Mr. Wait, writing from Conoor, says that “Z. palpebrosa breeds in April and May, building in bushes and shrubs, and making a deep round cup-shaped nest very neatly woven in the style of the Chaffinch, composed of moss, grass, and silk cotton, and sparsely lined with very fine grass and hair.  The eggs are two in number, of a roundish oval shape, and a pale greenish-blue colour.”

Finally Colonel Legge informs us that this species breeds in Ceylon in June, July, and August.

The eggs are somewhat lengthened ovals (occasionally rather broader), and a good deal pointed towards the small end.  The shell is very fine but almost glossless; here and there a somewhat more glossy egg is met with.  They are normally of a uniform very pale blue or greenish blue, without any markings whatsoever, but once in a way an egg is seen characterized by a cap or zone of a somewhat purer and deeper blue.  Abnormally large and small specimens are common.  They vary in length from 0.53 to 0.7, and in breadth from 0.42 to 0.58; but the average of thirty-eight eggs is 0.62 by 0.47, and the great majority of the eggs are really about this size.

229.  Zosterops ceylonensis, Holdsworth. The Ceylon White-eye.

Zosterops ceylonensis, Holdsw., Hume, cat. no. 631 bis.

Colonel Legge, referring to the nidification of the Ceylon White-eye, says:—­“This species breeds from March until May, judging from the young birds which are seen abroad about the latter month.  Mr. Bligh found the nest in March on Catton Estate.  It was built in a coffee-bush a few feet from the ground, and was a rather frail structure, suspended from the arms of a small fork formed by one bare twig crossing another.  In shape it was a shallow cup, well made of small roots and bents, lined with hair-like tendrils of moss, and was adorned about the exterior with a few cobwebs and a little moss.  The eggs were three in number, pointed ovals, and of a pale bluish-green ground-colour.  They measured, on the average, .64 by .45 inch.”

231.  Ixulus occipitalis (Bl.) The Chestnut-headed Ixulus.

Ixulus occipitalis (Bl.), Jerd.  B. Ind. ii, p. 250; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 624.

A nest of this species, taken by Mr. Gammie out of a small tree below Rungbee, at an elevation of about 3000 feet, was a small, somewhat shallow cup, composed almost entirely of very fine moss-roots, but with a little moss incorporated in the outer surface.  Externally the nest was about 31/2 inches in diameter and 2 inches in height.  The egg-cavity was about 21/4 inches by barely 11/4 inch.  This nest was found on the 17th June and contained three hard-set eggs, which were thrown away!

232.  Ixulus flavicollis (Hodgs.). The Yellow-naped Ixulus.

Ixulus flavicollis (Hodgs.), Jerd.  B. Ind. ii. p. 259; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 623.

I have never taken a nest of the Yellow-naped Ixulus.