CIOLOGY LJQfiARY WILLIAM THOMAS BLANFORD, THE NESTS AND EGGS OF INDIAN BIRDS. BY ALLAN O. HUME, C.B. SECOND EDITION. EDITED BY EUGENE WILLIAM GATES, AUTHOR OP 'A HANDBOOK TO THE BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAII,' AND OF THE PASSERES IN ' THE FAUNA OF BRITISH INDIA.' VOL. II. WITH FOUR PORTRAITS. LONDON: R. H. PO RTER, 18 PRINCES STREET, CAVENDISH SQUARE, W. 1890. PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, HED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. EDITOR'S NOTE. WHEN I undertook to bring out this edition of Mr. Hume's work I fully intended that it should be a supplement, as it were, to my volumes on the Birds of India, with the same arrangement and nomenclature, the whole thus forming a fairly complete history of the Avifauna of the Indian Empire. My expectations have been disappointed. I find it quite impossible to complete the account of the Birds in the ' Fauna of British India ' within the narrow limits of my furlough, and I have been obliged to abandon the work. This in itself is no matter for regret, as the work will probably be completed by more competent hands than mine ; but it is so far regrettable that it will cause a want of agree- ment or correspondence between the Manual on Birds and Mr. Hume's laborious and ample account of their nidification, a want of correspondence the more to be lamented, inasmuch as no one is likely, I fear, for many years to come, to write a complete history of the Birds of India. In view therefore of my early return to India and in fulfilment of my promise to Mr. Hume, I have thought it advisable to push the present volume through the press IV without a moment's delay. The third and last volume is also in the press, and will be published before I leave England next month. I have had little time to investigate the synonymy of those groups of Indian birds contained in the third, and portion of the second, volume of this work, and which would in the ordinary course of events have appeared in the Manual on the Birds ; but I have endeavoured to the best of my power to assign to each bird its proper systematic name. It has been, of course, quite impossible to continue the serial numbers of the birds beyond the point to which the Manual on the Birds had reached on this second volume going to press. I again take the opportunity of presenting to Mr. Hume's readers portraits of some of the ornithologists who have made Indian birds their special study. The present volume con- tains portraits of the late Edward Blyth, of Mr. W. T. Blanford, Colonel H. H. God win -Austen, and Major R. G. Wardlaw Ramsay. EUGENE W. GATES. London, July 1890. SYSTEMATIC INDEX. Order PASSERES. Family MUSCICAPHLE. Page 557. Muscicapa grisola, Linn. 1 558. Hernichelidon sibirica, (Gm.) ... 1 559. ferruginea, Hodgs. 2 563. Sipbia hyperytbra, Ca- banis 2 566. Cyornishyperythrus(2ft.) 2 567. leucomelanurus (Hodgs.) 3 568. superciliaris (Jerd.) 4 574. umcolor, Bl 5 575. rubeculoides ( Vig.) 5 576. tickelli, Bl 7 579. Stoparolamelanops(F^.) 9 580. sordida ( Wald.) . . 11 581. albicaudata (Jerd.) 11 583. Anthipes moniliger (Hodgs.) 13 591. Ocbromela nigrirufa (Jerd.) 14 592. Culicicapa ceylonensis (Swains.) 16 593. Niltava grandis (Bl.) .. 18 594. sundara, Hodgs. . . 20 595. macgregoriae(.5wr£.) 21 598. Terpsiphone paradisi (Linn.) 22 599. affinis (Hay) 26 601. Hypothymis azurea (Bodd.) 27 602. tytleri (Beavan) . . 30 603. Cbelidorhynx bypoxan- tbum (Bl.) 30 604. Rhipidura albifrontata, Frankl 31 605. albicollis ( Vieul.) 35 607. pectoralis (Jerd.) . . 38 Family TURBID^E. Subfamily SAXICOLINJB. Page 608. Pratincolacaprata(Zww.) 41 609. - atrata, Kelaart ____ 46 610. - manra (Pall.) ____ 48 615. Oreicola ferrea (Hodgs.) 50 618. Saxicola picata, Bl. ____ 5 621. - plescbenka (Lepe- chin) .............. 53 629. Cercomela fusca (Bl) . . 54 64 65 maculatus, Subfamily 630. Henicurus Vig 631. - guttatus, Gould . . 632. - scbistaceus, Hodgs. 633. - immaculatus, Hodgs ............... 637. Microcicbla scouleri (Vig.) .... .......... 638. Cbimarrbornis leucoce- phalus(Ft>.) ........ 63 639. Ruticilla frontalis ( Vig.) 64 644. - rufiventris ( Vieill) 646. Rhyacornis fuliginosus (Vig) .......... ..... 651. Calliope pectoralis, Gould .............. 67 653. Tarsiger chrysaeus, Hodgs ............... 67 654. lantbia rufilata (Hodgs.) 68 657. Adelura caeruleicephala (Vig.) .............. 69 659. Notodela leucura (Hodgs.) ............ 70 660. Callene frontalis (Bl.) . . 71 661. Thamnobia cambaiensis (Lath.) .............. 71 662. - fulicata (Linn.) . . 76 VI SYSTEMATIC INDEX. Page 663. Copsychus saularis (Linn.) 80 664. Cittocincla inacrura (Gm.) 86 Subfamily TURBINE. Merula simillima (Jerd. ) 88 - kinnisi, Bl ....... 90 - bourdilloni, Seebohm 91 - nigripileus (Lafr.) 91 - albicincta (Royle) , , 92 - castanea, Gould. ... 92 - boulboul (Lath.) . . 93 - unicolor (Tick.) . . 96 Geocichla wardi (Jerd.) 97 - cyanonotus (J.8f8.) 98 - citrina (Lath.) ____ 100 Petrophila erythrogaster (Vig.) .............. 102 - cinclorhyncha 667. 668. 669. 671. 672. 673. 676. 678. 683. 685. 686. 690. 691. 693. 695. 103 105 106 699. 701. 703. 705. 706. 707. cyana (Linn) Turdus viscivorus, Linn. Oreocincla dauma (Lath.) 107 nilghiriensis, Bl. . . 107 mollissima (Bl.) . . 108 spiloptera, Bl. 109 Zoothera niargiuata, Bl. . 109 Cochoa purpurea, Hodgs. 110 viridis, Hodgs Ill Subfamily CINCLIN^E. 709. Cinclus asiaticus, Swains. 112 Subfamily ACCENTORIN^E. 718. Tharrhaleus strophiatus (Hodgs.) 113 719. jerdoni (Brooks) .. 114 Family PLOCEIDJE. Subfamily PLOCEINJE. 720. Ploceus baya, Bl. 114 721. megarhynchus, Hume 119 722. bengalensis (Linn.) 120 723. manyar (Horsf.) . . 121 724. Ploneella javanensis (Less.) 124 Subfamily VIDUINJE. 725. Munia malacca (Linn.). . 126 726. atricapilla ( Vieitt.) 129 Page 727. Uroloncha acaticauda (Hodgs.) 131 728. striata (Linn.) 133 730. fumigata ( Walden) 135 731. leucogastra (Bl.) . . 135 732. pectoralis (Jerd.) . . 136 734. malabarica (Linn.) 136 735. punctulata (Linn.) 141 737. Stictospiza formosa (Lath.) 145 738. Sporaeginthus amandava (Linn.) 147 739. flavidiventris (Wall.) 149 Family FRINGILLDXE. Subfamily COCCOTHRAUSTESLE:. 741. Pycnorliamphus icte- roides(F^.) 150 Subfamily FRINGILLIN^J. 745. Pyrrhula aurantiaca, Gould 151 753. Pyrrhospiza punicea, Hodgs 152 754. Propasser thura (Bp. $ Schleg.) 152 755. pulcherrimus, Moore 153 761. Carpodacus erythriuus (Pall.) 153 762. severtzovi, Sharpe 154 768. Callacanthis burtoni (Gould) ............ 154 770. Acanthis brevirostris (Gould) 155 771. Metoponia ^pusilla (Pott.) 155 772. Hypacanthis spinoides (Vig.) 156 775. Gymnorhis flavicollis (FranU.) 157 776. Passer domesticus (Linn.) 159 777. pyrrhonotus, Bl . . 162 779. montanus (Linn.) . 162 780. cinnamomeus (Gould) 164 781. flaveolus, Bl. 165 785. Montifringilla adamsi, Moore 165 Subfamily EMBERIZIN^E. 790. Emberiza fucata, Pall. . . 166 SYSTEMATIC INDEX. Vii 793. Emberizastewarti,-B/... 167 794. stracheyi, Moore . . 168 799. melanocephala, Scop 170 802. striolata (Licht.) . . 170 803. Melophus melanicterus (Gin.) 173 Family HIRUNDINID^E. 804. Chelidon urbica (Linn.) . 177 805. kashmirensis, Gould 177 809. Cotile $wensis(J.E.Gray) 178 810. Ptionoprogne rupestris (Scop.) 811. concolor (Sykes) . . 813. Hirundo rustica, Linn. . . 817. javanica, Sparrm.. . 818. smitliii, Leach .... J.QO 819. fluvicola, Jerd 191 822. nepalensis, Hodgs. . 195 823. erythropygia, Sykes 197 825. hyperythra, Bl. . . 201 179 180 184 186 188 Family MOTACILLIILE. Motacilla personata, Gould hodgsoni, G. R. Gray maderaspatensis, Gm. 201 202 202 207 208 208 209 211 212 melanope (Pall.) citreoloides (Hodgs.) An thus trivialis (Linn.) . maculatus, Hodgs. . nilghiriensis, Sharpe. sordidus, Riipp ierdoni (Finsch) 212 rufulus, VieiU 213 rosaceus, Hodgs 216 Oreocorys sylvanus (Hodgs.) . 217 Family ALAUDID^E. Algernon desertoruni (Stanley). 219 Otocorys ehvesi, Blanf. 220 Alauda arvensis, Linn 220 gulgula, Frankl 221 Alaudula raytal (Buch. Ham.) 225 adamsi (Hume) 226 Mirafra cantillans, Jerd 227 assamica, McClell 229 erythroptera, Jerd 231 affinis, Jerd. 233 niicroptera, Hume 233 Galerita cristata (Linn.) 233 deva (Sykes) 236 malabarica (Scop.) .... 237 Page Ammomanes phcenicura (Frankl.) .............. 240 - phcenicuroides (Blyth) . . 242 Pyrrhulauda grisea (Scop.) . . 243 - melanauchen ( Cab.) .... 248 Family NECTARlNmLE. Subfamily NECTABIXIINJE. ^Ethopyga seheriae, Tick. . . . 249 - vigorsi (Sykes) ........ 250 - saturata (Hodgs.) ...... 250 - nepalensis (Hodgs.) .... 251 Arachnechthra lotenia (Linn.) 251 - asiatica (Lath.) ........ 252 - hasselti (Temm.) ...... 258 - pectoralis (Horsf.) .... 259 - flammaxillaris (Bl.) ____ 260 - andamanica, Hume .... 262 - minima, Sykes ........ 262 - zeylonica (Linn.) ...... 263 Subfamily ABACHXOTHERIN^:. Arachnothera magna (Hodgs.) 268 Chalcoparia phoenicotis (Temm.) .............. 269 Family Dicaeum cruentatum (Linn.) . 270 - trigonostigma (Scop.) . . 272 - ignipectus (Hodgs.) .... 272 - concolor (Jerd.) ...... 272 - erythrorhynchum (Lath.) 274 Piprisoma squalidum (Burton) 277 Pachyglossa melanoxantha (Hodgs.) .............. 279 Family. PITTLD^E. Anthocincla phayrii, Bl. .... 279 Pitta nepalensis (Hodgs.) .... 281 - cyanea, Bl ........... 282 - cyanoptera, Temm ..... 283 - brachyura (Linn.) ...... 285 - eueullata, Hartl ....... 286 Order EURYL^EMI. Family EURYLyEMID^E. Calyptomena viridis, Rajffles. . 