In length they vary from 0.88 to 0.93 inch, and in breadth from 0.72 to 0.75 inch; but the average of five eggs is 0.9 by 0.72 inch.

494.  Pericrocotus flammeus (Forst.). The Orange Minivet.

Pericrocotus flammeus (Forst.), Jerd.  B. Ind. i, p. 420; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 272.

The Orange Minivet lays, I believe, in June and July on the Nilghiris.  I have never taken a nest myself, but I have received several, with a few words in regard to them, from Miss Cockburn.

The nests are comparatively massive little cups placed on, or sometimes in, the forks of slender boughs.  They are usually composed of excessively fine twigs, the size of fir-needles, and they are densely plastered over the whole exterior surface with greenish-grey lichen, so closely and cleverly put together that the side of the nest looks exactly like a piece of a lichen-covered branch.  There appears to be no lining, and the eggs are laid on the fine little twigs which compose the body of the nest.

The nests are externally from 3 to 31/4 inches in diameter, and about 11/2 inch deep, with an egg-cavity about 2 inches in diameter and about 3/4 inch in depth.  Some, however, when placed in a fork are much deeper and narrower, say externally 21/2 inches in diameter and the same height; the egg-cavity about 13/4 inch in diameter and 11/4 inch in depth.

Miss Cockburn notes that one nest was found on the 24th of June on a high tree, the nest being placed on a thin branch between 30 or 40 feet from the ground.  It contained a single fresh egg, which was broken in the fall of the branch, which had to be cut.  This egg, the remains of which were sent me, had a pale greenish ground, and was pretty thickly streaked and spotted, most thickly so at the large end, with pale yellowish brown and pale rather dingy-purple, the latter colour predominating.

Another egg which she subsequently sent me, obtained on the 17th of July, is a regular, moderately elongated oval, a little pointed towards one end.  The shell is fine, but glossless.  The ground is a delicate pale sea-green or greenish white, and it is rather sparsely spotted and speckled with pale yellowish brown.  Only one or two purplish-grey specks are to be detected on this egg; it measures 0.9 by 0.67.

Mr. J. Darling, junior, sends me the following note:—­“I had the good fortune to find a nest of the Orange Minivet at Neddivattam, about 6000 feet above the level of the sea, on the 5th September, 1870.  It was placed on a tall tree near the edge of a jungle and was built in a fork, about 30 feet from the ground.

“The nest was built of small twigs and grasses, and covered on the outside with lichens, moss, and cobwebs, making it appear as part and parcel of the tree.  I noticed it merely from the fact of seeing the bird sitting on her nest, and even then could not make up my mind, and came away.  Being of an inquisitive nature, next day I went again and saw the bird in the same place, so I climbed up and managed to pull the nest towards me with a hook, and took two eggs, one of which I send you.