346 LANIIDJG.

and plastered over externally with pieces of lichen and moss. The
eggs are regular ovals, with a pale-greenish ground, blotched and
spotted with a somewhat olivaceous brown.

A nest of this species found at Mongphoo (elevation, 5500 feet)
on the 15th June contained three eggs nearly ready to hatch off.
The nest was placed on a nearly horizontal fork of a small branch.
It is composed of very fine twigs loosely twisted together and
coated everywhere exteriorly with cobwebs and scraps of grey
lichen. At the lower part, which, owing to the slope of the
branch, had to be thicker, it is exteriorly about an inch and a half
in height. At the upper end it is only about half an inch high.
The shallow saucer-like cavity is about two and a half inches in
diameter and about half an inch in depth.

The eggs of this species, sent me by Captain Hutton from
Mussoorie, much resemble those of Graucalus macii and 0. sylcesi,
but they are decidedly longer than the latter, and the general
tone of their colouring is somewhat duller. In shape they are
somewhat elongated ovals, more or less compressed towards one
end; the general colour is greenish white, very thickly blotched
and streaked with dull brown and very pale purple. The mark-
ings are very closely set, leaving but little of the ground-colour
visible. They have little or no gloss.

They measure T03 by 0*72 inch, and 0-95 by 0-68 inch.

Other eggs that I have since obtained have been quite similar,
but have not had the markings quite so densely set: the secondary
markings have been greyer and less purple, and several eggs have
exhibited an-appreciable gloss; others, again, were quite like those
first described and entirely devoid of gloss. They measured 0*9 to
0-98 in length by 0-65 to"O71 in breadth.

508. Campopliaga sykesi (Strickl.). The Blade-headed Cuclcoo-

ShriJce.

Volvocivora sykesii (Strickl.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 414; Hume, Rough
Draft N. $ E. no. 268.

Mr. E. E. Blewitt took the eggs of Sykes's Cuckoo-Shrike many
years ago. He furnishes the following note :—

" I first met with this bird in the southern part of Bundlekimd.
Nowhere here is it common, and I have never seen more than a
pair together. It is to be found in wooded tracts of country, but
more frequently among thin large trees surrounding villages." Dr.
Jerdon has correctly described its restless habits, and its careful
examination of the foliage and branches of trees for food. It is
usually a silent bird, but during the earlier portion of the breeding-
season the male bird may frequently be heard repeating for minutes
together his clear plaintive notes. Each time, as it flies from one
tree to another, the song is repeated. The flight is easy, slightly
undulating, and the strokes of the wing somewhat rapid. In the
latter end of July I procured one nest. It was found on a mowa-