288 Psarisomus dalhousise (Jame- son) .................. 289 Serilophus lunatus (Gould) . . 291 - rubropygius (Hodgs.) . . 293 viii SYSTEMATIC INDEX. Page Eurylaemus javanicus, Horsf. . 294 Cymborhynchus macrorhyn- chus (Gm.) 294 Order SCANSORES. Family PICID^E. Subfamily PICIN^E. Gecinus squamatus (Via.) . . 297 striolatus (Bl.) 298 occipitalis ( Vig.) 299 chlorolophus(FmVr) .. 300 nigrigenis, Hume . . . . 300 Hypopicus hyperythrus ( Vig.) 301 Dendrocopus himalayensis (J. $8.) 301 cathpharius (Hodgs.) . . 302 sindianus (Gould) 303 macii ( Vieill.) 303 brunneifrons ( Vig.) 304 Liopicus mahrattensis (Lath.) 305 lyngipicus pygmaeus ( Vig.) . . 306 hardwickii (Jerd.) 306 gymnophthalmus (Bl.) . . 308 Micropternus phaeoceps, Bl. . . 308 Brachypternus aurantius (Linn.) 309 erythronptus ( Vieill.) . . 311 Tiga javanensis (Ljung) .... 311 Chrysocolaptes festivus(Bodd.) 312 guttacristatus (Tick.) . . 313 stricklandi (Layard) . . 313 Hemicercus canente (Less.) . . 314 Hemilophus pulverulentus (Temm.) , 315 Subfamily Picumnus innominatus, Burt. 316 Sasia ochracea, Hodgs 317 lynx torquilla, Linn 318 Family CAPITONID^E. Megalaema marshallorum, Swinh 318 virens (Bodd.) 319 Cyan ops asiatica (Lath.) .... 320 davisoni (Hume) 321 flavifrons (Cuv.) 321 franklini (Bl.) 322 caniceps (Frankl.) 322 zeylomca (Gm.) 324 Page Cyanops lineata (Vieill.) .... 325 viridis (Bodd.) 325 Mezobucco cyanotis (Bl.) .... 328 Xantholsema haemacephala (P. L. S. Milll.) 329 malabarica (Bl.) 332 rubricapilla (Gm.) .... 333 Order UPUP.E. Family UPUPID^E. Upupa ceylonensis, Reich. . . 334 epops, Linn 337 longirostris, Jerd 338 Order TROGONES. Family TROGONHLE. Harpactes erythrocephalus (Gould) 339 fasciatus (Forst.) 340 oreskios (Temm.) 342 Order COLUMB^E. Family COLUMBID^E. Subfamily COLUMBINJE. Columba intermedia, Strickl. . 344 Subfamily PALUMBINJE. Alsocomus puniceus, Tick. . . 345 - hodgsoni (Vig.) ....... 346 Palumbus casiotis, Bonap. . . 346 - elphinstonii (Sykes) .... 347 - torringtoni, Kelaart. . . . 348 Subfamily Turtur pulchrala (Hodgs.) ____ 349 - meena (Sykes) ........ 350 - senegalensis (Linn.) .... 351 - suratensis (Gm.) ...... 353 - tigrinus ( Temm.) ...... 356 - risorius (Linn.) ........ 357 - tranquebaricus (Herm.) . 359 Subfamily MACROPYGIINJE. Macropygia tusalia (Hodgs.) . . 362 SYSTEMATIC INDEX. IX Page Subfamily PHAPIDIN^E. Chalcophaps indica (Linn.) . . 363 Subfamily CALCENIXJE. Caloenas nicobarica (Linn.) . . 365 Subfamily CARPOPHAGINJE. Carpophaga aenea (Linn.) 366 insularis, Bl 367 insignia (Hodgs.) 368 cuprea, Jerd 368 griseicapiUa ( Wald.) . . 369 bicolor (Scop.) 369 Subfamily TBERONIX-E. Treron nepalensis (Hodgs.) . . 370 Crocopus phoenicopterus (Lath.) 370 chlorigaster (Bl.) 372 viriditrons (BL) 373 Osrnotreron bicincta (Jerd.) . . 374 vernans (Linn.) 375 malabarica, Jerd 375 pbayrii, Bl 376 chloroptera (Bl.) 376 Sphenocercus sphenurus ( Vigors) 377 Order CUCULI. Family CUCULIDvE. Subfamily CUCULINJE. Page Cuculus canorus, Linn 379 intermedius, Vahl 381 poliocephalus, Lath 382 sonnerati, Lath 382 Ilierococcvx varius ( Vahl) . . 383 versicolor (Hodgs.) 383 sparyerioides ( Vig.) .... 384 Cacomantis passerinus ( Vahl) 385 Chalcococcyxrnaculatus(6r#i.) 387 Coccystes jacobinus (Bodd.). . 388 coromandus (Linn.) .... 391 Eudynainis honorata (Linn.) . 392 Subfamily Rhopodytes tristis (Less.). . . . 397 vindirostrid (Jerd.) .... 399 Subfamily CEXTROPODIX^:. Centrococcyx rufipennis (///.) 400 andauianeusis ( Tytler) . . 404 intermedius, Hume .... 404 maximus, Hume 405 bengalensis (Gh)i.) 406 Taccocua leschenaulti(Zm.) . 408 sirkee (Gray) 408 VOL. II. ROBERT GEORGE WARDLAW RAMSAY. HENRY HAVERSHAM GODWIN-AUSTEN. WOODBURY COMPANY. EDWARD BLYTH. THE NESTS AND EGGS OF INDIAN BIRDS. Family MUSCICAPID^. 557. Muscicapa grisola, Linn. The Spotted Flycatcher. Butalis grisola, Linn., Hume, Cat. no. 299 bia. Dr. Scully informs us that the Spotted Flycatcher breeds in Gilgitin the pine- forests, at elevations over 8000 feet. Major Wardlaw Eamsay, uriting of Afghanistan, says : — " I found the nest on the 3rd June, high up on a hill-side, at about 8000 feet. It was situated in the lowest fork of an edible pine (Finns gerardiana\ about six feet from the ground. The nest was composed of shreds of the bark of the juniper-tree, without any lining except a few feathers, and contained four eggs, quite fresh, pale green, profusely freckled with light brown, especially towards the thick end. The position of this nest was rather unusual ; but another I found xvas in a crevice of a ragged juniper-stump." 558. Hemichelidon sibirica (Gm.). The Sooty Flycatcher. Henrichelidon fuliginosus, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 458. Hemichelidon sibiricus (Gm.}, Hume, Rough Draft X. $ E. no. 296. The late Captain Cock found a nest of the Sooty Flycatcher, on the 5th June, with three eggs at Sonamurg, up the Scind Ei\ er (Cashmere). It was placed against the side of a tree-trunk. The eggs are long ovals, a good deal pointed and compressed VOL. II. 1 '2 MUSCICAPID.E. towards the lesser end. The ground-colour is a very pale dull green, and it is very faintly mottled, most densely towards the large end, with very pale reddish brown. The coloration of the egg is somewhat like that of a very feebly-coloured Pratincola maura. The eggs measured 0-65 by 0-46 inch and 0*66 by 0*48. Mr. Brooks informs us that this Flycatcher is abundant in the pine-woods of Cashmere, about 7000 feet elevation, where it breeds. Mr. Hodgson figures the nest, placed on the stump end of a broad broken branch — a very massive, rather shallow pad, with a cup-shaped cavity composed of moss and lichens and lined with black moss-roots. The egg is figured as above described. The nest is about 4 inches across and less than 2 high, and the cavity is a little less than 1-75 inch in diameter. Major Wardlaw Ramsay says, writing of this species in Afghan- istan : — " Breeding in May and June." 559. Hemichelidon ferruginea, Hodgs. The Ferruginous Flycatcher. Alseonax femigineus (Hodgs.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 460. Hemichelidon ferrugineus, Hodgs. , Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 299. All I know of the nidification of the Ferruginous Flycatcher is that Mr. Hodgson figures the nest as a beautiful compact circular pad of moss and lichens, 5 inches in diameter and 2 in height, with a small central circular cavity, placed upon the surface of an old stump of a tree. The egg he figures as a sort of buff colour, cafe au lait, minutely and feebly freckled with brownish red, and measuring 0-69 by 0*5 inch. 568. Siphia hyperythra, Cabanis. The Indian Red-breasted Flycatcher. Erythrosterna hyperythra (Cab.), Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 323 ter. Mr. Brooks says that the Indian Red-breasted Flycatcher " breeds sparingly in Cashmir at from 6000 to 7000 feet elevation. The males in breeding- plumage have the red of the breast bordered on each side by a stripe of velvet-black. This is not shown in Dr. Bree's illustration. In winter the black border disappears ; nor is it regained before the birds leave the plains of India in March and April. The song is sweet, loud and robin-like, but short. I failed to find a nest." 566. Cyornis hyperythrus (Bl.). The Rufous-breasted Blue Flycatcher. Siphia superciliaris (BL), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 480. Digenea superciliaris (SI.), Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 321. According to Mr. Hodgson's notes the Rufous-breasted Blue CYORNIS. 3 Flycatcher breeds iii Xepal and about Darjeeling from April to June. They build on the ground under the roots, or in some cavity at the base, of a tree. The nest is composed of moss and moss-roots, closely lined with the latter ; it is a deep cup, with an exterior diameter of 2*75 inches and a height of about 2 inches, with A cavity about 1'5 inch in diameter and depth. Four eggs is the usual number laid, sometimes only three. The eggs are rather elongated ovals, having a pale greyish or brownish-white ground, finely freckled and mottled, chiefly at the large end, with dingy bro \vnish red. As figured, the eggs measure 0-63 by 0-44 inch. 567. Cyornis leucomelanurus (Hodgs.). The Slaty-blue Flycatcher. Siphia tricolor (Hodys.\ Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 478. Siphia leucomelanura (Hodg».