The eggs sent by Mr. Gammie very much recall the eggs of Niltava and others of the Flycatchers.  They are moderately elongated ovals, in some cases slightly pyriform, in others somewhat pointed towards the small end.  The shell is fine and compact, smooth and silky to the touch, but they have but little gloss.  The ground-colour varies from a pale pinkish fawn to a pale salmon-pink, and they exhibit round the large end a feeble more or less imperfect and irregular zone of darker-coloured cloudy spots, in some cases reddish, in some rather inclining to purple, which zone is more or less involved in a haze of the same colour, but slightly darker than the rest of the ground-colour of the egg.

The eggs vary in length from 0.76 to 0.88, and in breadth from 0.6 to 0.64.  The average of fifteen eggs is 0.82 by 0.61.

335.  Chibia hottentotta (Linn.). The Hair-crested Drongo.

Chibia hottentota (L.), Jerd.  B. Ind. i, p. 439; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 286.

Mr. R. Thompson says:—­“The Hair-crested Drongo is extremely common as a breeder in all our hot valleys (Kumaon and Gurwhal).  It lays in May and June, building in forks of branches of small leafy trees situated in warm valleys having an elevation of from 2000 to 2500 feet.  The nest is circular, about 5 inches in diameter, rather deep and hollow; it is composed of fine roots and fibres bound together with cobwebs, and it is lined with hairs and fine roots.  They lay from three to four much elongated, purplish-white eggs, spotted with pink or claret colour.”

Dr. Jerdon remarks:—­“The Lepchas at Darjeeling brought me the nest, which was said to have been placed high up in a large tree; it was composed of twigs and roots and a few bits of grass, and contained two eggs, livid white, with purplish and claret spots, and of a very elongated form.”

The Jobraj, according to Mr. Hodgson’s notes and figures, begins to lay in Nepal in April.  It builds a large shallow nest, 8 or 9 inches in diameter externally, with the cavity of about half that diameter, attached, as a rule, to the slender branches of some horizontal fork, between which it is suspended much like that of an Oriole, though much shallower than this latter; it is composed of small twigs, fine roots, and grass-stems bound together, and it is attached to the branches by vegetable fibre, and more or less coated with cobwebs; little pieces of lichen and moss are also blended in the nest.  It lays three or four eggs, rather pyriform in shape, measuring 1.25 by 0.86 inch, with a whitish or pinky-whitish ground, speckled and spotted pretty well all over, but most densely towards the large end, with reddish pink.