retty uniform in all, a delicate pale greenish
blue. The markings are always chiefly confined to one end, usually the
broad end; even about the large end they are never very dense, and
elsewhere they are commonly very sparse or almost or altogether
wanting. In some eggs the markings are pretty large irregular blotches
mingled with small spots and specks, but in many eggs again the
largest spot does not exceed one twelfth of an inch in diameter. In
colour these markings are normally a chocolate, often with more or
less of a brown tinge, in some of the small spots so thickly laid on
as to be almost black, in many of the larger blotches becoming only a
pale reddish purple, or here and there a pale purplish grey. In some
eggs all the markings are pale and washed out, in others all are
sharply defined and intense in colour. Occasionally some of the
smaller spots become almost a yellowish brown.

526. Eulabes ptilogenys (Blyth). _The Ceylon Grackle_.

Eulabes ptilogenys (_Bl.), Hume, cat._ no. 693 bis.

Colonel Legge writes in his 'Birds of Ceylon':--"This species breeds
in June, July, and August, laying its eggs in a hole of a tree, or in
one which has been previously excavated by the Yellow-fronted Barbet
or Red Woodpecker. It often nests in the sugar- or kitool-palm, and in
one of these trees in the Peak forest I took its eggs in the month of
August. There was an absence of all nest or lining at the bottom of
the hole, the eggs, which were two in number, being deposited on the
bare wood. The female was sitting at the time, and was being brought
fruit and berries by the male bird. While the eggs were being taken
the birds flew round repeatedly, and settled on an adjacent tree,
keeping up a loud whistling. The eggs are obtuse-ended ovals, of
a pale greenish-blue ground-colour (one being much paler than the
other), sparingly spotted with large and small spots of lilac-grey,
and blotched over this with a few neutral-brown and sepia blots. They
measure from 1.3 to 1.32 inch in length by 0.96 to 0.99 in breadth."

527. Calornis chalybeius (Horsf.). _The Glossy Calornis_.

Calornis chalybaeus[A] (_Horsf.), Hume, cat._ no. 690 bis.

[Footnote A: Mr. Hume considers the Andaman _Calornis_ distinct from
the _Calornis_ inhabiting Cachar, Tenasserim, &c. I have united them
in the 'Birds of India.'--Ed.]

Of the Glossy Calornis Mr. Davison remarks that "it is a permanent
resident at the Nicobars, breeding in holes in trees an