\ Jerd. torn. cif. p. 479. Digenea leucomelanura, Jfodys., Hume, R-mgh Draft N. $ E, no. 320. The Slaty-blue Flycatcher breeds, we know, throughout the Himalayas from Xipal to Cashmir, at elevations of from 5000 ta 7000 feet : but the only persons I know of who have taken the eggs are Captain Cock and Mr. Brooks, who found several nests in Cashmere, and to whom I owe both nests and eggs. The nests are massive little cups, with an external diameter of from 3 1 inches to nearly 4 inches and from 1| to 2\ inches in height. The egg-cavity is comparatively small, not exceeding 2 inches in diameter and lj inch in depth. The principal material of the nest is fine moss, but with this is intermingled a quantity of fine wool and fur, a few cobwebs, and, especially towards the base of the nest, tiny dry leaves, lichen, and fir-needles. There is no separate lining, but the interior of the egg-cavity has the moss and wool very compactly and smoothly woven together, so as to form a beautifully soft and even bed for the eggs. Nests taken in Cash- mere on the 3rd and 4th June contained three and four eggs respectively. Mr. Brooks remarks that " this species is not un- common in Cashmere wherever there are pine-woods. As in the case of lanfhia rufilata, many pairs of these birds which were breeding had the male in the plumage of the female ! Only two pairs which I shot had blue males. " The nest is a neat little cup, placed in a hollow in the side of a tree-trunk. The eggs, four in number, are of a pale buff-colour, clouded with dull pale rufous towards the larger end ; size *62 by •48 inch." The eggs of this species vary very ranch in size and shape. Some are comparatively elongated ovals, some short and broad ; all are somewhat compressed, and some are slightly pointed towards the smaller end. The ground-colour is a dull white, but only in a few of the eggs is any portion of this visible, the major portion of the surface even in these, and the whole surface in most eggs, being 1* 4 MUSCJCAPILJE. excessively finely freckled, and in many cases uniformly tinted, with reddish cafe au lait colour or pale salmon-buff ; in many eggs the colour is deeper and redder afc the large end, forming an un- defined cap. Some of the eggs have a slight gloss, others are absolutely glossless. These eggs are verv similar in tint to those of Stoparola and other genera of this family. In length they vary from O58 to 0'69 inch and in breadth from 0*47 to O5 inch ; but the average of ten eggs is 0*62 inch by a little more than 0-48 inch. 568. Cyornis superciliaris (Jerd.). The White-browed Blue Flycatcher. Muscicapula superciliaris (Jerd.\ Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 470 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 310. Muscicapula acornaus, Hodys., Jerd. torn. cit. p. 483. The White-browed Blue Flycatcher, though extending its cold- weather migration far into Southern India, breeds only, so far as I have yet ascertained, in the Himalayas at elevations of from 5000 to nearly 10,000 feet ; from Darjeeling to Murree it breeds every- where, not only in the outer ranges, but far into the interior. I found a nest only a march south of Guugootree ; I have received others from the Sutlej Valley above Chini, from Miualee close to the foot of the Kotung, from the Sind Valley, Cashmere, just at the foot of the Zojee La, and I know of one being found at Dras. They lay from the middle of April to the middle of June, building a small cup-shaped nest, about 3 inches in diameter, of moss and moss-roots, and lined with these latter and at times a little fine hair, in holes of trees or even occasionally between two stones of the terraced wall of some fallow or deserted field. They lay from four to six eggs. The late Captain Beavan cor- rectly remarked that this species was " not at all rare about Simla, in gardens and forest-glades, and not at all shy. I discovered the nest of this species on the 10th of May at that station, with four young ones in it. It is a pretty little cup-shaped structure, com- posed of moss and hair, placed at the bottom of a small hole in an ilex, at no great depth inside." Writing from Murree, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall notes having secured " sixteen or eighteen nests between the beginning of May and the end of June, in small holes in rotten branches or trunks of trees, sometimes close to the ground, sometimes very high up. Eggs, five in number, of a yellowish-brown colour, almost round, about -6 inch long and '45 broad. The general elevation averages 6500 feet ; they do not build in the lower hills." Colonel G-. F. L. Marshall remarks : — " This Flycatcher is not very common at Naini Tal, and I have only once found the nest; it contained two eggs on the 25th of May. It was a small cup built of moss, lined with horsehair, and wedged into a narrow CIORXIS. O vertical rift in a tree about 8 feet from the ground and close to a public road. The nest was deserted after the first day I touched it, and the birds were very shy." The eggs are generally short broad ovals, slightly pointed towards the small end ; a few are very decidedly pointed, and occasionally the whole egg is somewhat elongated ; they have a slight gloss. Looked at from a little distance, the whole egg appears to be a dull pale brownish pink or pinkish brown, somewhat deeper towards the large end, the tint varying in intensity in different specimens. Closely examined, the ground-colour appears to be a / dull pale greyish green, almost entirely washed over with a more, or less mottled shade of brownish red or pink, which, while it varies in different eggs, is almost without exception considerably deeper about the large end, where in some eggs it forms an utterly unde- fined, but none the less apparent, cap. In length the eggs vary from 0'57 to 0-68 inch and in breadth from 0-46 to 0-54 ; but the average of twenty-seven eggs is O62 nearly by rather more than 0'48 inch *. 574. Cyornis unicolor, Blyth. The Pale Blue lit/catcher. Cyornis unicolor, BL, Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 465 ; Hume, Cat. no. 303. Mr. Mandelli sends me a nest of this species taken near Namt- chu, in Xative Sikhim, on the 1st August. It is a massive cup of moss and fern-roots strongly felted together, about 3*75 inches in diameter and 2 inches in height exteriorly, with a shallow central cavity about 2 inches in diameter and O75 inch in depth. It contained two eggs nearly ready to hatch off ; it was placed in a depression in the trunk of a huge tree about 10 feet from the ground. Another nest of this species sent me from Sikhim was a felted mass of that peculiar grey stringy lichen that is commonly called " old man's beard." It was little more than a pad 4 inches in diameter and 1 inch in thickness, with a slight hollow in the centre for the egg, and was placed in a hole at the junction of a large branch with the trunk of the tree. 575. Cyornis rubecnloides (Vigors). The Blue-throated Flycatcher. Cyornis rubeculoides ( Via.). Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 466: Hunie, Eouqh ~ Draft N. $ E. no. 304! I have never seen the nest of the Blue-throated Flycatcher. * I omit from this edition the note which appeared in the Kough Draft under the head of Erythrosterna pusiila (no. 324). This name denotes the female of Cyornis -maculata ; but it is doubtful if Hodgson's note really applies to this species. Mr. Ehodes W. Morgan ('Ibis,' 1875, p. 318) records particulars of the finding of the nest of Erythrotfenia maculata in Southern India. There can be little doubt that he mistook Hcmipus picatus for this species. — ED. 6 MUSG'ICAPID^E. Captain Hutton says: — "Arrives in the neighbourhood of Mus- soorie in April, and breeds in June, on the 13th of which month I took a nest from a hole in a bank bv the roadside in a retired and unfrequented situation. I afterwards found another nest in a hole of a rock, also in a retired spot. The elevation was about 5000 feet; externally this nest is composed of green moss and lined with black fibrous lichens, like hair. The eggs are four in number, of a dull and pale olive-green, faintly or indistinctly clouded with dull rufous or clay-colour." According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and drawings this species begins to lay in Nepal in April, and the young are ready to fly in June and July ; the nest is placed in the hollow of some decayed tree, or in a ledge of rock, more or less overhung. It is composed of grass, dry leaves, moss, and moss-roots, and is lined inside with fine, hair-like blackish moss-roots ; it measures about 4 inches in diameter externally and about 1/5 in height ; the diameter of the cavity is about 2 inches. It lays three or four eggs, broad ovals, slightly glossy, of a dingy reddish cafe au lait colour, measuring 0'72 by 0-52. It breeds only once a year ; both sexes aid in hatching and rearing the young. A nest of this species found on the 12th of May at Takoldau, in Native Sikhim, contained four fresh eggs. The nest, which is only a little pad of moderately fine roots, in which a couple of skeleton leaves are incorporated at the base, was placed in a hole at the top of a stump of an old tree, only about 3 feet from the ground. Sometimes they lay in a hole in a bamboo. I had a nest sent me found in such a situation on the 29th April near Darjeeling. The nest itself was a mere lining to the bottom of the joint of the bamboo, a shallow saucer about 4 inches in diameter, composed of the fine stems of some pennated leaf carefully curved round and one or two dead leaves. The eggs are precisely similar to those sent by Captain Hutton. Several eggs of this species, which were sent me by Captain Hutton, resemble much, as might have been expected, those of Cyornis tickelli ; but they seem to average somewhat snorter and broader. In shape they are ovals, some elongated, some rather broad, and all of them a little compressed towards one end. The ground-colour is greenish or brownish stone-colour ; some exhibit no markings ; others only a little grey freckling, but typically they have a very pale purplish-brown mottled zone near the large end, and occasionally frecklings of the same colour over the whole of the large end of the egg. They have little or no gloss. They vary in length from 0-68 to 0'76 inch and in breadth from 0-56 to 0*66 inch, but the average of the eggs is 0-73 nearly by 0-62 inch. Some eggs taken by Capt. Cock in Cashmere are similar to those already described, pale greenish stone-coloured ground, freckled all over (but most thickly at the large end) with very pale pinkish brown ; but they are very much narrower than the eggs 1 have CYORNIS. 