OBIOLTTS.

357

and so securely fixed that it could not have "been removed till the
supporting bands had been cut or rotted away. The eggs were
white, with a few dark claret-coloured spots."

Major "Wardlaw Ramsay says, writing from Afghanistan :—"At
Shalofyan, in the Kurrum valley, in June, I found them in great
numbers : some were breeding; but as I saw quite young birds, it
is probable that the nesting-season was nearly over."

Colonel Butler contributes the following note:—" The Indian
Oriole breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa in the months of
May, June, and July. I took nests on the following dates :—

" 24th May, 1876. A nest containing 1 fresh egg.

3 fresh eggs.

2 much incubated eggs.

3 fresh eggs.
2- „

3 „

9

*-' ??

2 „

3 „

' 29th

" 12th June

" 12th „

" 13th „

«19th „

" 29th „

" 29th „

" 29th „

"3rd July

" 6th

"30th „

"The nest found on the 24th May was suspended from a
small fork of a neem-tree about ten feet from the ground, and was
very neatly built of dry grass (fine interiorly, coarse exteriorly),
old rags, and cotton (woven, not raw). The rirn was firmly bound
to the branches of the fork with rags and coarse blades of dry
grass. It is an easy nest to find when the birds are building, as
both birds are always together and keep constantly flying to and
from the nest with materials for building. The cock, as before
mentioned, always accompanies the hen to and from the nest
whilst she is building; but I do not think he assists in its construc-
tion, as I never saw him carrying any of the materials, neither have
I ever seen him on the nest. On the contrary, whilst the hen is
at the nest building he is generally waiting for her, either on the
same tree or else on another close by, occasionally uttering his well-
known rich mellow note. On the 29th May I sent a boy up a
tree to examine a nest. The hen bird had been sitting for a week,
and was on the nest when the boy ascended the tree. The cock
bird flew past, and being a brilliant specimen I shot him, thinking
of course that the nest contained a full complement of eggs. To
my astonishment, however, though the hen bird sat very close,
there were no eggs in the nest, and although she returned to it
once- or twice afterwards, she eventually forsook it without laying.
Possibly she may have laid, and that the eggs were destroyed by
Crows. In addition to the materials already mentioned, this nest
was also composed of tow, string, and strips of paper, all neatly
woven into the exterior, and many of the other nests mentioned