tend to coalesce, so as to form an
irregular incomplete ring. Pour eggs taken on the 2Sth May
measured 1-09 fco 1-12 in length, aucf 0-75 to O76 in breadth. The
race which I identify with D. liimalaycuius was found, in very
small numbers, on the summit of Sheopuri, at an elevation of about
7500 feet, and was breeding at the time I shot iny specimen, viz.
the 20th May."
Mr. Gammie found a nest at Mongpho, near Darjeeliug, at an
elevation of about 3500 feet on the 13th May. It was placed on
an outer branch of a tall tree and contained only one partially
incubated egg. The nest was a beautifully compact, but shallow
cup, placed on the upper surface of the bough, composed externally
of roots and coated with a little lichen and a great deal of cobweb.
Interiorly lined with the finest grass and moss-roots. The cavity
measured about 3 inches in diameter and scarcely more than 1 inch
in depth. At the bottom, where it rested on the bough, the nest
was not above | inch thick, and consisted only of the lining mate-
rials. Laterally it was about | inch thick.
The egg was a broad oval, slightly compressed towards one end.
but not at all pointed. The shell very fine and with a slight gloss,
the ground-colour a delicate salmon-pink, and with a broad ring of
deep brownish-pink spots • and blotches intermingled with pale
purple subsurface-looking clouds and spots round the large end.
The rest of the egg with some half-dozen similar spots.
He subsequently sent me the following note:—" This species is
common in the Darjeeling district up to 4000 feet or so. It
rather affects the neighbourhood of bungalows, and is a very lively
neighbour, especially in the mornings and evenings. These birds
are continually quarrelling among themselves, sallying after insects,
or making their best attempts at singing. They are dead on Kites,
Crows, and such-like depredators. For several days an Owl
(Bidaca newarensls) was flying about near the Cinchona Bungalow
at Mongpho, and being a stupid creature at the best, and doubly
so during daylight when it had no business to be abroad, was
evidently considered fair game by the Long-tailed Drongo and
Swallow-Shrikes, and so awfully ^c sat upon^? by them, that its
life must have become a burden to it until it left the place in despair
of ever getting either peace or comfort about Mongpho.
" They lay in April and May, and have but one brood in the
year. The nest is generally either built against a tall bamboo, well
up, supported on the branch of twigs at a node, or near the ex-
tremity of a branch of a tree, sometimes on quite slender branches