7 previously obtained, and vary in length from O7 to 0*75 and in breadth from 0-51 to O57. The Tenasserim birds are intermediate to the Indian and Suma- tran Blue-throated Flycatchers, but nearer, it seems to me, to the latter than the former. Whether with a complete series from all parts of the Malayan peninsula and Burma it will be possible to separate the two appears to me doubtful. Mr. Davison says : — " On the 30th March at Ye, Tenasserim Provinces, I found a nest of this species. The nest was built in the hole of a rotten stump about 4 feet from the ground, and was composed of dry, rather coarse grass, without any lining whatsoever, resting on a foundation of dry dead leaves. It was so loosely and carelessly put together that it was impossible to preserve the nest. The bird was exceedingly shy, for although I was well hid a short distance off the nest, it was some time before the bird came back to its nest.'7 The eggs are moderately elongated ovals, somewhat pointed towards one end. The shell is fine and smooth and has a faint gloss. The ground-colour is apparently a creamy white, but the whole egg is thickly freckled and mottled all over with a sort of pale brownish pink and pinkish grey, that very little of the ground is anywhere visible. The freckling is much most dense at the broad end, where it forms a more or less uniform but very ill- defined cap, which I should call a dull pale brownish pink. The three eggs all measure O73 in length, and in breadth two measure 0-56 and one 0-55. 576. Cyornis tickelli, Blyth. TickelTs Blue Flycatcher. Cyornis banyumas (Horsf.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 466. Cyornis tickelliae, £1., Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 467 ; Hume, Rmyh Draft N. 8f E. no. 303. Tickell's Blue Flycatcher breeds in May and June throughout Central India and in the Xilghiris and Western Ghats to an eleva- tion of at least 5000 feet. Mr. Nunn, the first of my correspondents who observed this bird breeding, procured a nest with two fresh eggs at Hoshunga- bad, Central Provinces, on the 24th of June, 1868. The nest was placed in a niche in a wall on the banks of the Xerbudda. It was a small, rather deep cup, compactly woven of fine grass-roots, and lined with similar materials, but of a still finer quality ; externally a few dry leaves were incorporated in the structure, much in the same manner as is habitually done by the Bulbuls and many Sylviine birds. The nest measured internally 2 inches in diameter by 2| deep. Mr. Nunn -shot the parent bird off the nest and kindly sent it to me with the nest and eggs, so that no doubt as to the authenticity of the eggs can exist. A nest taken by Miss Cockburn below Kotagherry on the 27th May was placed iu a hole between two decaying branches of a tree at a height of 6 or 7 feet from the 8 MUSC1CAPIILE. ground and in the close proximity of water. The nest was com- posed almost entirely of moss and moss-roots, the latter forming the lining, a good many dead leaves being incorporated in the exterior surface. The nest was between 3 and 4 inches in diameter externally ; the egg-cavity very shallow. Writing about bird-nesting on the Koudabhari Ghat Mr. J. Davidson remarks : — " July 1 2th. A little Blue Eobin darted from its nest. This was placed in a crevice of a bank and might have been mistaken for one of our own familiar Eobin Bed breasts. It contained three olive eggs, perfectly fresh. The Blue Eobin is one of the commonest birds at this season along the ghats, and its pretty metallic song seems never to cease if you wauder along any of the nullahs. Its nests, of which I found many, including four or five with eggs, were placed in hollows either in banks or in the roots of trees, and were composed of dead leaves lined with fine roots, sometimes intertwined with hair." Capt. Horace Terry tells us that he found a nest of this bird on the Pulney Hills, in the Pittur Valley, made of tine grass, far down the slopes in a hole in a bank. Writing of Ceylon Colonel Legge says : — " In the Western Province I have shot the young in nestling-plumage at the end of June and in the Northern Province in the middle of July, so that the breeding-season of this Flycatcher may be said to be May and June throughout the island.'7 Two eggs of this species, which, with the nest and parent bird, were sent me by Mr. Nunn, are of a moderately elongated oval shape, somewhat obtuse at the small end. The ground-colour is dingy greyish white, and the egg is throughout excessively finely freckled and mottled with dingy reddish brown. The markings are everywhere indistinct and feeble, but they are greatly concen- trated and nearly confluent towards the large end, where they form in one a fairly marked zone, in the other an irregular and ill- defined cup. These eggs differ a good deal in their character both from those of Stoparola and JSiltava. Other eggs, taken in May and June, and sent me by Miss Cockburn from Kotagherry, Nil- ghiris, are very similar to those already described ; but in one of them the markings are so closely set that the egg appears through- out a pale brownish rufous, regularly mottled all over, slightly paler. Another egg is similar, but the general tint is rufescent cafe au lait. As a rule the eggs have a faint gloss, but one or two of them are absolutely glossless. It must be understood that the markings are usually so exces- sively fine that, unless closely looked into, the egg appears to be a sort of pale drab with a faint reddish tinge, rather more marked about the large end. In length the eggs vary from 074 to 0-8 inch, and in breadth from 0-53 to 0*58 inch ; but the average of five eggs is 0-76 by 0-56 inch. STOPAROLA. 579. Stoparola melanops (Vigors). The Verditer Flycatcher. Eumyias melanops (F*Y/.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 463. Stoparola melanops ( Vig.\ Hume, Rough Draft X. fy E. no. 301. The Verditer Flycatcher breeds throughout the outer ranges o£ the Himalayas at elevations of from 4500 to 9000 feet, from Assam to Afghanistan. They lay from April till the middle of July. The nests of this species that I have seen in the neighbourhood of Simla were soft masses of moss, lined with very fine moss-roots, or composed almost entirely of these latter, measuring 4 or 5 inches in diameter externally, and with a central depression about 2 to 3 inches in diameter and about 1 to 14 inch in depth, in which the eggs \vere placed. The nests rather convey the idea of a mass of materials having been heaped together, and the birds having formed the egg-cavity by pressure on the centre of the mass, than of having been regularly built in the usual acceptation of the word. Nests, found on the 19th April and the 25th May near Kungbee (Darjeeling), at a height of about 5000 feet, the one in a crevice of a rock, the other in the wall of a shed, were precisely as above described ; but at times they are more regularly cup-shaped. As to the localities in which the nest is placed, the following notes sufficiently explain this ; but I would mention that I have once seen one, as figured by Mr. Hodgson, resting on the fork of a branch. Four is certainly the normal number of the eggs. From Murree Colonel C. H. T. Marshall writes : — " The Ver- diter Flycatcher always builds under the small wooden bridges that cross the hill-paths. We found more than half a dozen nests all situated under these bridges. The eggs are pale pink and sometimes have a few fine speckles on them. Breeds in June, at an elevation from 4000 to 7000 feet." From Dhurmsala Captain Cock sent me the following note : — "• Nidificates in April and May in the North-west Himalayas. Nest is composed of green moss externally, lined with black fibres, cup-shaped and deep, diameter of the inside of the cup from 2| inches to *2\. Nest is usually placed by the side of a road or nullah under some very overhanging bank, often under some low bridge of the hill-roads on one of the rough supports. On two occasions I found the nests in decayed trees, but never at a height of more than 5 feet from the ground. Parent birds sit very close, and may sometimes be caught on the nest. Lays four eggs ; when fresh of a pinky white, with minute faint brick-red marks, having a tendency to form a zone round the larger end. Afer they have been blown, the egg becomes a very faiut buff-colour, with the aforesaid marks." At Mussoorie Captain Hutton records that this " is a common .species throughout the mountains up to about 12,000 feet during summer, arriving about the beginning of March. It breeds in May and June, making a neat nest of green moss in holes of trees, in 10 MfSCLCAPIDJE. stumps, and in the holes of banks by the roadside. The eggs are three or four in number, dull white, with faint rufous specks at the larger end, and somewhat inclined to form a ring." From Almora we hear from Mr. Brooks that " the nest is usually placed in a hole in a steep bank-side, at a tree-root, or hole in the wall of some unfrequented building, under the rafters of the verandah of a dwelling-house, and under the eaves of a house-roof. Once I found one in a small niche inside a small building, or