bungalows, and is a very lively neighbour,
especially in the mornings and evenings. These birds are continually
quarrelling among themselves, sallying after insects, or making
their best attempts at singing. They are _dead_ on Kites, Crows, and
such-like depredators. For several days an Owl (_Bulaca newarensis_)
was flying about near the Cinchona Bungalow at Mongpho, and being a
stupid creature at the best, and doubly so during daylight when it had
no business to be abroad, was evidently considered fair game by the
Long-tailed Drongo and Swallow-Shrikes, and so awfully 'sat upon' by
them, that its life must have become a burden to it until it left
the place in despair of ever getting either peace or comfort about
Mongpho.

"They lay in April and May, and have but one brood in the year.
The nest is generally either built against a tall bamboo, well up,
supported on the branch of twigs at a node, or near the extremity of a
branch of a tree, sometimes on quite slender branches of young trees,
which get so tremendously wafted about by the wind as to make the
retention of the eggs or young in the nest appear almost miraculous.
When anyone meddles with the nest, the owners make bold dashes at the
head of the robber. The Darjeeling birds are not so knowing as their
fellows of Murree, the females of whom are said to sit on the
nests with their tails along the boughs so as to entirely conceal
themselves. I have seen dozens of the nests here, and never once saw
the female in this position, but always with her tail _across_ the
bough. The nest is a compact shallow cup, measuring externally 4.5
inches across by 1.75 in height, while the cavity is 3 inches in
diameter by about 1.2 in depth. It is made of twigs bound up with
cobwebs, among which a few lichens are intermingled. The lining is a
mixture of straw-coloured root-fibres and fine branchlets of the same
coloured grass-panicles."

Mr. Mandelli sent me nests of this species, which were taken, at
Ging, near Darjeeling, on the 26th April and on the 22nd May, the one
contained one fresh egg, the other three. They were both placed on
branches of large trees at heights of about 20 feet from the ground.
They are broad shallow cups, from 4 to 5 inches in diameter, about 2
in height, compactly composed of fine twigs and grass-stems, bound
together with cobwebs and with many pieces of lichen and some tiny dry
leaves worked in on the outer surface. Interiorly, they are lined with
very