352 LANIIDJE.

saucers made of iine twigs and grasses with a lining of the same,
and contained two to four eggs in each. Height of nest from
ground about 12 to 15 feet. On the 17th April I took two fresh
eggs from a nest, and the birds laying again, I, on the 8th May,
again took three fresh eggs. When on the wing they utter their
note, generally returning to the same perch."

And he adds :—

" 16thApril,1$78.—Took two perfectly fresh eggs from a nest built
on a date-tree. The date-trees in this district are tapped annually
for the juice, from which sugar is manufactured. The leaves and
the bark for a depth of 3 inches are sliced away from one half of
the trunk, the leaves on the other half remaining, and at the root
of one of these the nest was built, wedged in between the trunk
and the leaves; the external diameter was 4J inches, depth 3 inches,
thickness of sides of nest f inch ; a rather shallow cup, composed
exclusively of fine grasses \\ith no attempt at a lining.

" Vjih April, 1878.— Secured two fresh eggs from another nest
on a date-tree. In size and shape they were similar and the
materials were the same grasses with no lining. The trees these
nests were on formed a small clump alongside a ryot's house.
People were passing under them all day. but the birds never noticed
them. Any bird, from a ."Kite to a Bulbiil, coining near received a
warm welcome. The nests are at all times exposed, and the natives
believe that two males and one female are found occupying one
nest. The birds being gregarious build on adjoining trees, and
while the ladies are engaged with their domestic affairs their lords
keep each other company, so the natives put them down as poly-
androus. I have found over a dozen nests, and every one has been
the counterpart of the other, and only on date-trees."

Miss Cockburn writes from the Nilghiris :—tk On the 17th May,
1873, a nest of this bird was found. It was formed in a perpen-
dicular hole in a dried stump of a tree, about 15 feet in height.
The nest consisted entirely of slight sticks lined with fine grass, no
soft material being added as a finish, and the whole structure
went to pieces when removed. This nest contained three
eggs, their colour white, with a few7 dark and light brown spots
and blotches all over, and a strongly marked ring round the thick
end.

"The birds frequently returned to the place while the eggs were
being taken, till one of them was shot."

Mr. J. Davidson remarks :—" This bird is very local in the Tmn-
kur districts in Mysore, and I have only found it in three or four
gardens. I knew it had been breeding (from dissection) since March,
but till to-day (May 9th) I could not find its nest. To-day, however,
I saw four or five birds perpetually flying round and round a very
ragged old cocoanut-tree, the highest in that part of the garden,
and determined to send a man up. Two birds, however, at that
moment lit on one branch and I shot them both, and they proved
to be fully-fledged young ones. I sent the man up, however, and
was rewarded by his announcing two old nests and a new one con-