Dicrurus nigrescens, Oates; Oates, B.I. i, p. 315.

Mr. Oates found the nest of this Drongo in Pegu.  He says:—­“I found one nest on the 27th April at Kyeikpadein, near the town of Pegu, on a small sapling near the summit.  It contained four eggs[A]; they are without gloss; the ground-colour in all is white.  In three eggs the whole shell is marked with spots of pale purple; these are perhaps more numerous at the thick end, but not conspicuously so.  The fourth egg is blotched, not spotted, with the same colour.

[Footnote A:  I recorded the nest and eggs of this bird under the name of Buchanga intermedia (S.F. v, p. 149).  The parent birds of these eggs are fortunately still in the British Museum, and I am able to identify them with this species, which occurs generally throughout Tenasserim and many parts of Lower Pegu.—­ED.]

“The nest is composed of fine twigs and the dry branches of weeds; it is lined very firmly and neatly with grass.  Exterior diameter 5 inches and depth 2; egg-chamber 31/2 inches across and 11/4 deep.  The outside of the nest is profusely covered with lichens and cobwebs.  The eggs measure from .83 to .95 in length, and .68 to .71 in width.”

330.  Dicrurus caerulescens (Linn.). The White-bellied Drongo.

Dicrurus caerulescens (L.), Jerd B. Ind i, p. 432.  Dicrurus caeruleus (Muell.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 281.

I have never seen a nest of the White-bellied Drongo.  Mr. R. Thompson says:—­“This bird’s breeding-habitat is from 2500 to 6000 feet in the Himalayas.  It is common on the south-eastern slopes of Nyneetal.  It lays in May and June, placing its shallow cup-shaped nest in some little fork near the top of a moderate-sized oak-tree, if breeding on a mountain-side, but of some tall Alnus nipalensis, Acacia elata, or Acer oblongum, if nesting in deep dells or valleys.  The nest appeared to be exactly like that of D. ater; but I can say nothing very positive about it or the eggs, as, though continually seeing them, I never, I think, took the trouble of getting one down.”

Colonel G.F.L.  Marshall, commenting on Mr. Thompson’s remark that this Drongo is common near Naini Tal, says:—­“My experience on this point is negative; I have carefully searched the south-eastern slopes of Naini Tal for four years without even seeing the bird, so that I do not think it can be classed as a common breeder here.”

Mr. J. Davidson informs us that on the 16th July he saw a brood of Dicrurus caerulescens on the Kondabhari Ghat, just able to fly.  Referring to Western Khandeish, he tells us that he saw only two nests.  They were on adjoining trees in the Akrani; they were largish nests, not like those of D. ater, but more resembling those of D. longicaudatus described in ‘Nests and Eggs.’  One nest contained three young ones, the other was only building; and nothing could have been more plucky than the way the old ones defended their nest.