ecks, scattered about the crown of
the egg.

The eggs vary from 0.8 to 0.92 in length, and from 0.56 to 0.63 in
breadth; but the average of a dozen was 0.86 by 0.6.

254. Irena puella (Lath.). _The Fairy Blue-bird_.

Irena puella (_Lath._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 105; _Hume, Rough Draft
N. & E._ no 469.

Mr. Frank Bourdillon favoured me with an egg of the Fairy Blue-bird,
which with other rare eggs he obtained on the Assamboo Hills. So
little is known of this range that I quote his remarks upon this
locality.

"I must premise that the specimens were obtained along the Assamboo
Range of hills, between the elevations of 1500 and 3000 feet above
sea-level. This range of hills, running in a north-westerly and
south-easterly direction from Cape Comorin to 8 deg.33' north latitude,
forms the boundary line between Travancore and the British Territory
of Tinnevelly, the average height of the range being about 4000
feet, while some of the peaks are as high as 5500 feet. The general
character of the hills is dense forest, broken here and there by grass
ridges and crowned by precipitous rocks, above which lies an almost
unexplored table-land, varying in width from a mile to 12 or 15 miles,
at an elevation of almost 4000 feet."

"The egg of the Fairy Blue-bird," he adds, "was taken slightly set on
the 28th February, 1873, from a loose sparsely-built nest situated in
a sapling about 12 feet from the ground. The nest was composed of
dead twigs lined with leaves, and was about 4 inches broad and very
slightly indented."

As will be remembered, Dr. Jerdon states that "Mr. Ward obtained, what
he was informed were, the nest and eggs; the nest was large, made of
roots and fibres and lined with moss; and the eggs, two in number,
were pale greenish, much spotted with dusky:" and I have no doubt that
Mr. Ward's eggs were genuine.

The egg is an elongated oval, compressed almost throughout its entire
length, very blunt at both points; a long cone, the apex broadly
truncated and rounded off obtusely, sealed on half a very oblate
spheroid. In no one single point--shape, texture of shell, colour or
character of markings--does this egg approach to those of either the
Oriole or the Chloropsis. This shell is very close-grained and fine,
but only moderately glossy. The ground is pale green, and it is
streaked and blotched with pale dull brown. The markings are almost
entirely confluent over the large end (where they appear to be
underl