s in diameter, and from 2 to 2.5 inches in
depth. The nest is _very_ compactly and solidly woven, of rather broad
blades of grass, and long strips of fine fibrous bark, exteriorly more
or less coated with cobwebs and gossamer-threads. Interiorly, fine
grass-stems and roots are neatly and closely interwoven. I once found
some horse-hair along with the grass-roots, but this is unusual.

The full number of eggs is, I believe, five. I have repeatedly taken
nests containing this number, and have comparatively seldom met with a
smaller number of eggs at all incubated.

Colonel G.F.L. Marshall says:--"I found a nest of this species at
Roorkee in the early part of July. It contained three eggs and was
beautifully made, a deep cup fixed on to an artichoke-stock, and at a
little distance much resembled an artichoke."

Mr. E.C. Nunn, writing from near Agra on the 26th September 1867,
says:--"I got a _Pyctorhis_' nest yesterday, suspended between two
stalks of jowar (_Holcus sorghum_), the nest firmly bound with strips
of fibrous bark, at two opposite points of its circumference, to the
two stems. This is, I imagine, something out of the usual order of
things with these birds. The nests which I have hitherto found have
been situated in young mangoe-trees, rose-bushes, or peach- and
orange-trees."

From Futtehgurh the late Mr. A.A. Anderson sent me the following
note:--"The nest and eggs of this bird are very beautiful. A pair once
built in a pumplenose-tree (_Citrus decumana_) in my garden, laying
five long eggs. The nest, still in my collection, was placed in the
fork of _four_ small upright twigs; it was composed entirely of dry
grass-stems (no soft material inside), and laced outwardly, in and out
of the twigs, with dry fibre belonging to the plantain-tree.

"The eggs are small for the size of the bird, and scarcely so large as
those of the Hedge-Sparrow."

Captain Hutton remarks:--"This likewise is a Dhoon bird; its nest was
found there on the 1st July, when it contained four eggs of a dull
white colour, thickly speckled and blotched all over with ferruginous
spots, forming also an open darker coloured ring at the large end, and
intermixed with brown.

"The nest is a deep cup, placed in the trifurcation of the slender
upright branch of a low shrub, and is constructed externally of coarse
grass-blades held together by cobwebs and seed-down, the lining being
fine grass-seed stalks. Diameter of the top 21/2 inches; depth w