PEEICROCOTTJS. 341

what looked like spider's web ; attached to this web-like substance
here and there, for better disguise, were the dry leaves of the
tamarind-tree ; the lining of very fine grass. The outer diameter
of a nest may fairly be given at'2'2 inches, inner at 1*8, depth of
nest 0*9. Two is the regular number of eggs, at least that was
the number in the three nests I took. In colour they are of a
pale greenish white, sparingly speckled on the narrower half of
the egg with brownish spots, but they have on the broader half the
spots more dense, and forming at the end a more or less complete
cap. The feat of securing a nest is a most hazardous one, for it
is always fixed close in between two delicate forks at the extreme
end of a slight side-branch near to the top of the tree. On each
occasion that the nest was detected the male bird was found flitting
about near to it, the female all the while sitting on the eggs. On
the last two occasions of finding the nests, it was this flitting to
and fro of the male that attracted us ; otherwise the nest is so
small that from, the ground the eye can scarcely distinguish it from
the branch. The bird appears to be migratory, for since the
termination of the breeding-season it has disappeared from these
parts."

Major C. T. Bingham writes to me :—" Although this bird is
common enough both at Allahabad and at Delhi, I have found it
difficult to find its nest, from the fact that it is placed at the very
extreme tip of leafy branches. However, with careful watching
and patience, I managed to find one nest at Allahabad and five at
Delhi. The first I found on the 3rd July at Chupree near Alla-
habad. It contained two well-fledged young ones, that hopped
out as soon as the nest was touched. Out of the five at Delhi I
managed to get six eggs; three of the nests when found being
empty, were afterwards deserted by the birds. Of the two nests
with eggs, one contained four and the other two. The nests are
tiny little cups, made of very fine grass, and coated externally
with cobwebs, to which are attached bits of bark and dry leaves.
The eggs are a greenish stone-colour, thickly speckled with light
purple and brownish red. The earliest nest £ have found was on
the 21st March, on the banks of the canal at Delhi, so that the
bird occasionally, at Delhi at least, lays in spring. The average
of eggs I have is 0-68 in length, and 0-55 in breadth."

Colonel E. A. Butler furnishes us with the following interesting
note :—" Found a nest at Belgaum, containing two fresh eggs, on
the 3rd September, 1879. It was situated in the fork of one of
the small outer top branches of a tall mango-tree, and was on the
whole about the prettiest nest I have seen in India. It consisted
of a tiny cup about 1| X 2 inches measured interiorly, and 1J x 2i
inches exteriorly. Depth inside 1 inch, outside 1^ inches from
rim to proper base, excluding about an inch of lichen continued
down one side of the bough below the fork in which the nest was
built. It was composed, so far as I could judge after a very
minute examination, almost entirely of the white lichen which
grows so freely on the bark of every tree during the rains, with a