pecies begins to lay in March, the
young being fledged in June; the nest is a broad shallow saucer, from
6 to 8 inches in diameter, composed of grass and roots, together with
a little lichen, loosely put together, a green leaf or two being
sometimes found as a lining to the nest. The nest is placed on some
broad horizontal branch, where two or three slender twigs or shoots
grow out of it, or on the top of some stump of a tree, or broken end
of a branch, generally, at a considerable height from the ground. The
eggs are _figured_ as white, spotted and blotched almost exclusively
at the large end with yellowish brown, and measuring 0.8 by 0.52 inch,
but no actual measurements are recorded.

Mr. Gammie, however, himself found, and kindly sent me, a nest and
eggs of this species, at Mongpho near Darjeeling, at an elevation of
about 3500 feet, on the 13th May, 1873. It was placed in the hole of a
trunk of a dead tree at a height of about 40 feet from the ground, and
it contained three hard-set eggs. The nest was a loose shallow saucer
of coarse roots devoid of lining. The eggs were rather narrow ovals,
a good deal pointed towards one end; the shell fine and with a slight
gloss. The ground-colour was creamy white, and the markings, which are
almost entirely confined to a broad ring round the large end and the
space within it, consisted of spots and clouds of very pale yellowish
brown, intermingled with clouds and specks of excessively pale, nearly
washed out, lilac.

He subsequently furnished me with the following note from Sikhim:--"In
the hills this bird is migratory, coming about the last week in
February and leaving in the last week of October. It is exceedingly
abundant on the outer ridges running in from the Teesta Valley, and
most numerous about the elevation of 3000 feet, but stragglers get up
as high as 5000 feet. It prefers dry ridges on which there are a
few scattered tall trees, from the tops of which it can make short
flights, over the open country, after insects. It goes very little
abroad in the height of the day, and feeds principally in the
evenings. It rarely keeps on the wing for more than a minute or two at
a time, but occasionally will fly for ten minutes on end. It is quite
as bold and persevering in its habit of attacking and driving off
hawks and kites as the king-crow. Towards the end of September it
begins to congregate in rows along dead branches in the tops of trees.

"It begins to lay in April a