at
variety. The markings, always spots and specks, the largest never
exceeding 0.1 inch in diameter, are invariably most numerous towards
the large end, where they are sometimes, though rarefy, slightly
confluent. They vary from only two or three to a number too large to
count, and in colour through many shades of reddish, blackish, and
purplish brown, the latter being rare and abnormal.

The eggs are entirely devoid of gloss, as a rule, though here and
there a slight trace of it is observable. It is this want of gloss
alone that distinguishes some of the larger white, black-spotted
varieties from the eggs of the common Oriole, which they occasionally
exactly resemble not only in shape, colour, and character of marking,
but even (though generally smaller) in size.

In length they vary From 0.87 to 1.15 inch, and in breadth from 0.7
to 0.85, but the average of 152 eggs measured is 1.01 by 0.75 inch. I
have two dwarf eggs of this species not included in the above average
which I myself obtained in different nests, measuring only 0.78 by 0.5
inch, and 0.87 by 0.62 inch.

328. Dicrurus longicaudatus. A. Hay. _The Indian Ashy Drongo_.

Dicrurus longicaudatus, _A. Hay, Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 430.
Buchanga longicaudata (_A. Hay), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._
no. 280.

The Indian Ashy Drongo, a species that, with the really large series
before me from all parts of India, I find it impossible to subdivide
into two or more species, breeds alike in the plains, in well-watered
and wooded districts, and in the Himalayas up to an elevation of 6000
to 7000 feet, and lays during the months of May and June.

They build generally in large trees, at a considerable height from
the ground, placing their somewhat shallow cup-shaped nests in some
slender fork towards the summit or exterior of the tree.

The nest is neatly and firmly built, of fine grass-stems, slender
twigs, and grass-roots, closely interwoven, and externally bound
together with cobwebs, in which, as in the body of the nest, lichens
of several species are much intermingled. Exteriorly the nests are
from 4 to 5 inches in diameter, and from 2 to 21/2 in height. Interiorly
they are lined with moss, roots, hairs, and fine grass; the cavity
measuring from 3 to 3.5 inches in breadth, and from 1.1 to 1.4 inch in
depth. The normal number of the eggs is four.

Mr. Brooks says:--"The nest is usually fixed on the upper surface of a
thin branch about 15 to 20 feet from the ground