Dicrurus longicaudatus, _A. Hay, Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 430. Buchanga longicaudata (_A. Hay), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 280. The Indian Ashy Drongo, a species that, with the really large series before me from all parts of India, I find it impossible to subdivide into two or more species, breeds alike in the plains, in well-watered and wooded districts, and in the Himalayas up to an elevation of 6000 to 7000 feet, and lays during the months of May and June. They build generally in large trees, at a considerable height from the ground, placing their somewhat shallow cup-shaped nests in some slender fork towards the summit or exterior of the tree. The nest is neatly and firmly built, of fine grass-stems, slender twigs, and grass-roots, closely interwoven, and externally bound together with cobwebs, in which, as in the body of the nest, lichens of several species are much intermingled. Exteriorly the nests are from 4 to 5 inches in diameter, and from 2 to 2½ in height. Interiorly they are lined with moss, roots, hairs, and fine grass; the cavity measuring from 3 to 3·5 inches in breadth, and from 1·1 to 1·4 inch in depth. The normal number of the eggs is four. Mr. Brooks says:--"The nest is usually fixed on the upper surface of a thin branch about 15 to 20 feet from the ground, and at its junction with another branch, the nest being partly embedded in the fork of two _horizontal_ branches. It is composed of grass, fibres, and roots, and lined with finer grasses and a few hairs. The nest is broader and much shallower than that of _D. ater_; outside it is covered with spiders' webs and small bits of lichen. "The eggs are four in number, sometimes only three, and vary much in size, shape, and colour; size 1·0 by 0·7 inch: some are buff, blotched with light reddish brown and pale purple-grey; others are lighter buff, almost white in fact, spotted and marked more sparingly than the first described with the same two colours, but each of a darker tint; others are white, marked sparingly with spots and blotches of dark purple-brown and reddish brown, and intermixed with larger blotches of deep purple-grey, the markings principally forming a zone at the larger end. Others, again, are pale purplish white, spotted with dark and light purple-brown, and intermixed with spots and blotches of purple-grey. The shape of the egg varies as much as the colouring, some being of a fine oval form, while others are quite pyriform. Laying in Kumaon from the middle to end of May." As I shall notice further on, I think that Mr. Brooks is mistaken about some of his eggs.