g, are always composed interiorly of finer material than that
used for the outer portion of the structure. Exteriorly the diameter
varies from 6 to nearly 7 inches, the height from nearly 2 to 21/2; the
cavity is usually about 4 inches in diameter and 1.5 to 1.75 in depth.
I have taken the nests in May and June alike in small and large trees,
at elevations of from 10 to 30 feet from the ground.

Typically the eggs are rather broad ovals, a good deal pointed towards
the small end, but they vary a great deal both in size and shape, are
occasionally very much elongated, and again, at times, exhibit the
characteristic pointing but feebly. The ground-colour varies from
greyish white to a delicate pale pink; as a rule the markings are
small and inconspicuous frecklings and specklings of pale purple
reddish where the ground, is pink, greyish where it is white,
tolerably thickly set about the large end and somewhat sparsely
elsewhere; but in some eggs these markings are everywhere almost
obsolete. In many there is a dull pale purplish cloud underlying the
primary markings, extending over the greater part of the large end of
the egg. Not uncommonly a few specks and spots of yellowish brown
are scattered here and there about the egg. In one egg before me the
markings are larger, more decided, and fewer in number--distinct
spots, some of them one tenth of an inch in diameter; and in this egg
the spots are decidedly brownish red, while intermixed with, them are
a few specks and clouds of inky purple. The ground in this case is a
pale pinky white.

As a rule the eggs are entirely devoid of gloss, but one or two have a
very faint gloss.

The eggs measure from 1.01 to 1.21 in length, and from 0.79 to 0.86 in
breadth; but the average of twenty-nine eggs is 1.12 by 0.81.

338. Dissemurulus lophorhinus (Vieill.). _The Ceylon Black Drongo_.

Dissemuroides lophorhinus (V.), _Hume, cat._ no. 283 quat.

Colonel Legge says, in his 'Birds of Ceylon':--"This species breeds in
the south of Ceylon in the beginning of April. I have seen the young
just able to fly in the Opate forests at the end of this month; but I
have not succeeded in getting any information concerning its nest or
eggs."

339. Bhringa remifer (Temm.). _The Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo_.

Bhringa remifer (_Temm._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 434.
Bhringa tenuirostris, _Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 283.

Of the Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo Mr. R. Thompson says:--"