212

chouug, a feeder of the Meplay, and having an hour to spare, 1
took my gun and climbed up a steep hill to the very sources of the
(iueebaw. Here, hanging over the trickling stream, was a nest of
Gliaptia cenea firmly woven and tied on to a fork in the branch of
a little tree, at a height of about 10 feet from the ground. The
nest was of roots and grass lined by soft fine black roots, and held
three eggs, of a rich salmon-pink, obscurely spotted darker at the
large end; they measure 0-83 by 0-61, 0-82 by 0*61, and OSO by
0*61 respectively.

" On the 15th March, 1880, in the fork of a branch of a small
ziinbun-tree (Dilletiia pcntayyna), hanging over a pathway along
the bank of the Meplay stream, I found a nest of the above species.
A neat strongly-made little cup of vegetable fibres and cobwebs,
containing two fresh eggs; ground-colour dull salmon, obscurely
spotted with brownish pink. They measure 0'S6 by 0-64 and
0-88 by 0-65." .

Mr. J. L. Darling, Jim., records the following notes:—

" 26th March. Found a nest of Gliaptia cenea, building, when on
the march from Tavoy toiNwalabo, some seven miles east of Tavoy,
in the fork of a bamboo-branch 12 feet from ground.

c: 29th March. Took two fresh eggs of Gliaptia cenea, and shot
the bird off nest, about twenty-three miles east of Tavoy, in open
bamboo-land, very low elevation. The nest was built in the fork
of an overhanging branch of a bamboo some 50 feet from the
ground.

" 13th April. Pound a nest of Gliaptia cenea with two large young
ones. Nest built in a tree some 40 feet from ground, in open
forest about twenty miles east of Tavoy.

" 22nd April. Pound a nest of Gliaptia cenea with two large
young ones. Nest built at the end of a bough about 30 feet from
ground, near Tavoy."

The nests of this species are quite of the Oriole type, more or
less deep cups suspended between the forks of small branches or
twigs of some bamboo-clump or tree. Exteriorly they are com-
posed of dry flags of grass, bits of baniboo-spathes, or coarse grass,
bound together with vegetable fibres and often with a good deal of
cobweb worked over them; sometimes a tiny bit or two of moss
may be found added, and often the fine thread-like flower-stems of
grass. Interiorly they are generally lined with excessively fine
grass. In one or two nests very fine black fern-roots are inter- •
mingled with the grass lining. The nests vary a good deal in size,
but are all extremely compact, and while some are decidedly mas-
sive, nearly an inch*thick at bottom, others are scarcely a quarter
of this in thickness beneath. In one the cavity is 2-5 inches broad
by 3 long, and fully 2 deep ; in another it is about 2%5 inches in
diameter by scarcely 1-25 inches in depth. In one nest four fresh
eggs were found; in another three fully incubated ones. The
nests were suspended at heights of from 10 to 30 feet from the
ground.

The eggs sent by Mr. Ganimie very much recall the eggs of