130 CRATEEOPODIDJE.

browed Short-wing breeds in April and May. It constructs its
nest a foot or so above the ground amongst grass and creeping-
plants at the base of trunks of trees ; it is composed of moss and
moss-roots, is somewhat globular in shape, and is firmly attached
to the creepers; dried bamboo-leaves and pieces of fern are here
and there fixed to the exterior, and the nest is lined with hair-liko
fibres ; the entrance is at one side and circular. One nest measured
7 inches in height, 5-5 in width, and 3'33 from front to back.
The aperture was 2 inches in diameter. The eggs (four in number,
or at times three) are pure white, broad ovals, pointed at one end,
measuring 0-9 by 0-65 inch. This species breeds in the contra!
regions of Nepal and in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling.

Three nests of this species found early in June in Sikhim and
Nepal, at elevations of 5000 to 8000 feet, contained respectively
2, 3, and 4 fresh eggs. They were all placed in brushwood at 2 to
3 feet above the ground, and they are all precisely similar, being
rather massive shallow cups, composed of very fine black roots
firmly felted together, and with a few dead leaves or scraps of moss
in most of them incorporated in one portion or other of the outer
surface. The nests are about 4 inches in diameter and 2 in
height; the cavity is about 2 inches in diameter and 1 in depth ;
but, owing to the positions in which they are placed, they are often
more or less irregularly shaped.

Mr. Mandelli obtained three eggs which he considers to belong
to this species, on the 3rd June, near Darjeeling. 1 rather ques-
tion the authenticity of these eggs. They are pure white and
devoid of gloss, moderately elongated ovals, only slightly com-
pressed towards the smaller end. They vary from 0-J>J to O'DJL in
length and from 0-61 to 0-64 in breadth.

198. Drymocliares nepalensis (Hoclgs.). The Nepal Short-winy.
Brachypteryx nipalensis; Hodys.^ Jerd. J?. 2nd. i, p. 4.04.

Prom SikhiniMr. Gammie writes :—" A nest taken by me on the
15th of June at 5000 feet, close to a large forest, contained three
slightly-set eggs. It was placed on the moss-covered trunk of a
fallen tree, and was hooded, with an entrance at the side ; rather
neatly made of dry leaves with an outer covering of green moss,
and an inner lining of skeletonized leaves and black fibrous roots.
Externally it measures 5 inches in height by about the same in
width ; internally 3 inches high by 2-4 "across. The entrance was
2-3 in diameter. The front of the egg-cavity is but slightly de-
pressed below the entrance, gradually sloping backwards to the
depth of nearly an inch."

All the nests of this species that I have seen were of the same
type, more or less globular, more or less hooded or domed, according
to the situation in which they were placed, composed of dry flags
and dead and more or less skeleton leaves, bound together with a
little vegetable ^ fibre and some moss, but chiefly with fine black
fibrous roots, with which the entire cavity is densely lined, inside