In the type with the pinky-white ground, large or small spots often occur about the large end of a deep purple colour, so deep as to be almost black, and but for the absence of gloss some of these paler eggs are very close to those of some of the Orioles. Intermediate varieties between the two types above described occur, but in not one of more than sixty specimens that I have examined has there been any perceptible gloss.
The eggs vary in length from 0·85 to 1·01 inch, and in breadth from 0·7 to 0·75 inch, but the average of fifty-one eggs is 0·95 by 0·74 inch.
329. Dicrurus nigrescens, Oates. The Tenasserim Ashy Drongo.
Dicrurus nigrescens, Oates; Oates, B.I. i, p. 315.
Mr. Oates found the nest of this Drongo in Pegu. He says:—"I found one nest on the 27th April at Kyeikpadein, near the town of Pegu, on a small sapling near the summit. It contained four eggs[A]; they are without gloss; the ground-colour in all is white. In three eggs the whole shell is marked with spots of pale purple; these are perhaps more numerous at the thick end, but not conspicuously so. The fourth egg is blotched, not spotted, with the same colour.
[Footnote A: I recorded the nest and eggs of this bird under the name of Buchanga intermedia (S.F. v, p. 149). The parent birds of these eggs are fortunately still in the British Museum, and I am able to identify them with this species, which occurs generally throughout Tenasserim and many parts of Lower Pegu.—ED.]
"The nest is composed of fine twigs and the dry branches of weeds; it is lined very firmly and neatly with grass. Exterior diameter 5 inches and depth 2; egg-chamber 3½ inches across and 1¼ deep. The outside of the nest is profusely covered with lichens and cobwebs. The eggs measure from ·83 to ·95 in length, and ·68 to ·71 in width."
330. Dicrurus caerulescens (Linn.). The White-bellied Drongo.
Dicrurus caerulescens (L.), Jerd B. Ind i, p. 432. Dicrurus caeruleus (Müll.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 281.
I have never seen a nest of the White-bellied Drongo. Mr. R. Thompson says:—"This bird's breeding-habitat is from 2500 to 6000 feet in the Himalayas. It is common on the south-eastern slopes of Nyneetal. It lays in May and June, placing its shallow cup-shaped nest in some little fork near the top of a moderate-sized oak-tree, if breeding on a mountain-side, but of some tall Alnus nipalensis, Acacia elata, or Acer oblongum, if nesting in deep dells or valleys. The nest appeared to be exactly like that of D. ater; but I can say nothing very positive about it or the eggs, as, though continually seeing them, I never, I think, took the trouble of getting one down."