Rhopodytes tristis (Less.).
The Large Green - billed Malkoha.

Zanclostomus tristis (Less.), Jerd. B. Lid. i, p. 34.5; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 215.

Dr. Jerdon says : -“The eggs were brought to me at Darjeeling, two in number, pure white, and of a long oval form. I did not see the nest, which was said to be a large mass of sticks and roots. I took another similar egg from the oviduct of a female which I shot."

Mr. Davison obtained an egg of this species which he extracted from the oviduct of a female killed at Meeta Myo, Tavoy District, Tenasserim, on the 20th April, 1874.

The egg is almost cylindrical in shape, excessively obtuse at both ends, and very little curved on the sides. The shell is rather chalky, and though tolerably smooth and soft to the touch is entirely devoid of gloss. The colour is pure white, and the egg measures 1.36 in length by 1.05 in width.

In 1875 both Mr. Cripps in Sylhet and Mr. Gammie in Sikhim found nests and took the eggs.

The following is Mr. Cripps's account : -" Sylhet, 12th May, 1875. A female was shot off the nest; this was placed on a small tree (about 4 feet off the ground on top of a teelah in amongst tea - bushes, although heavy jungle was alongside) in a fork where several branches originated, and was a very slight structure, carelessly made, consisting of twigs over which a layer of green leaves had been placed. These were dry, though when I got them the nest was more a scaffolding than anything else ; the chicks were half - formed, the egg - shells have been considerably soiled from the bird's droppings. On the 18th May another nest was found; this time in heavy tree - jungle, about 12 feet off the ground; the nest was the same as the foregoing, and contained only one fresh egg. During the breeding - season this bird's call, a low sweet hoot, is heard every now and then.

"On the 30th June 1875, a female, with three eggs, was brought to me with the nest, which was placed in the fork of a small tree (about 15 feet high) where three branches met and some 6 feet off the ground. A number of the small living twigs had been bent down, and over these was placed a layer of twigs overlaid with a layer, 1| inch thick, of leaves which had been plucked green. There was hardly any egg - cavity perceptible ; the eggs were partly incubated."

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes  : -" On the 10th May a native brought me a nest containing three partially - incubated eggs, and a female of this species which he said he had caught ou it. The nest, he said) was placed in the middle of a large bamboo - bush, on the branchlets, within eight feet off the ground. The man declared that he had brought me the whole of the nest, but I do not feel sure about this ; of what he brought, the egg - cavity was little better than a mere depression, about 4 inches in diameter, and gradually deepening inwardly to about 1.25 inches in the centre. The body of the nest was a collection of twigs about the thickness of a goose - quill. On the top of the twigs came a quantity of green tree - leaves and dry bamboo - leaves; then a neat lining of quite green leafy twigs for the eggs to rest on. It was taken at Mougpoo at 3000 feet elevation."

The eggs obtained by Mr. Gammie in Sikhim, Mr. Cripps in Sylhet, and Mr. Davison in Tavoy are quite of the Centrococcyx and Taccocua type. Typically long cylindrical eggs, obtuse at both ends, often not unlike in shape some of our Turtle's eggs, but often again very regular and moderately broad ovals, and at times though rarely quite broad ovals; in colour dead glossless white, commonly with larger or smaller portions of their surfaces covered with dirty yellowish - brown, more or less glazy, stains.

Five eggs vary from 1.33 to 1.37 in length, and from 0.98 to l.05 in width.

Mr. Oates remarks from Pegu ; - "Jane 11th. Nest seven feet from the ground in the fork of a leafy shrub. A mere platform of dead twigs lined with leaves, very loosely laid. The whole structure meagre and incoherent, measuring 10 inches by 6 and a few inches thick. It contained one fresh egg, very chalky and with little gloss ; colour pure white. The egg measured 1.27 by 1.0.

" September 10th. Nest in a bamboo - bush about 20 feet from the ground, of very irregular shape and unmeasurable. Composed of much the same materials as the nest described above. Two eggs, nearly ready to hatch off. Colour originally white, but now much stained with yellowish smears. Very little gloss and extremely fragile. The two eggs measured 1.4 by 1.05 and 1.33 by 1.05."

"June 20th.   Nest with two incubated eggs. " June 21st.   Nest with two fresh eggs.

“The position of these was much the same as above described, viz., in bamboo - trees."

Major C. T. Bingham notes that this species is "a common bird in the Thoungyeen valley. The following is a note of finding its nest and eggs that I recorded long ago  : -

"On the 13th March I found a nest of the long - tailed Malkoha near Poodeesaki village in the Meplay forest, shooting the female as she flew off the nest. It was a loose and very untidy mass or pad of half - dried leaves and twigs, and contained three pure white, chalky cylindrical eggs, placed in the head among the dense leaves of a pollarded evergreen of some kind. I had some difficulty in finding it, and two hours waiting before I managed to trace the bird back and shoot her.

"Since sending my last note on the breeding I have taken five more nests  -  two containing one egg each, two, three eggs, and one, one egg. The nests were all of the same type as that first described, some perhaps a little firmer and better built. All were ])laced low, varying from three feet to ten, in bamboo and other bushes, invariably a thick and leafy one. One or two of the eggs I got are curiously stained, probably by the leaves with which the nest was made.

"It would seem that this bird breeds from March to July, as Davison shot one in July with a fully formed egg."

The eggs taken by Major Bingham are of the usual type, very regular, moderately elongated, in some cases somewhat cylindrical, very broad and obtuse at both ends, which in most of them are precisely similar. The shell, though smooth to the touch, looks somewhat coarse and chalky. They are entirely devoid of any gloss. In some the shell is pure white, in others, as is customary in eggs of birds of this family, soiled and smeared with yellowish - brown stains. They vary from 1.32 to 1.6 in length, by 0.98 to 1.12 in breadth.