n of
seed-pods. White-eyes' nests are very numerous here in the months of
January, February, and March. They are extremely partial to the wild
gooseberry bush as a site to build on. One year I found ten out of
eleven nests on these bushes, the fruit of which is largely used by
the aborigines of the hills. A pair once built on a thick orange-tree
in our garden. We often stood quite close to one of them while sitting
on the eggs, and it never showed the slightest degree of fear. They
lay two eggs of a light blue colour."

Mr. Wait, writing from Conoor, says that "_Z. palpebrosa_ breeds in
April and May, building in bushes and shrubs, and making a deep round
cup-shaped nest very neatly woven in the style of the Chaffinch,
composed of moss, grass, and silk cotton, and sparsely lined with very
fine grass and hair. The eggs are two in number, of a roundish oval
shape, and a pale greenish-blue colour."

Finally Colonel Legge informs us that this species breeds in Ceylon in
June, July, and August.

The eggs are somewhat lengthened ovals (occasionally rather broader),
and a good deal pointed towards the small end. The shell is very fine
but almost glossless; here and there a somewhat more glossy egg is met
with. They are normally of a uniform very pale blue or greenish blue,
without any markings whatsoever, but once in a way an egg is seen
characterized by a cap or zone of a somewhat purer and deeper blue.
Abnormally large and small specimens are common. They vary in length
from 0.53 to 0.7, and in breadth from 0.42 to 0.58; but the average of
thirty-eight eggs is 0.62 by 0.47, and the great majority of the eggs
are really about this size.

229. Zosterops ceylonensis, Holdsworth. _The Ceylon White-eye_.

Zosterops ceylonensis, _Holdsw., Hume, cat._ no. 631 bis.

Colonel Legge, referring to the nidification of the Ceylon White-eye,
says:--"This species breeds from March until May, judging from the
young birds which are seen abroad about the latter month. Mr.
Bligh found the nest in March on Catton Estate. It was built in
a coffee-bush a few feet from the ground, and was a rather frail
structure, suspended from the arms of a small fork formed by one bare
twig crossing another. In shape it was a shallow cup, well made of
small roots and bents, lined with hair-like tendrils of moss, and was
adorned about the exterior with a few cobwebs and a little moss. The
eggs were three in number, pointed ovals, and of a pale bluish-gre