od deal in
exterior dimensions as the materials straggle far and wide in some
cases, and the external diameter may be said to vary from 6 to 8
inches, and the height from 3.25 to 4.5; the cavities are more uniform
in size, and are about 3.5 in diameter by 2 in depth.

The eggs are moderately broad ovals, at times somewhat pointed perhaps
towards the small end, pure white and fairly glossy.

Major C.T. Bingham thus writes of this bird:--"It is very difficult
to either watch these birds, unseen yourself, at one of their dancing
parties, or to catch one of them actually sitting on the nest. Twice
had I in the end of March this year come across nests with one or two
of these birds in the vicinity, and yet have had to leave the eggs
in them as uncertain to what bird they belonged. At last, on the 2nd
April, I came in for a piece of luck. I was roaming about in the
vicinity of my camp on the Gawbechoung, the main source of the
Thoungyeen river, and moving very slowly and silently amid the dense
clumps of bamboo, when my ears were saluted by the hearty laughter of
a flock of these birds, evidently not far off. Very quietly I crept
up, and looking cautiously from behind a thick bamboo-clump, saw ten
or twelve of them going through a most intricate dance, flirting their
wings and tails, and every now and then bursting into a chorus of
shouts, joined in by a few others who were seated looking on from
neighbouring bushes. During one of the pauses of the applause, and
while the dancers were busy twining in and out, a single rather
squeaky 'bravo' came from a bamboo-bush right opposite to me. Looking
up I was astonished to see a nest in a fork of the bamboo, and on the
nest a _Garrulax_ who, probably too busy with her maternal duties to
watch the performance going on below her attentively, came in with
a solitary shout of approbation at an unseemly time. I watched the
performance a few minutes longer, and then frightened the old hen
on the nest. The terrific scare I caused by my sudden appearance is
beyond description. The dancers scattered with screeches, and the
old hen dropped fainting over the side of her nest with a feeble
remonstrance, and disappeared in the most mysterious way. After all
the nest contained only one egg, very glossy, white, and fresh. The
nest was better and stronger built, though very like that of _Garrulax
moniliger_, constructed of twigs, and finely lined with black
hair-like roots; it measured some 6 inc