The eggs of this species obtained by Mr. Gammie, though more elongated in shape and somewhat larger, very closely resemble in coloration the more ordinary type of the eggs of Dicrurus longicaudatus.  In shape they are elongated ovals, a good deal compressed towards the smaller end.  The shell is fine, but has scarcely any gloss.  The ground-colour is a moderately warm salmon-pink.  It is spotted, streaked, and blotched thickly about the large end (where there is a tendency to form a cap or zone), thinly elsewhere, with somewhat brownish red, or in some merely a darker shade of the ground-colour; where the markings are thickest about the large end, in some only one or two, in others numerous blotches and clouds of a dull inky purple are intermingled, and a few specks and spots of the same colour often occur elsewhere about the egg.

Two eggs measure 1.09 by 0.75, and a third measures 0.98 by 0.75.

340.  Dissemurus paradiseus (Linn.). The Larger Racket-tailed Drongo.

Edolius paradiseus (L.), Jerd.  B. Ind. i, p. 435.  Edolius inalabaricus (Scop.), Jerd. t.c. p. 437.  Dissemurus malabaroides (Hodgs.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 284.

Of the Larger Racket-tailed Drongo Dr. Jerdon tells us that he has “had its nest brought him several times at Darjeeling; rather a large structure of twigs and roots; and the eggs, usually three in number, pinkish white, with claret-coloured or purple spots, but they vary a great deal in size, form, and colouring.  They breed in April and May.”

The solitary egg that I possess of this species, given me by Dr. Jerdon, is probably an exceptionally small one.  It is a broad oval, tapering a good deal towards one end, a good deal smaller than the eggs of Chibia hottentotta, and not very much larger than some eggs of D. ater.  Its coloration, however, resembles that of Chibia hottentotta, and differs conspicuously, when compared with them (though it may be difficult to make this apparent by description), from those of the true Dicruri.  The ground-colour is a dead white, and it is very thinly speckled all over, a little more thickly towards the large end, with minute dots and spots, chiefly of a very pale inky purple, a very few only of the spots being a dark inky purple.  The texture of the egg is fine and close, but it is devoid of gloss.  This egg measures 1.1 by 0.87 inch.

Mr. Iver Macpherson writes from Mysore:—­

“Kakencotte State Forest, Mysore District.—­I send you six eggs, specimens from three different nests.

“This bird is very common in the heavy forests of the Mysore District, but the only nest I have ever found myself was on the 2nd May, 1880, and contained two or three young birds.  I could not distinctly see how many.  The nest was fixed towards the end of a branch of a tree, at a considerable height from the ground, and was almost impossible to get at.  Had there been eggs in it I could not have taken them.