. Bonner zoologische Monographien. Zoology. FIG. 5. Shama's nest, built in native cavity; a — three days. When the male was finished, we found that there was a friable leaf cushion on the bottom of the box. After that, the female added some mate- rials to structure, preparing a tray of hyphae {Maras- mius sp.), dry thin leafstalks and, sometimes, flakes of dry snake skin or polyethylene. She also collected material normally from nearby the nest box (< 5 m), and finished her work in two-three days. In total, nest building takes 4-7 days in shamas. DISCUSSION We present data on shama clutch s
. Bonner zoologische Monographien. Zoology. FIG. 5. Shama's nest, built in native cavity; a — three days. When the male was finished, we found that there was a friable leaf cushion on the bottom of the box. After that, the female added some mate- rials to structure, preparing a tray of hyphae {Maras- mius sp.), dry thin leafstalks and, sometimes, flakes of dry snake skin or polyethylene. She also collected material normally from nearby the nest box (< 5 m), and finished her work in two-three days. In total, nest building takes 4-7 days in shamas. DISCUSSION We present data on shama clutch size, adult male, and female behavior in different stages of breeding, phenology of breeding, and other features of life his- tory of the species. Previously data on some aspects of its breeding biology were collected for a popula- tion introduced to Hawaii Islands (Aguon & Conant 1994). Work on this Hawiian population found that, under natural conditions, birds from O'ahu Island lay only one or two clutches per season, although captive birds could raise as many as five clutches per season. In our research we found only two pairs out of 73 that had a third clutch per season. Presumably. this difference in number of clutches per season can be explained by differences in the environment be- tween southern Vietnam and Hawaii. During the breeding season we found that 19 out of 95 occupied nest boxes contained unfinished nests (consisting of leave cushions only). We suppose that in these cases males built more than one nest for a female to choose from. According to the literature male shamas build several nests simultaneously. A female then chooses the most appropriate place for the nest among them (Aguon & Conant 1994). However, unfinished nests might also belong to un- paired males. Interestingly shamas initiated breeding activities in the «garden» habitat earlier than in others. The number of clutches increased in the first half of the breeding season and then graduall
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