cover built over a well or spring, the size of the little building, which had a domed roof, being about 6 feet square. The floor was ivater, about 3 feet deep, and directly opposite the door was the small niche in the wall, about 8 inches wide, and here the bird sat on its nest in full view of every native who came to draw water. The nest is composed of moss and fine fibres and lined with hair ; eggs four, colour fleshy white, clouded and finely mottled with pale reddish brown at the large end. The egg much resembles some light-coloured varieties of that of the English Robin. Laying in Kuniaon from llth May to middle of June." "At Nynee Tal," says Mr. E. Thompson, "it lays in April, May, and June. It builds on the ground, in holes in banks, corners and holes in rocks, but most frequently under a bridge, in the timbers of which, if it finds a hole, there it will most assuredly make its nest. This latter is circular, cup-shaped, and composed of coarse grass, roots, moss, hair, and fibres. It averages some 4 inches in diameter. The eggs are usually four in number. It breeds at all elevations from 3500 feet and upwards. I have most frequently found the nest placed under a bridge of the common sort made over small streams in our hills. One bred under a bridge near my house in several successive years, and always had four eggs in the nest." Dr. Jerdon states that " it breeds at Darjeeling occasionally in the eaves of houses, but generally on a bank ; makes a neat nest of moss, lined with black fibres and hair, and has generally four eggs, dull white, with small rufous spots." Mr. Garnmie says : — " I took a nest of this species out of an indentation in a dry overhanging bank on the 30th April, 1873. This was at Bishap, at an elevation of about 3000 feet. It con- tained three fresh eggs. The eggs and nest were of the usual type." Colonel Godwin-Austen tells us that this species " breeds in the Khasi Hills, on the Shillong or northern side, in April. Young birds well-fledged were brought in to me in the middle of May." In shape the eggs are a moderately broad oval, somewhat com- pressed towards the smaller end. The ground-colour is pinky white, in some entirely devoid of markings, in others with a more or less conspicuous reddish-pink zone or cap of mottled or clouded speckly markings, generally nearly confluent. These eggs have little or no gloss, and obviously belong to the same type as those of Siltava. The want of distinctness in the markings separates them from those of Terpsiphonc paradisi^ Dicrurus ater, and the like. STOPAHOLA. 1 1 The colouring is a clouded zoue or cap at the best, never defined specks or spots. In length the eggs vary from 0-72 to 0*85 inch, and in breadth from 0-46 to 0-62 inch ; but the average of a very large series is 0*78 nearly by 0'57 inch. 580. Stoparola sordida (Wald.). The Dusky-Slue Flycatcher. Stoparola sordida ( Wald.}, Httme, Cat. no. 302 bis. Mr. Bligh, as quoted by Colonel Legge in his 'Birds of Ceylon,' says : — " The nest is generally in various suitable places, such as a shallow hole in a rotten stump or in the trunk of a forest tree ; and I once found it in a felled tree well protected by a thick branch of a coffee-bush which grew over it. It is composed of moss, lichens, and grasses, lined with fine fibrous materials, and is like a Blackbird's in miniature. The eggs are dull white, thickly sprinkled and blotched with dark reddish." Colonel Legge adds that the breeding-season in Ceylon would appear to be in April and May. 581. Stoparola albicaudata (Jerd.). The Xi Blue Flycatcher. Eumyias albicaudata (Jerd.}, Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 464. Stoparola albicaudata (Jerd.\ Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 302. So far as we yet know, the Xilghiri Blue Flycatcher breeds only on the Nilghiris, at Ooty, Conoor, Xeddiwattam, Kartairy, Kotagherry, and other places, from about 3800 to 6200 feet above the sea. It also breeds in the Pulneys. Xests of this species, sent me from the Nilghiris, and found in holes or depressions of banks, were soft masses of beautiful moss, with a slight substructure of coarse moss and lichen, measuring some 5 inches in external diameter, and with slight depressions some 2 1 inches in diameter and perhaps 1 inch in depth towards one side. The egg-cavity could not be said to be lined, but a greater proportion of very fine black moss-roots entered into the composition of the nest here than elsewhere. I have never taken the nests of this species myself, and I shall leave my correspondents to give their own accounts of its nidifi- cation. Miss Cockburn says : — " I have had the pleasure of finding three of the Blue Flycatchers' nests. The first one was built in a bower (not far from our house), the walls of which, being of stone and having many little holes, a pair of these birds had chosen a snug one to hatch their young in. The other two nests were in holes in the banks of roads. All were extremely neatly 12 MUSCICAPIDJE. built with moss, and lined with hair, and were made very warm and comfortable. They always lay four eggs of a light fawn- colour, the circle at the thick end being a darker shade. The months in which they breed are March and April." Mr. W. Davison remarks: — " Stoparola albicaudata breeds on the Nilghiris in the latter end of April and May ; it nests in holes, either of trees or banks, not unfrequently under the eaves of houses. The nest is built entirely and always of green moss ; the egg-cavity lined with moss-roots. The eggs, generally three in number, are of a pale salmon-pink, indistinctly ringed at the larger end and sparingly spotted over the entire surface with a somewhat darker shade. These eggs vary very much in shade of colour, sometimes being very dark, at others nearly white ; during the breeding- season the males are continually singing, though the song is not much to speak of." Mr. H. E. P. Carter writes :— " On the 12th March I found one egg in a nest near Conoor ; on the 13th a second had been laid. I tried to catch the bird on the nest several times, but failed, and on the 17th 1 shot it. The nest was placed in a hole in a small cutting made to level a road, 2^ feet from the ground. It was cup-shaped, and composed of coarse moss with no lining. I think three eggs seem to be the normal number. The eggs have a yellowish-white ground, mottled brownish at one end, and with very faint mottlings all over. This bird is very shy. I tried several times to catch it with horse-hair nooses, but without success, as it never came to the nest whilst they were set. It always builds in banks. On the 1st April I found a nest in a cutting by the side of a road near Conoor with three youug ones about nine days old." Mr. J. L. Darling, Junior, tells us that this species nests "in banks, trees, rocks, in any convenient hole, at all heights from the ground, sometimes as high as 30 feet. I have found two nests in bridges between the planking and beams, and two under the eaves of houses. The nest is round, and is built entirely of moss ; very rarely a few twigs are used as a foundation. There is no regular lining, but sometimes a few of the breast-feathers of the bird do duty as such. The nest may measure on the outside from 4 to 6 inches in diameter, inside from 2 to 2| inches in diameter, 2 in depth. The eggs are from tw7o to four in number, generally three, rather oblong in shape, about % inch in length, and little less than & inch in breadth. " The colour is whitish brown, getting darker towards the thick end. There are sometimes specks of brown. The eggs might be mistaken by an inexperienced person for those of the Orange-and- black Flycatcher." Mr. Ehodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says : — "It breeds in holes of trees from February to May. The nest is constructed of moss, and is lined with fine fibres. The eggs are from two to three in number, being almost entirely covered with numerous pale rusty- red spots running into one another, some- ANTHIPES. 13 times forming a zone at the larger end, at others so completely covering the egg as to give it the appearance of being entirely of a reddish pink, the colour being always darker towards the larger end. Dimensions of an egg '85 inch by -54." Capt. Horace Terry remarks of this bird on the Pulneys : — " Kodikaual, Pulungi, and Kukal ; got a nest at Kodikanal in June with two hard-set eggs." The eggs, of which many have been sent me, vary a good deal in size, shape, and colour, but they are almost without exception larger and more highly coloured than those of S. melanops. They belong of course to the same type as these and Niltava. In shape they are elongated, at times excessively elongated, ovals, with normally little or no gloss. The ground-colour varies from creamy- white to a pretty warm cafe au lait colour. In some eggs there are no discernible markings ; only the tint grows deeper and brighter towards the large end, with pale reddish brown, brownish red, or red, as the case may be. In some few eggs there is a regular zone of minute red specks round the large end. In length the eggs vary from O76* to 0'88 inch, and in breadth from 0-55 to 0-62 inch, but the average of some fifty eggs is 0-81 nearly by 0 59 inch nearly. 583. Anthipes moniliger (Hodgs.). The Himalayan White-yorgeted Flycatcher. Anthipes moniliger (Hodgs.