344 LANIIDJE.

simillwia from the Nilghiris, which, though immensely larger, so
far as tint, colour, and character of ground and markings go, is
positively identical with eggs that I have of this species.

In length the eggs vary from 0-6 to 0-7 inch, and in breadth
from 0-5 to 0*56 inch, but the average of twenty-eight eggs is 0-67
nearly by 0*53 inch.

501. Pericrocotus erythropygius (Jerd.). The White-bellied

Minivet.

Pericrocotus erythropygius (JerdJ), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 424; Hume)
Cat. no. 277. .

Mr. J. Davidson, G.S., is apparently the only ornithologist who
has discovered the nest of the White-bellied Minivet. Writing on
the 25th August, from Khandeish, he says :—" Yesterday I took
two nests of Perierocotus erythropyejius. Both nests were like those
of P. peregrinus, and were placed about 2| feet from the ground
in a fork of a straggling thorn-bush among thin scrub-jungle.
One contained 3 young birds, and one 3 hard-set eggs. I watched
the nest, and found the cock sitting on the eggs, and watched him
for a minute, so there is no possibility of mistake; but the eggs are
not the least what I expected. They are fairly glossy, one being
very much elongated, of a greenish-grey ground, with long longi-
tudinal dashes of dark brown, as unlike Mini vets' eggs as they can
possibly be. They were the only two pairs I saw in a long morning
walk, and the nests were easily found by watching the birds. I
wish I had known the birds were breeding where they were, as by
going three weeks ago I should probably have found many nests,
as there are miles and miles of similar jungle, and it is barely 12
miles from Dhulia. It is very provoking. I have had great
trouble trying to make the Bhils work for me. They will bring in
eggs but not mark them down.'"'

Later on. Mr. Davidson wrote:—" I happened to be staying a few
days at Arvee, in the extreme south of Dhulia, and found this bird
breeding there in considerable numbers. This was in the end of
August (26th to 31st), and I was rather late, most of the nests con-
taining young, and in some cases the young were able to fly. I,
however, found eight nests with eggs (most of them hard-set). All
the nests, which are small and less ornamented than those of Apere-
grinus, were placed from 3 to 4 feet from the ground, in a small
common thorny scrub. They were all placed in low thin jungle,
and never where the jungle was thick and difficult to walkthrough.
A great deal of the jungle round Arvee is full of aujan-trees, out
none of the birds seem to breed in these.'7

The nests are elegant little cups, reminding one of those of Rliipi-
dura albifrontata, measuring internally about 1-75 inch in diameter
and 1 inch in depth, the thickness of the walls of the nest being
usually somewhat less than a quarter of an inch. Interiorly the
nest is composed of excessively fine flowering-stems of grasses, and
externally and on the upper edge it is densely coated with fine,