Colonel Butler writes:—"A nest on the 17th August, 1880, on the outside branch of a silk-cotton tree in Belgaum about 12 feet from the ground, containing three fresh eggs.
"I found many other nests building all through the hot weather and rains; but in every single instance except the present one they were deserted before they were completed."
Major Bingham writes from Tenasserim:—"This species is common throughout the country. As a rule its nest is well hid, but one I saw in the compound of a house in Maulmain was placed in the exposed leafless fork of a tree, not above six feet from the ground. It contained no eggs when I examined it, and was deserted a day or two after. This was in the beginning of May."
Mr. Oates remarks on the breeding of this bird in Pegu:—"Nests are found chiefly in June and July, but the birds probably lay also in May."
In shape the eggs are moderately broad ovals, slightly pointed towards one end. They vary, however, a good deal, some being much more elongated than others. They are almost entirely devoid of gloss. The ground-colour is generally greyish white, but some have creamy and some a salmon tinge; typically they have numerous long streaky pale brown or reddish-brown blotches, chiefly confined to the large end, where they often seem to spring from an irregular imperfect zone of the same colour. The colour of the blotches varies a good deal. In some it is a pale greyish or purplish brown; in others decidedly reddish, or even well-marked and somewhat yellowish brown. Some pale, purplish streaks and clouds generally underlie the brown blotches where they are thickest, and there form a kind of nimbus. In some eggs the markings are confined to a narrow imperfect zone of pale purplish specks or very tiny blotches round the large end, and some of the eggs remind one of those of Leucocerca albifrontata. The peculiar streaky longitudinal character of the markings, almost wholly confined to the large end, best distinguishes the eggs of the Ioras from those of any other Indian bird with which they are likely to be confounded.
In length they vary from 0·63 to 0·76, and in breadth from 0·51 to 0·57: but the average of forty-seven eggs measured is 0·69, nearly, by a trifle more than 0·54.
246. Myzornis pyrrhura, Hodgs. The Fire-tailed Myzornis.
Myzornis pyrrboura, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 263; Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E. no. 629.
I have received a single egg said to belong to the Fire-tailed Myzornis from Native Sikhim, where it was found in May in a small nest (unfortunately mislaid) which was placed on a branch of a large tree at no great height from the ground. The place where it was found had an elevation of about 10,000 feet. Although the parent bird was sent with the egg, I cannot say that I have any great confidence in its authenticity, and only record the matter quantum valeat.
The egg is a very regular, rather elongated oval. The egg was never properly blown and has been consequently somewhat discoloured. It may have been pure white, and it may have been fairly glossy when fresh, but it is now a dull ivory-white with scarcely any gloss. It measured 0·68 in length by 0·5 in breadth.