}, Jerd. B. Ind. \, p. 477 ; Hume, Cat. no. 317. Mr. Mandelli has sent me two nests said to belong to this species. One was found at Lebong at an elevation of about 5800 feet on the 13th May, when it contained four fresh eggs. The nest was placed in a depression of the ground in the midst of grass and low jungle. The other was found in June near the same place, on the ground also amongst the grass on a bank. The one nest is a shallow saucer composed of very fine moss closely felted together, and with a few dry grass and dead leaves incorporated at the base, also one or two feathers. It is about 3*5 inches in diameter, with a small central depression, and a little excessively fine grass is intermingled with the moss on the whole upper surface. The other is very similar but slightly larger, and has the whole base and sides completely coated external] y with dead semi-skeleton leaves. Mr. Mandelli has also sent me eggs said to belong to this species, obtained near Darjeeling on the 3rd of April. I am scarcely in- clined to believe in the authenticity of these eggs. They are moderately broad ovals, somewhat pointed towards the small end, with a very fine compact and glossy shell. The ground- colour is nearly pure white, there is a conspicuous freckled streaky brownish-red zone about the large end, and spots, specks, and tiny streaks of the same colour sparsely scattered about the rest of the 14 MUSCICAPIDJE. surface of the egg. A few purple spots are intermingled with the red markings of the zone. The eggs measure 0-72 by 0-53 and O75 by 0-55 *. 591. Ochromela nigrirufa (Jerd.). The BlacJc-and-Orange Flycatcher. Ochromela nigrorufa (Jerd.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 462 j Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 300. The Black-and-Orange Flycatcher breeds on the hills of Southern India, at elevations of from 5000 to 7000 feet. It lays from March to May, two being the normal number of the eggs, but three being occasionally found. A nest of this species, taken by Mr. Carter at Coonoor, in the Nilghiris, is a very remarkable structure for a bird of this species. It is a huge coarse ball-like nest, made of dry sedge-flags, and very coarse marsh-grass, on a foundation of dead leaves. It is almost incredible at first sight that this nest should really belong to this bird, but this is the normal type of nest, of which I have now seen many. The nest itself has an external diameter of at least 6 inches, and the egg-cavity, which is near the centre of the nest, and which is devoid of lining, is about 2| inches in diameter, and fully 2| inches deep. Other nests taken by Miss Cockburn and Mr. Davison are precisely similar in character, — regular balls of dry sedge and coarse grass, wedged in usually to the centre of a bush, with a small entrance-hole at one side near the top, and entirely devoid of lining, usually with more or less dry leaves as a foundation to the ball. Mr. J. L. Darling, Junior, says : — " I have taken the eggs in March, April, and May in 1870-71-72, at Ooty, Coouoor, and Kotagherry, at elevations of from 5000 to 7000 feet. The nest is placed in thick clumps. The bird is fond of building in the cluster of new shoots that rise from the stump of a tree that has been felled. Usually, the nests are at heights of from 1 to 3 feet from the ground ; but I have found one placed actually on the ground. The nest is globular, higher than it is wide, with a small entrance- hole at one side, below which the nest is a little drawn in and above which the dome projects somewhat. The foundation of the nest is almost always composed of dry leaves and fern, and the rest of it is woven of reed-leaves and flags. There is no lining ; the eggs rest upon the soft reed-leaves. The nest exteriorly is about 6 or 7 inches high and 4 broad, and the diameter of the central spherical cavity is perhaps 3 inches. The eggs are always two in number, * ALSEONAX RUFICAUDUS (Swains.). Cyornis ruficauda (Sw.}, Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 468. Major Ward law Karasay says, writing of Afghanistan : — " Common, and breeding as it was in May, June, and July, I never had the luck to find its nest." OCHROMELA. 15 a dirty-white, somewhat brownish ground, shaded more with reddish brown towards and at the large end." Mr. Davison says : — " The nest of this bird is quite unlike that of any of the Flycatchers with which I am acquainted ; it is (for the size of the bird) a large globular structure, composed chiefly of the dry leaves of a kind of reed common on the Nilghiris and its slopes ; the opening is near the top, and the egg-cavity is very deep ; the eggs, two or three in number, of the true Flycatcher type, being of a pale brownish-salmon colour, indistinctly mottled with a darker colour, the markings coalescing to form a zone or cap at the larger end. Usually it lays only two eggs, but I have taken three. It is a permanent resident from 5000 feet to the summit of the Nilghiris, and when found at a lower elevation than 5000 feet, I believe it is only as a straggler. It breeds from April to the early part of June. The nest is usually placed close to the ground in a clump of ferns or reeds, or some similar situation." Miss Cockburn remarks : — " The Orange Flycatcher had chosen a clump of reeds, in which they had built their nest (rather a large one for so small a bird). The shoots of the reeds were growing all round. It was commenced with large pieces of dry common fern-leaves and continued with a quantity of dry grass, some of which was brought so as to form a hood over the small round opening left at one side. The interior was lined with very fine grass, but contained nothing soft or warm. This nest was found on the llth of May, and another found on the last day of the same month was built with exactly the same materials." Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says : — " This very beautiful little Flycatcher breeds in ravines where the shade and cover is very dense. The nest is built entirely of bamboo-leaves, and is lined with fine fibres. It is placed very low down, from six inches to two feet from the ground ; a clump of fern is a very favourite situation. The eggs are two in number, and are very minutely and thickly speckled with faint reddish brown on a pale olive ground, the whole of the upper part having a regular cap of reddish brown. Dimensions of one, 0-74 inch in length by 0-54 in breadth/' Mr. T. Fulton Bourdillon, writing from the Mynall Estate in Travancore on the 29th March, says : — " Two nests, each containing two fresh eggs, and a new nest, all found in dense jungle at an elevation of 3700 to 4000 feet. The bird is not uncommon here. The nests were composed of the leaves of the eerul (a reed peculiar to the Western Grhats, which has been called Beeslia travaneorica), and domed. From 3 to 8 feet from the ground. Size of egg 0*65 inch by 0-5.'' The first egg of this species which I obtained I owed to Messrs. H. Carter and Wait, who sent it from Conoor (Nilghiris). It is a long oval egg, an exact miniature of some eggs of Myiophoneus temmincki, but also having obvious affinities with the Stoparola and Niltava group. The shell is very fine and delicate, with a very faint gloss. The ground is a pale greyish white, thickly and very 16 finely speckled and mottled all over with very faint brownish red, which speckling becomes confluent towards the larger end, forming a dull, irregular, pale brownish-red cap. Other specimens, received from Miss Cockburn and Mr. Davison, are similar in colour to that already described, but are somewhat broader and less elongated ovals in shape. In some eggs the markings are almost exclusively confined to the larger end, where they form a confluent pale, apparently half-washed out, brownish-pink cap. The eggs vary in length from 0-65 to 0*75 inch, and in breadth from O46 to O58 inch, but the average is 0-7 by 0*53 inch. 592. Culicicapa ceylonensis (Swains.). The Grey-hearted Flycatcher. Cryptolopha cinereocapilla (Viei'l.}, Jerd. B, 2nd. i, p. 455. Myialestes cinereocapilla ( Vieill.\ Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 295. The Grey-headed Flycatcher breeds everywhere in the outer ranges of the Himalayas from 4000 to 7000 feet, in the Wynaad at an elevation of some 3500, and throughout the Nilghiris from an elevation of from 4500 quite to the summits, wherever there is any jungle or forest. It lays during the latter part of April, May, and June ; four being, I think, the normal number of the eggs, but three being often the full complement. The nests, very fully described by my different correspondents, are constructed amidst the growing moss on some perpendicular rock or old trunk of a tree. One now before me, found near Kotagherry on the 20th May, 1871, on a rock near water, about 6 feet above the ground, is a deep massive little cup of moss felted together, a little white and green lichen being intermingled with the moss ; externally it is about 2| inches in diameter and more than 3 inches in height. The cavity is not lined in any way, and is a little more than 1 inch in diameter, and perhaps 2 inches in depth. When in situ this nest was of course covered externally with a great deal of loose moss, which w?as blended with that growing on the rock. Usually they maybe briefly described as quarters of spheres placed against upright surfaces, with rather deeper than hemi- spherical cavities, composed entirely of moss and lichen. Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall writes : — " I have found many nests of this species at Naini Tal. I think they must have two broods in the year; I have as a rule reached the hills in the middle of May and until this year I never got eggs or saw any sign of building till the first week in July, though I watched the birds carefully. This year I came up in the middle of April and found several nests with eggs before the first week in May, and again they are building in the end of June. The bird is very common here, but the nest is almost impossible to see from the ground unless the spot is betrayed by the movements of the birds. All that I have seen without exception were against the moss- covered trunks of large hill-oaks about 30 feet from the ground and unsheltered by folinge." CULICICAPA. 17 From Sikhim Mr. Gainmie writes : — "I have foimd this species breeding in open forests in May and June, at about 5000 feet above the sea. One nest found on the 10th June contained four fresh eggs and was placed in a longitudinal scar on the underside of a large leaning tree (not moss-covered), about four feet from the ground. Outwardly it somewhat resembled the half of an inverted cone split downwards, and measured externally 9 inches in length by 3| across the top. Halfway down the breadth was 1 inch less. The cavity was 1'5 inches in diameter by 1*3 in depth. It was neatly made of moss bound together by cobwebs, and attached to the rough scaly bark of the tree by the same material. The outer moss was intermingled with a few lichens of the same colour as those growing naturally on the tree, and the cavity was most beautifully lined with the red fruiting-stalks of a small moss. I did not know before that moss fruit-stalks were of any further use (independent of their species) than being pretty to look at, but here we have a charming use both for them and the much despised cobwebs." Messrs. Davidson and Wenden, speaking of the Deccan, say : — " Very common in Satara, and undoubtedly breeds there." Mr. J. L. Darling, Junior, writes :— " This species breeds from April to May ; it is found all over the Xilghiris above 4500 feet, and down in the Wynaad from (say) 3500 feet. It attaches its nest with cobwebs to the faces of tree-trunks and rocks at heights of from 7 to 30 feet above the ground. The nest is composed of moss and cobwebs, and has no lining. The outline of the upper surface is nearly semicircular, say about 5 or 6 inches in length, where it joins the rock and projecting some 4 inches. The cavity, which is in the middle of this, is quite circular and deeper than it is wide. The profile of the nest is a quarter of a circle, and externally it is from 4 to 6 inches deep. They lay from three to four eggs ; more generally, I think, the former number." Mr, Davison remarks : — " This bird breeds commonly on the Nilghiris in April and May, choosing as a site for the nest souie moss-covered trunk of a tree or rock, against which the nest is placed ; it is composed entirely of green moss, lined with moss- roots ; it is so constructed that it appears like an ordinary lump of moss. The egg-cavity is very deep, the bird when sitting being invisible at a distance of only a few paces. The eggs are three in number: sometimes, though very seldom, four ; white, ringed at the larger end with indistinct spots of a blackish grey, and with a few spots of the same colour sparingly scattered over the entire surface of the egg." Writing from Kotagherry, Miss Cockburn tells us that " these Flycatchers generally choose the perpendicular sides of rocks on which there is a quantity of green moss as places to build on, and form their pretty little abodes (which in shape somewhat resemble that of a swallow) of moss and cobweb, which makes them difficult to distinguish and impossible to remove uninjured. They build in the month of April and lay four eggs of a light grey, which have VOL. II. 2 18 MTTSCICAPLDJE. the dark streaks and blotches, mostly at the thick end, so peculiar to all Flycatchers' eggs." Captain Hutton remarks : — " I took a nest of this species on 18th April, 1848, in a deep and thickly wooded glen at an elevation of 4500 feet. It was placed against the moss-covered trunk of a large tree, growing by the side of a mountain-stream, and was neatly and beautifully constructed of green moss, fixed in the shape of a watch-pocket at the head of a bed to the mosses of the tree (with which it was completely blended) by numerous threads of spiders' webs. The lining was of the finest grass-stalks, no thicker than horsehair, and beneath the body of the nest depended a long bunch of mosses, fastened to the tree with spiders' webs, and serving as a support or cushion on which the nest rested securely. Within this beautifully constructed fabric were four small eggs of a dull white colour, with a faint olive tinge, and minutely spotted with pale greenish brown, and having a broad and well-defined ring of the same near the larger end. The eggs were set hard." Writing from Murree, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall says : — " Several nests answering to Jerdon's (i. e. Button's) description, like watch-pockets fastened up on the trees, 6000 to 7000 feet up." Mr. Ehodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says : — " This Flycatcher breeds in March and April, building a nest of fine moss, which is attached like a pocket to the mossy trunk of some large shola tree. The nest is almost invariably built under a branch or some other projection to shelter it from the rain, and is very securely attached with cobwebs to prevent it, from being blown down. The eggs are almost always three in number, of a very faint greenish-grey colour, with a wide zone of the same (but darker) colour at the larger end. Dimensions of one 0'62 inch in length by 0'51 in breadth. I have never found its nest on the plains." The eggs are moderately broad ovals, scarcely compressed towards the smaller end. The ground-colour varies from white to a dingy yellowish white, and they have a broad conspicuous con- fluent zone of spots and blotches towards the large end, the colour of which is a mottled combination of dingy yellowish brown and dingy purplish or brownish grey. The rest of the egg is more or less thickly or thinly spotted, speckled, or freckled with very pale dingy brown. The eggs sometimes have a slight gloss, but more commonly are almost glossless. In length they vary from 0'58 to 0'65 of an inch, and in breadth from 0-46 to 0-5 of an inch, but the average of a large series is 0-61 by 0-48, nearly. 593. Niltava grandis (Blyth). The Large Niltava. Niltava grandis (Bl.), Jerd. B. 2nd. i, p. 476 ; Hume, Rouyh Draft N. $ E. no. 316. Dr. Jerdon observes of the Great Niltava that " its nest is very like that of N. sundara, being loosely made of moss, and placed in similar situations, and the eggs only differ in their larger size. NILTAVA. 19 When the nest is placed on the cleft of a rock, the shape of the nest is accommodated to it, so that I have seen the nest shaped like a parallelogram, long, quite flat on the sides, and the two ends just slightly rounded." In Nepal, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, this species lays during April and May, building a more or less massive nest of green moss and lichen, lined with fine moss-roots. The dimensions of one nest are recorded as— exterior diameter 4-5 inches, height 2'5, diameter of cavity 2'6o, depth 1 -5 inches, but they are said to be often larger. They are placed on the branch of some tree, between three or four slender shoots, at an elevation of a few feet above the ground, or at other times in some hole of a decaying tree or on some ledge of rock. They lay four buffy eggs, measuring about 1 inch in length by about 0*73. They have only one brood in the year, and the young are fledged and ready to fly about the middle of July. From Sikhim Mr. Gamtuie writes : — " 1 have seen several nests of this bird, but have only once taken the eggs. It breeds in May and June, in forests from 4000 to 7000 feet of elevation, and lays four eggs. A favourite position for the nest is against the side of a gigantic buttressed tree, about four or five feet up, in the angle formed by two of the buttresses. It also builds in clefts of rocks and similar positions. The nest is made of green moss lined with black fibrous roots, and measures externally 4-5 inches in width by 3'2 in depth ; internally the cavity is 3 inches in diameter by 1'9 deep. " Though this Flycatcher is often seen about Darjeeling, yet numerically it is rather rare. It is very solitary : except at the breeding-season, rarely more than one individual being seen at a time. It is naturally a shy and silent bird, but becomes bold and noisy when its nest or young is approached, at such times both male and female will come quite close to the intruder, uttering their plaintive whistling complaints." A beautiful nest of this species taken on the 21st May by Mr. Gammie at Rishap, at an elevation of 5000 feet, contained three fresh eggs. It was built about 4 feet from the ground on the side of a large moss-covered tree between two small buttresses. It is a massive structure of green moss closely felted together every- where, fully 1 inch in thickness. The cavity is entirely lined with black fern-roots strongly felted together, and measures 2-5 inches in diameter by 1*5 in depth. The general character of the eggs is much that of those of JV. suudara, Stoparola melanops, and >S'. albicaudata. I have never taken the eggs myself, but those that I have received from Dr. Jerdou and Capt. Masson from Darjeeling differ slightly in size, as well as in intensity of colouring. Those that Dr. Jerdon gave me are larger than those sent me with nests and female birds by Captain Masson, averaging T04 inch in length by 0*73 inch against 0-96 in length by 0'72 inch in breadth, which is what Captain Masson's eggs average. 