Tephrodornis sylvicola, _Jerd., Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 409; _Hume, cat._
no. 204.
Major M. Forbes Coussmaker has furnished me with the following note on
the nidification of the Malabar Wood-Shrike:--"I took the nest of this
bird on April 13th, 1875. It was composed of fine roots and fibres,
neatly woven into a shallow cup-like nest, secured to the fork of
a horizontal bough and fixed in its place with cobweb, and covered
externally with lichen corresponding to that on the bough. It measured
4·2 inches in diameter externally, and 2·4 internally and ·7 deep.
Both parent birds were shot. The eggs two in number, rather round,
coloured white with faint inky and brown spots."
One of these eggs is a very regular oval, the shell fine but
glossless, the ground-colour white, with a faint greenish tinge; round
the large end is a pretty conspicuous zone of black or blackish-brown
and pale inky purple spots and small blotches, and similar spots and
blotches of the same colour are somewhat sparsely scattered over the
rest of the surface of the egg. The egg measured 0·98 by 0·73.