upright shoots, at times resting on a horizontal bough against and
attached to some more or less upright shoots. 1 hey are composed
mainly of roots thinly but firmly twisted tog-ether, have sometimes
a good deal of cobweb twisted round their outer surface, often a
good deal of vegetable fibre used for the same purpose and, though
they have no lining, are always composed mtonorly oi rmer mate-
rial* than that used for the outer portion oi the structure. Exte-
riorly the diameter varies from 6 to nearly v inches, the height
from nearly 2 to 2£; the cavity is usually about 4 inches in
diameter and 1-5 to 1-75 in depth. I have taken the nests in May
and June alike in small and large trees, at elevations oi from 10 to
30 feet from the ground.
Typically the eggs are rather broad ovals, a good deal pointed
towards the small end, but they vary a great deal both in size and
shape, are occasionally very much elongated, and again, at times,
exhibit the characteristic pointing btifc feebly, /he ground-colour
varies from greyish white to a delicate pale pink; as a rulo the
markings are small and inconspicuous f recklings and speckling.* of
pale purple reddish where the ground, is pink, greyish where it is
white, tolerably thickly set about the large eiicKind somewhat
sparsely elsewhere ; but in some eggs these markings are every-
where almost obsolete. In many there is a dull pale purplish cloud
underlying the primary markings, extending over the greater part
of the large end of the egg. Not nxicommonly a few specks and
spots of yellowish brown are scattered here and there about the
egg. In one egg before me the markings are larger, more decided,
and fewer in number—distinct spots, some of them one tenth of
an inch in diameter; and in this egg the spots are decidedly
brownish red, while intermixed with, them are a few specks and
clouds of inky purple. The ground in this case is a pale pinky
white.
As a rule the eggs are entirely devoid of gloss, but one or two
have a very faint gloss.
The eggs measure from 1-01 to 1-21 in length, and from 0-79 to
OS6 in breadth; but the average of twenty-nine eggs is 1*12
by 0-81.
338. Dissemurulus lophorMnus (Vieill.).    The Ceylon Black
Drongo.
Dissemuroid.es lopliorhinus (F), JEFume, Cat. no. 283 quat.
Colonel Legge says, in his ^c Birds of Ceylon':—" This species
breeds in the south, of Ceylon in the beginning of April. 1 have
seen the young just able to fly in the Opate forests at the end of
this month ; but I have not succeeded in getting any information
concerning its nest or eggs."