268	SYLVIIDJE.
He added in epist.:—" This is a much shier bird than P. Jiumii.
I watched many a one without effect. The nest is a loose structure
of moss lined with a little wool, and would not retain its shape after
corning out of the hole. It is a most amusing bird, very noisy,
with a short poor song, and utters a variety of notes when you are
near the nest."
Certainly the nests he brought rne are nothing but little pads of
moss, 3 to 4 inches in diameter and perhaps an inch in thickness.
There is no pretence for a lining, but a certain amount of wool and
excessively fine moss-roots are incorporated in the body of the nest.
In situ they wouid appear to be sometimes more or less domed.
Captain Cock writes to me :—" I have taken numbers of nests of
this bird in Cashmere and in and about the hill-station of Murree.
They commence breeding in May and have finished by July. The
nests are placed under roots of trees, in crevices of trees, between
large sterns, and a favourite locality is, where the road has a stone
embankment to support it, between the stones. The nest is glo-
bular, made of moss, and the number of eggs is four. I have often
caught the old bird on the nest. The nests are easy to find, as the
birds are very noisy and demonstrative when any one is near their
nests."
Colonel 0. H. T. Marshall also very kindly gives me the following
most interesting note on the nidification of this species in the
vicinity of Murree. He says:—
" This little Willow-Warbler, so far as my own experience goes,
always prefers a pretty high elevation for breeding. Out of the
dozen nests found by Captain Cock and myself in the neighbour-
hood of Murree, none were at an elevation of less than. 6500 feet
above the sea; and my shikaree, who was always on the look out for
me in the lower ranges, never came across the nest of this species.
" The nest is generally placed in holes at the foot of the large
spruce firs. It is a difficult nest to find, as the bird selects holes
into which the hand will not go, and outside there are no signs of
there being any nest within.
"The cock bird spends most of his time at the tops of trees,
coming down at intervals. The only chance of success in taking
the eggs is to watch carefully any that may be flying low in the
bushes, until they disappear cautiously into the holes where they
are breeding. I should mention that we have also found some nests
in the rough stone walls on the hill road-sides.
" The nest is as neatly and carefully built as if it had to be exposed
on the branch of a tree. It is globular in shape, made of moss,
and lined with feathers. The eggs are pure white. They apparently
rear two broods in the year. In the first nest, which we found
under the root of an old spruce-fir on the 17th May, the eggs were
quite hard-set; and I may remark that immediately over this nest,
about 8 feet up the tree in a crack in the wood, a little Muscwapula
superciliariswas sitting on five eggs. Later at the end of June we
found fresh eggs in several nests. The eggs in our collection were
all taken between the 17th May and the 10th July."