221

large ber-tree in a patch of preserved jungle, at a height of about
10 feet from the ground. It was cup-shaped, placed on the upper
surface of a horizontal bough at the angle formed between this
and a vertical shoot, to which it was attached on one side, the
other three sides being free. The nest itself is unlike any other
that I have seen. It is composed entirely of bits of leaf-stalks,
tiny bits of leaves, chips of bark, the dung of caterpillars, all
cemented together everywhere with cobwebs, so that the whole
nest is a firm but yet soft and elastic mass. The nest is cup-
shaped, but oval and not circular; its exterior diameters are 4 and
3 inches respectively; its greatest height 2 inches; the cavity
measures 2-6 by 2-2, and 1-1 in depth.

The texture of the nest, as I have already said, is extremely
peculiar; it is extremely strong, and though pulled off the bough
on which it rested and the off-shoot to which it was attached, is as
perfect apparently as the day it was found, bearing on the lower
surface an exact cast of the inequalities of the bark on which it
rested; but it is soft, yielding, and flabby in the hand, almost as
much so as if it was jelly. The nest contained two almost full-
grown nestlings and one addled egg.

This egg is a very regular oval, slightly broader at one end, the
shell fine and fairly glossy; the ground-colour is pale greenish
white ; round the large end there is an irregular imperfect /.one of
blackish-brown specks and tiny spots, and round about these is
more or less of a brown nimbus, and over the rest of the egg a
very few specks and spots of blackish, dusky, and pale brown are
scattered. It measures O6S by 0'53.

Another nest was found about 15 feet up a tree. It was partly
seated on and partly wedged in between the fork of two thick
oblique branches, to the rough bark of which the bottom only was
firmly cemented with cobwebs, the sides, as in the case of the first-
nest, being quite free and detached from its surroundings. As
regards dimensions and composition, the latter nest was an exact
counterpart of that first taken. It contained two partially fledged
nestlings.

352. Anortlrara neglecta (Brooks). The CasJimir Wren.

Troglodytes neglecta, Brooks, Ifume,- Cat. no. 333 bis.
Troglodytes nipalensis, Ifodf/s., Hume, Rouyh Draft N. §• E. no. 333.

The Cashmir Wren breeds in Cashmir in May and June at
elevations of from 6000 to nearly 10,000 feet. I have never seen
the nest, though I possess eggs taken by Captain Cock and
Mr. Brooks in Cashmir. The latter says :—" Only two nests of
this bird were found (both at G-ulmurg), one having four eggs and
the other three. In the latter case the full number was not laid,
as the nest, when first found, was empty; on three successive
mornings an egg was laid and then they were taken.

" In shape they vary as much as do those of the English Wren,