I have been favoured with nests of the Rufous-bellied Short-wing by Mr. Carter, who took them from holes or depressions of banks in the Nilghiris in April and May.  They closely resemble nests of Niltava macrigoriae from Darjeeling.  They are soft masses of green moss, some 4 or 5 inches in diameter externally, with more or less of a depression towards one side, lined with very fine dark moss-roots.  This depression may average about 21/2 inches across and 3/4 inch in depth; but they vary a good deal.  Mr. Carter says:—­“I have found the nests of this species about Conoor in May, in holes of banks, on roads running through thick sholas (i.e. jungles not amounting to forests).  The nests are of moss, shallow, lined with fine root-fibres, the cavity about 3-5 inches in diameter.  They lay two eggs, pale olive, shading into a decided brownish red at the larger end.  The old birds are very shy in returning to the nest when watched; indeed, they are always shy, hiding in the brushwood of jungles or amongst fallen timber, along which they almost creep.”

Mr. Davison informs me that “this species breeds on the Nilghiris from about 5500 feet to about 7000 during April and May, building in holes of trees, crevices of rocks, &c., seldom at any great elevation above the ground.  The nest is composed of moss, lined with moss and fern-roots.  Two or three eggs are laid.”

The few eggs I possess, which I owe to Messrs. Carter and Davison, and which were taken by them in the Nilghiris, have a pale olive-brown ground with, at the large end, an ill-defined mottled reddish-brown cap.  In some specimens the mottling extends more or less over the whole egg, though always most dense about the larger end.  Though much larger and of a more elongated shape, they not a little resemble some specimens of the eggs of Pratincola indica that I possess.  In shape they are long ovals, recalling in that respect those of Myiophoneus temmincki; they have less gloss than the eggs of most of the Thrushes.

In length they vary from 0.97 to 1.02 inch, and in breadth from 0.65 to 0.69 inch.

197.  Drymochares cruralis (Blyth). The White-browed Short-wing

Brachypteryx cruralis (Bl.), Jerd.  B. Ind. i, p. 495; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 338.

According to Mr. Hodgson’s notes and drawings, the White-browed Short-wing breeds in April and May.  It constructs its nest a foot or so above the ground amongst grass and creeping-plants at the base of trunks of trees; it is composed of moss and moss-roots, is somewhat globular in shape, and is firmly attached to the creepers; dried bamboo-leaves and pieces of fern are here and there fixed to the exterior, and the nest is lined with hair-like fibres; the entrance is at one side and circular.  One nest measured 7 inches in height, 5.5 in width, and 3.38 from front to back.  The aperture was 2 inches in diameter.  The eggs (four in number, or at times three) are pure white, broad ovals, pointed at one end, measuring 0.9 by 0.65 inch.  This species breeds in the central regions of Nepal and in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling.