The three eggs sent me by Captain Hutton appear to differ somewhat
conspicuously from any other eggs of the _Laniidae_ that I have yet
seen. The ground-colour is a very pale greenish white, and they are
moderately thickly freckled and mottled all over, but most densely
towards the large end (where, in one egg, there is a well-marked,
though somewhat irregular, zone), with pale brownish pink and very
pale purple. In shape the eggs are very regular, rather broad ovals,
and appear to have but little or no gloss. They vary in length from
0.66 to 0.7 inch, and in breadth from 0.53 to 0.55 inch.

Dr. Jerdon's evidence, so far as it goes, tallies with Captain
Hutton's account. He says:--"I obtained its nest once at Darjeeling,
made of roots and grasses, with three greenish-white eggs, having a
few rusty-red spots."

From Sikhim, Mr. Gammie writes:--"At page 178 of 'Nests and Eggs of
Indian Birds' (Rough Draft), Captain T. Hutton's description of the
nest and eggs of _Hemipus picatus_ is given, and at page 179 that of
Mr. W. Davison. The two descriptions differ so radically that, as
there remarked, one of the two must be in error. Permit me to record
my limited experience of the nesting of this bird.

"Common as it is in Sikhim I have but once taken its nest, and that in
the first week of May, at 4000 feet elevation. The nest, which is well
described by Mr. Davison, is made of black, fibry roots, sparingly
lined with fine grass-stalks, and covered outwardly with small
pieces of lichens bound to the sides with cobwebs. It is a very neat
diminutive cup, measuring externally 1.9 inch across by an inch deep;
internally 1.5 by half an inch.

"The whole nest, although quite a substantially built structure, is
barely the eighth part of an ounce in weight. It was placed on the
upper side of a horizontal branch close to its broken end, about
fifteen feet from the ground, and contained two fresh eggs. I send
you the nest and an egg, both of which will, I think, be found on
comparison to agree exactly with those taken by Mr. Davison."

Mr. Mandelli has sent me two nests of this species, found on the 15th
August above Namtchu in Native Sikhim. They were placed about two feet
from each other, each in a small fork of the branches of a small tree
which was situated in heavy forest. Each contained two fresh eggs.
The nests are very similar, but one is rather larger and less tidily
finished-off than the other. Both are shallow cups, min