219.  Siva strigula, Hodgs. The Stripe-throated Siva.

Siva strigula. Hodgs., Jerd.  B. Ind. ii. p. 252; Hume, Rough Draft
N. & E. no. 616.

The nest of the Stripe-throated Siva is placed, according to Mr. Hodgson, in the slender fork of a tree at no great elevation from the ground.  It is composed of moss and moss-roots, intermingled with dry bamboo-leaves, and woven into a broad compact cup-shaped nest.  One such nest, taken on the 27th May, with three eggs in it, measured exteriorly 4.25 in diameter and 3 inches in height, with a cavity (thickly lined with cow’s hair) about 2.5 in diameter and 2.25 in depth.  The birds lay in May and June.  The eggs are three or sometimes four in number; they are pale greenish blue or bluish green, and vary in length from 0.8 to 0.9, and in breadth from 0.6 to 0.65, and are, some thickly, some thinly, speckled and freckled, usually most densely towards the large end, with red or brownish red.  His nests were taken both in Sikhim and Nepal.

221.  Siva cyanuroptera, Hodgs. The Blue-winged Siva.

Siva cyanouroptera, Hodgs., Jerd.  B. Ind. ii, p. 253; Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E. no. 617.

The Blue-winged Siva breeds, according to Mr. Hodgson’s notes, in the central regions of Nepal, and in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling, in May and June.  The nest is placed in trees, at no great elevation above the ground, and is wedged in where three or four slender twigs make a convenient fork.  A nest taken on the 2nd June was a large compact cup, measuring exteriorly 4.75 in diameter and 3.75 in height, and having a cavity 2.6 in diameter and 1.87 in depth.  It was composed of fine stems of grass, dry leaves, moss, and moss-roots, bound together with pieces of creepers, roots, and vegetable fibres, and closely lined with fine grass-roots.  They lay from three to four eggs, which are figured as moderately broad ovals, considerably pointed towards the small end, 0.85 in length by 0.6 in width, having a pale greenish ground pretty thickly speckled and spotted, especially on the broader half of the egg, with a kind of brownish brick-red.

Mr. Mandelli found a nest of this species at Lebong (elevation 5500 feet) on the 28th April.  It contained four fresh eggs; it was placed in a fork of a horizontal branch of a small tree at a height of only 3 feet from the ground.  The nest is, for the size of the bird, a large cup, externally entirely composed of green moss firmly felted together.  This outer shell of moss is thickly lined with the dead leaves of a Polypodium, and this again is thinly lined with fine grass.  The nest was about 4 inches in diameter, and 2.5 in height externally; the cavity was about 2.5 broad and 1.5 deep.