she remained on till
about 10.30, when she flew off and joined the cock, who was sitting
pluming himself on a branch of the next tree the whole time she was on
the nest. Immediately she joined him, he commenced catching flies and
feeding her, as if she were a young bird, and eventually they both
flew away together. Arriving at the conclusion that she only went on
the nest to lay, I decided on taking the nest three days later, and
accordingly returned for that purpose with a small boy on the 3rd
Sept., and found, as I expected, the hen sitting and the cock in
another tree close by.

"I sent the boy up the tree, and as he approached the nest, which was
some 30 or 35 feet from the ground, the hen bird became very uneasy,
moving her head from side to side, and looking down to see what was
going on below. When the boy was within about 10 feet of the nest she
flew off and joined the cock, after which I saw her no more. The eggs
were then secured with difficulty, as the branches surrounding the
nest were very thin and blown about a good deal by the wind.

"After breaking off the bough, nest and all, the boy descended. One
branch of the fork in which the nest was placed was rotten, and broke
off at the junction at the base of the nest as the boy was descending
the tree; but the nest, which was firmly bound to it with cobwebs,
remained in its place and was not injured, and I had the nest and
bough beautifully painted for me by a lady friend the same day. The
eggs were pale bluish green, speckled and spotted, most densely at
the large end, with two shades of dusky purple, the markings of the
lighter shade appearing to underlie those of the darker. On the
6th Sept., the same pair of birds commenced a new nest on another
mango-tree about 20 yards off. This time it was placed in a fork of
one of the small outside lateral branches about 25 feet from the
ground, and resembled in every respect the first nest. On the 15th
Sept., the hen bird began to sit, and on the 18th I sent a boy up the
tree by means of a ladder, and secured two more fresh, eggs, similar
to those already described. On this occasion the two old birds evinced
signs of the greatest anxiety, the hen remaining on the nest till the
boy was close to her, and, joined by the cock immediately she left
it, the pair kept flying from bough to bough in the greatest possible
state of excitement the whole time the nest was being taken, the hen
actually once or twice going on to t