. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. . Plate 3. Nest with eggs of Monticola s. sharpei; Ankaratra Mts. By author. all skilfully hidden among Pandanus leaves, 3 to 6 m up, always in the deep shadow of the forest canopy. A. Traka, chief forester at Les Rouselles Station, told me that erythronotus builds only exceptionally on tree-trunks, mostly on Pandanus. However, a sixth nest which I found on Mt. d'Ambre had been built on the trunk of a giant tree-fern, directly over a forest path. In four clutches of erythronotus the clutch-size was only two, only in one was it three; the only clu
. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. . Plate 3. Nest with eggs of Monticola s. sharpei; Ankaratra Mts. By author. all skilfully hidden among Pandanus leaves, 3 to 6 m up, always in the deep shadow of the forest canopy. A. Traka, chief forester at Les Rouselles Station, told me that erythronotus builds only exceptionally on tree-trunks, mostly on Pandanus. However, a sixth nest which I found on Mt. d'Ambre had been built on the trunk of a giant tree-fern, directly over a forest path. In four clutches of erythronotus the clutch-size was only two, only in one was it three; the only clutch of the nominate was also two eggs. In both races the eggs are a pale unspotted turquoise. The two eggs from the Ankaratras measured 24 x 16-5,23 x 17 mm. Incubation was only observed in erythro- notus. It was carried out solely by the female; although males, feeding incubating females, were observed at nests too. As soon as I approached a nest, the male always sang a few quiet warning melodies, whereupon the female slipped away from the nest. A female, two days before the hatching of eggs, somehow failed to do so; the male then stooped down to the nest with excited singing and chased her away. The period of incubation is not less than 15 days. Both parents feed the young, which after leaving the nest are under parental care for about one month. The nominate and northern races are probably single-brooded; in the lowland race the whole breeding pattern may be different, as already suggested. POST-EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT The observations in this and the following section are based mainly on two hand-reared young males of erythronotus which I kept from the age of 10 days for two years in captivity (ages as given are always from date of hatching), although supplemented by field observations. The skin of nestlings of M. sharpei is yellow, with long, pale grey down; bill pale grey, turning blackish 150. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may ha
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