Three nests of this species found early in June in Sikhim and Nepal, at elevations of 5000 to 8000 feet, contained respectively 2, 3, and 4 fresh eggs.  They were all placed in brushwood at 2 to 3 feet above the ground, and they are all precisely similar, being rather massive shallow cups, composed of very fine black roots firmly felted together, and with a few dead leaves or scraps of moss in most of them incorporated in one portion or other of the outer surface.  The nests are about 4 inches in diameter and 2 in height; the cavity is about 2 inches in diameter and 1 in depth; but, owing to the positions in which they are placed, they are often more or less irregularly shaped.

Mr. Mandelli obtained three eggs which he considers to belong to this species, on the 3rd June, near Darjeeling.  I rather question the authenticity of these eggs.  They are pure white and devoid of gloss, moderately elongated ovals, only slightly compressed towards the smaller end.  They vary from 0.83 to 0.91 in length and from 0.61 to 0.64 in breadth.

198.  Drymochares nepalensis (Hodgs.). The Nepal Short-wing.

Brachypteryx nipalensis, Hodgs., Jerd.  B. Ind. i, p. 494.

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:—­“A nest taken by me on the 15th of June at 5000 feet, close to a large forest, contained three slightly-set eggs.  It was placed on the moss-covered trunk of a fallen tree, and was hooded, with an entrance at the side; rather neatly made of dry leaves with an outer covering of green moss, and an inner lining of skeletonized leaves and black fibrous roots.  Externally it measures 5 inches in height by about the same in width; internally 3 inches high by 2.4 across.  The entrance was 2.3 in diameter.  The front of the egg-cavity is but slightly depressed below the entrance, gradually sloping backwards to the depth of nearly an inch.”

All the nests of this species that I have seen were of the same type, more or less globular, more or less hooded or domed, according to the situation in which they were placed, composed of dry flags and dead and more or less skeleton leaves, bound together with a little vegetable fibre and some moss, but chiefly with fine black fibrous roots, with which the entire cavity is densely lined, inside which again is a coating of more skeleton leaves; they measure exteriorly 4 or 5 inches in diameter, and the cavities are a little above 2 by 2.5 inches in diameter.

Mr. Mandelli found two of these nests at Lebong (elevation 5500 feet), near Darjeeling, on the 8th July.  One contained three fresh eggs, the other three slightly incubated ones.  They were about 12 yards apart, in a very shady damp glen, in very dense underwood, to the stems of which they were attached in a standing position about 3 feet from the ground.  The entrance was on one side in both cases.