The eggs of this species obtained by Mr. Gammie belong to the same type as those of Brachypteryx rufiventris and B. albiventris.  In shape they are moderately elongated, rather regular ovals, somewhat obtuse at both ends.  The shell is fine and compact, and very smooth to the touch, but they have not much gloss.  The ground is a pale olive stone-colour, and they are very minutely freckled and mottled, most densely at the large end, with pale, very slightly reddish brown; the freckling is excessively minute and fine.

Two eggs measured 0.8 and 0.82 in length by 0.6 in breadth.

200.  Elaphrornis palliseri (Blyth). The Ceylon Short-wing.

Brachypteryx palliseri, Bl., Hume, cat. no. 338 bis.

Colonel Legge, writing in his ‘Birds of Ceylon,’ says:—­“Mr. Bligh found a nest at Nuwara Eliya in April 1870; it was placed in a thick cluster of branches on the top of a somewhat densely-foliaged small bush, which stood in a rather open space near the foot of a large tree; it was in shape a deep cup, composed of greenish moss, lined with fibrous roots and the hair-like appendages of the green moss which festoons the trees in such abundance at that elevation.  It contained three young ones, plumaged exactly like their parents, who kept churring in the thick bushes close by, but would not show themselves much.”

201.  Tesia cyaniventris, Hodgs. The Slaty-bellied Short-wing.

Tesia cyaniventer, Hodgs., Jerd, B. Ind. i, p. 487; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 328.

According to Mr. Hodgson’s notes, the Slaty-bellied Short-wing breeds much like the next species.  It constructs a huge globular nest of green moss and black moss-roots, which it fixes in any dense dry shrub or clump of shoots, many of which it incorporates in the walls of the nest.  The nest measures externally about 7 inches in height and 5 inches in width; it has a circular aperture on one side, a little above the middle, about 2 inches in diameter, and it is placed at a height of one or two feet from the ground.  Three or four eggs are laid; these are figured as rather broad ovals, somewhat pointed towards one end, with a whitish ground, profusely speckled and spotted, especially towards the large end, where the markings are nearly confluent, with bright red, and measuring 0.72 by 0.54 inch.

202.  Oligura castaneicoronata (Burt.). The Chestnut-headed Short-wing.

Tesia castaneo-coronata (Burt.), Jerd.  E. Ind. i, p. 487; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 327.

According to Mr. Hodgson’s notes and figures, the Chestnut-headed Short-wing builds a large globular nest, more or less egg-shaped, some 6 inches high and 4 in breadth, composed of moss-roots and fibres, and lined with feathers, and with a circular aperture in the middle of one side about 1.5 inch in diameter.  The nest is placed in some clump of shoots or thick bush (the twigs of which are more or less incorporated in the sides of the nest) at a height of 1 or 2 feet from the ground.  The birds lay in April and May three or four eggs, which are figured as moderately broad ovals, somewhat pointed at one end, reddish (apparently something like a Prinia’s, though this seems incredible), and measuring 0.66 by 0.48 inch.