fine hair-like grass-stems. The saucer-like cavities are about 3
inches in diameter and about 11/4 in depth.

Dr. Jerdon says:--"I found its nest on one occasion, in April, in
Lower Malabar. It was shallow and loosely made with roots, and lined
with hair, about 20 feet from the ground, on the fork of a tree; and
it contained three eggs of a pinkish-white colour, with some longish
rusty or brick-red spots."

There are two very strongly marked types of this bird's eggs. The eggs
of both types are moderately broad, or, at most, somewhat elongated
ovals, and comparatively devoid of gloss. The first, in its colouring,
exactly resembles the eggs of _Caprimulgus indicus_; a pinkish
salmon-coloured ground, streaked, blotched, and clouded, but nowhere
densely (except towards the large end, where there is a tendency to
form a cap or zone), with reddish pink, not differing widely in hue
from, though deeper in shade than, the ground-colour. Here and there,
where the markings are thickest, under-clouds of very faint purple
occur, but these are too feeble to attract attention, unless the egg
is looked into closely. In the other type of egg, the ground-colour
is pale pinkish white, pretty boldly blotched and spotted almost
exclusively towards the large end, where there is a broad irregular
imperfect zone, with brownish red, intermingled with blotches of very
faint inky purple. My description possibly fails to make this as
apparent as it should be, but no two eggs can, to a casual observer,
appear more distinct than these two types. There is yet, according to
Mr. Brooks, a third type of this bird's eggs; of this he has given me
a single example. In shape it is excessively long and narrow, of the
type of the eggs of _Chibia hottentotta_, but its coloration and
character of markings are unlike those of any Shrike or Drongo with
which I am acquainted, and exactly resemble those of many types of the
eggs of the several Bulbuls. The ground-colour is pinkish white, and
is thickly speckled and spotted throughout with primary markings of
rich brownish red, and feeble secondary ones of excessively pale
inky purple. This egg, moreover, possesses a degree of gloss never
observable in those of the _Dicruri_, and therefore, well assured
though Mr. Brooks is of the parentage of this egg which he took with
his own hands, I feel confident, having since obtained many eggs
of _Hypsipetes psaroides_ which are exactly similar to this last
described egg