Three is, I believe, the normal number of the eggs.  I extract a couple of old notes I made in regard to the nests of this species:—­“August 5th.—­Took three eggs of this bird, shooting the two old birds at the same time.  The tree was a mango, the nest was in the fork of a branch, some 40 feet from the ground, built interiorly with very small twigs, with here and there a very few feathers intermixed, and was exteriorly coated with fine flakes of bark held in their place by gossamer threads.  It was cup-shaped, with an interior diameter of 1-7/8 by 3/4 inch.

“The eggs had a slightly greenish-white ground, thickly spotted and speckled, and towards the larger end blotched, with somewhat brownish red; the markings showing a decided tendency to form a zone round, or cap at the larger end.”

“Allygurh, August 27th.—­Another beautiful little nest in a mango-tree high up, a tiny cup about 11/2 inch internal diameter by 3/4 inch deep, woven with very fine twigs, and exteriorly coated with tiny fragments of bark and dead leaves firmly secured in their places with gossamer threads and cobwebs.  It contained two fresh eggs; a pale slightly greenish-white ground, richly speckled and spotted and sparsely blotched with a purplish and a brownish red, the markings greatly predominating towards the larger end.”

Mr. F.R.  Blewitt, detailing his experiences in Jhansie and Saugor, says:—­“Breeds in June and July.  The tamarind-tree is by preference chosen by this bird for its nest; at least the three I saw were all on tamarind-trees.  The nest, cup-shaped, is a compactly made structure; the exterior appeared to be composed of the very fine petioles of leaves, with a thick coating all over of what looked like spider’s web; attached to this web-like substance here and there, for better disguise, were the dry leaves of the tamarind-tree; the lining of very fine grass.  The outer diameter of a nest may fairly be given at 2.2 inches, inner at 1.8, depth of nest 0.9.  Two is the regular number of eggs, at least that was the number in the three nests I took.  In colour they are of a pale greenish white, sparingly speckled on the narrower half of the egg with brownish spots, but they have on the broader half the spots more dense, and forming at the end a more or less complete cap.  The feat of securing a nest is a most hazardous one, for it is always fixed close in between two delicate forks at the extreme end of a slight side-branch near to the top of the tree.  On each occasion that the nest was detected the male bird was found flitting about near to it, the female all the while sitting on the eggs.  On the last two occasions of finding the nests, it was this flitting to and fro of the male that attracted us; otherwise the nest, is so small that from the ground the eye can scarcely distinguish it from the branch.  The bird appears to be migratory, for since the termination of the breeding-season it has disappeared from these parts.”