DISSEMTJRULTJS. 215

upright shoots, at times resting on a horizontal bough against and
attached to some more or less upright shoots. They are composed
mainly of roots thinly but firmly twisted together, 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 interiorly of finer mate-
rial than that used for the outer portion of the structure. Exte-
riorly the diameter varies from 6 to nearly 7 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 of 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 but feebly. The ground-colour
varies from greyish white to a delicate pale pink; as a rule the
markings are small and inconspicuous frecklings and specklings of
pale purple reddish where the ground is pink, greyish where it is
white, tolerably thickly set about the large end and 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 uncommonly 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
0-8(5 in breadth; but the average of twenty-nine eggs is 1-12
by 0-81.

338. Bissemuriilus lophorhiirus (Yieill.). The Ceylon Blade
Droncjo.

Dissemuroides lopliorliimis (F.), Hunw, Cat. no. 283 quat
Colonel Legge says, in his < Birds of Ceylon':—" This species
breeds in the south of Ceylon in the beginning of April. I have
seen the young just able to fly in the Opatc forests at the end ot
this month ; but I have not succeeded in getting any information
concerning its nest or eggs."