Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing of South India, says, in ’The Ibis’:—­“It breeds in holes of trees, preferring the deserted ones excavated by Megalama caniceps.  The nest is built of moss, and lined with the fluff of hares and soft feathers.  The eggs are always four in number, spotted with pinkish red on a white ground, the spots being more numerous towards the larger end.  They breed in March.  Dimensions, 0.71 inch long by 0.57 broad,”

Mr. Mandelli sent me a small pad-like nest of this species found on the 4th May in Native Sikhim.  It was placed in a hollow of a trunk of a large tree about 3 feet from the ground.  It is composed of very fine moss felted together with a little fine vegetable fibre, and the upper surface coated with a little fine short silky fur, probably that of a rat.

Major Bingham, writing from Tenasserim, says:—­“Fairly common in the Thoungyeen valley.  On the 18th February I found a nest in a hole in a branch of a pynkado tree (Xylia dolabrifomis), but I was too early for eggs.”

One egg of this very beautiful species was sent me by Miss Cockburn.  It is intermediate in size and colour between those of the European Creeper and Nuthatch, while at the same time it strongly recalls the eggs of Parus atriceps.  In shape the egg is a broad oval (not quite so broad, however, as those of the European Nuthatch are), slightly compressed towards one end.  The ground-colour is white, and the egg is blotched, speckled, and spotted, chiefly, however, in a sort of irregular zone round the large end, with brickdust-red and somewhat pale purple.  The shell is fine and compact, but devoid of gloss.  The egg measures 0.08 by 0.55 inch.

Three other eggs from the Sikhim Terai measure 0.68 by 0.51.

Family DICRURIDAE.

327.  Dicrurus ater (Hermann). The Black Drongo.

Dicrurus macrocercus (V.), Jerd.  B. Ind. i, p. 427. 
Buchanga albirictus, Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 278.

The Black Drongo or Common King-Crow lays throughout India, at any rate in the plain country; it does not appear to breed either in the Himalayas or the Nilghiris at any height exceeding 5000 feet.

A few eggs may be found towards the close of April, and again during the first week of August, but May, June, and July are the months.

It builds usually pretty high up in tall trees, in some fork not quite at the outside, constructing a broad shallow cup, and lays normally four eggs, although I have found five.  Elsewhere I have recorded the following in regard to its nidification:—­