, at a height of
about 10 feet from the ground. It is round, about 2 inches in height
and the same in diameter, and the cavity was about an inch or a trifle
more in depth. It is built of grass and reed-bamboo-fibres, and is
coated with spider's web. It only contained two eggs."

Both parents (sexes ascertained by dissection) are in the typical
_tiphia_ plumage, without one particle of black on either head, nape,
or back.

Mr. Davidson writes:--"In the Satara and Sholapur districts the cock
puts on his summer plumage in May and the whole back of head, neck,
and back (not rump) is glossy and black.

"This bird lays from the end of June to beginning of August. It is
very shy when building and is easily caused to forsake its nest; if a
single egg is taken from the nest it does not forsake it, however, but
lays on (three instances this year)."

Mr. W.E. Brooks has favoured me with the following very interesting
note on the habits of this Iora:--

"Ioras are very numerous and have such a variety of notes that I
thought at first there were several sorts; but as far as I can see
there is but one species. Iora spreads its tail in a wonderful manner,
and comes spinning round and round towards the ground looking more
like a round ball than a bird. All the time it descends it utters a
strange note, something like that of a frog or cricket, a protracted
sibilant sound. This bird is close to _Liothrix_ and _Stachyrhis_,
although it belongs to the plains."

Colonel Butler writes:--"A nest on the 17th August, 1880, on the
outside branch of a silk-cotton tree in Belgaum about 12 feet from the
ground, containing three fresh eggs.

"I found many other nests building all through the hot weather and
rains; but in every single instance except the present one they were
deserted before they were completed."

Major Bingham writes from Tenasserim:--"This species is common
throughout the country. As a rule its nest is well hid, but one I
saw in the compound of a house in Maulmain was placed in the exposed
leafless fork of a tree, not above six feet from the ground. It
contained no eggs when I examined it, and was deserted a day or two
after. This was in the beginning of May."

Mr. Oates remarks on the breeding of this bird in Pegu:--"Nests are
found chiefly in June and July, but the birds probably lay also in
May."

In shape the eggs are moderately broad ovals, slightly pointed towards
one end. They vary, however, a good deal, some