2* 20 MTJSCICAPIDJE. In shape all the eggs are much alike, being long regular ovals, only slightly compressed towards one end, and they have all a very faint gloss. The eggs brought me by Dr. Jerdon are of a uniform very pale fawn or dingy pinkish-white colour, faintly clouded at the large end with reddish pink. Captain Masson's eggs have a sort of pale buffy-white ground, more or less streaked, clouded, or suffused, chiefly at the large end, with buffy-fawrn colour. Both doubtless belong to this species. Eggs sent me by Mr. Garnmie are very broad ovals, slightly compressed towards one end, but very obtuse at both. Looked at from a little distance they are a very pale cafe an lait colour, darker and slightly pinky in a broad undefined zone about the large end. Looked into very closely they seem to have a creamy ground and to be very faintly and closely freckled and mottled over, most densely in the zone already referred to, with a sort of pale pinkish brown. These eggs vary from 0*87 to O91 and from 0*7 to 0*73. Another egg subsequently obtained by him measures 0*89 by 0*69. Other eggs again obtained by Mr. G-ammie were altogether paler, in fact white with the faintest possible pinkish-brown tinge, scarcely perceptibly darker at the larger end. These eggs measure 0-93 and 0'99 by 0-7. 594. Niltava su.nd.ara, Hodgs. The Rufous-bellied tfiltava. Niltava sundara, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 473 ; Hume, Rouyli Draft N. 4- E. no. 314. The Rufous-bellied Niltava breeds everywhere in the Himalayas, at any rate from Darjeeling to the valley of the Beas (I have no record of its breeding further west), from the middle of April to the middle of May. It places its nest in some rocky ledge or crevice, or in or about some decayed stump or fallen trunk. A nest of this species, which I took near Kotegurh on the 15th May, was a mere pad of moss, about 5 inches in diameter and 1^ inch in thickness, with a very broad shallow depression in the centre. In and about the inner surface of this depression a certain amount of very fine silky fur and one or two downy feathers 'were interwoven, making a kind of lining. The nest was placed in a hollow at the base of an aged oak. Four is, I believe, the normal number of the eggs. According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and drawings this species lays in Nepal in April and May. It constructs its nest, which is compact and large for the size of the bird, of green moss, lined with black moss-roots ; it measures exteriorly about 5 inches in diameter and 3 in height ; the cavity is about 2'5 inches in diameter. Of another nest he gives the external diameter as 4-5 inches, height 3 ; internal cavity, diameter and depth 1*5. The nest is placed against the root of some tree or on some ledge of rock, or in some crevice in a cliff or bank. Three or four eggs are laid, measuring about 0'9 by 0-65 inch, of a nearly uniform pinky-fawn colour, slightly darker towards the large end. NILTATA. 21 " At Darjeeling," Dr. Jerdon says, " I several times procured the nest of this bird, situated on a bank, or in the cleft of a rock, or against the fallen stump of a tree. It is loosely made of moss, lined with a few black fibres ; and the eggs, three or four in number, are reddish white, with the large end nearly covered with minute brick-red spots, forming a large patch of dull brick-red. The eggs are remarkably long-shaped." Mr. Grammie says : — " I found a nest of this species in a cleft of a rock near Bungbee, at an elevation of 3800 feet, on the 19th May. The nest was of the usual type — a pad of beautiful soft green moss, lined with the finest and softest moss-roots, — and con- tained three fresh eggs. These, though of the normal type of colouring, were quite abnormally small, measuring 0-77 and 0*8 inch in length, and 0-58 and 0'59 inch in breadth. We snared the bird on the nest, so that there could be no doubt about the species." The eggs are commonly a rather long oval, somewhat pointed towards one end, but spherical and pyriform varieties occur ; as usual in this family, they are almost entirely devoid of gloss. The ground-colour is a pale reddish buff, somewhat paler than that of Stoparola albicfiudata, and the egg is throughout very faintly freckled and mottled with a sort of dingy pink, which is most apparent towards the large end. This mottling is only apparent when the eggs are closely looked into ; at a little distance they appear a uniform very dingy pale buff, slightly darker towards the large end. In length the eggs vary from 0*87 to 1 inch, and in breadth from 0-68 to 0-75 inch ; but the average of a large series is 0-93 by 0-7 1 inch nearly. 595. Niltava macgrigoriae (Burt.). The Small Niltava. Xiltava macgrigoriae (Burt.\ Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 475 : Hume, Rough Draft N. $ JE. no. 315. The Small Niltava breeds in Xepal and Sikhitn from April to June at elevations of from 3000 to 5000 feet. The nests sent me from Darjeeling (along with the eggs and parent birds) closely resemble those of Stoparola melanops and S. albi- caudata, but are larger and more carefully built. They were placed, I am informed, on the ground, and are composed of beautiful soft moss of different kinds, the egg-cavity being partially lined with excessively fine blackish-brown moss-roots. The nests are fully 5 inches in external diameter, and the egg-cavity is about 2| inches in diameter and 1 f inch in depth. A few dead leaves are sometimes incorporated in the base of the nests, which otherwise are entirely composed of beautiful soft feathery mosses and their delicate roots. One nest found at Eishap, Darjeeling, on the 7th May, at an elevation of 4000 feet, contained three fresh eggs, but four is, I believe, the full complement. According to Mr. Hodgson this species breeds in Nepal in April and May, laying three or four unspotted pinkish or fawny-white eggs ; the nest is entirely composed of green moss, in which fine 22 MUSCTCAPID^E. moss-roots are intermingled and is also lined with these. It is nearly globular in shape, from 3-5 to 4 inches in external diameter and fully 2 inches in height ; the cavity is about 2 inches in diameter and 1 inch in depth. The nest is placed in some hole in a decaying prostrate trunk, or at the roots of some yet standing tree, or again on some ledge of rock. The young are ready to fly by July. Eggs taken by Mr. Gammie vary a good deal in shape, but seem to be typically rather elongated ovals. As a rule they seem to have scarcely any gloss. The ground-colour varies from white to a pale brownish-stone colour. The markings always freckly and smudgy, and invariably densest in a /one or rarely a cap about the large end, equally vary very much in distinctness, intensity, and colour. In some they are very faint with a brownish purplish tinge, barely darker than the ground of the egg ; in others they are a distinct brownish or reddish pink, here and there intermingled with brownish purple. In some eggs they form merely a faint cloud at the large end ; in others they form a well-marked zone round this end, and extend pretty well over the w7hole surface of the egg. Six eggs varied from O71 to 0-81 inch in length and from 0'5 to 0-56 in breadth. 598. Terpsiphone paradisi (Linn.). Tie Indian Paradise Flycatcher. Tchitrea paradisi (Linn.}, Jercl. B. I/id, i, p. 445 ; Hume. Rouqli Draft N. $ E. no. 288. The Indian Eocket-bird or Paradise Flycatcher breeds through- out the exterior ranges of the Himalayas in the warmer valleys up to an elevation of 55UO feet ; at any rate from Nepal to Afghanistan. Even at considerable distances in the interior, as about Almorah, Kotegurh, and the Sutlej Valley, Sooltanpoor, and the valley of the Beas, and Cashmere, it is common. Throughout the warm Sub-Himalayan forest-tracts, in the Doon, the Terai, and the northern portions of JRohilcund and Oudh, and in wooded portions of Jhansee, Saugor, Niinar, Raipoor, and doubtless other portions of the Central Provinces, it breeds, though more sparingly in these latter. It breeds in Southern India, but I have scanty in- formation as to its nidification there, and neither Miss Cockburn, Mr. Davison, nor any other of my Mlghiri correspondents appear to have taken its nest there. Alike in plains and hills it lays during May, June, and July. The nest is commonly a delicate little cup, never very deep, often rather shallow, composed, according to locality, of moss, moss-roots, vegetable fibres, and fine grass, which latter generally constitutes the greater portion of the f ramework, bound round exteriorly with cobwebs in which little white silky cocoons are often intermixed. Sometimes, owing to the situation in which it is placed between two or three upright twigs, the nest is exteriorly a broad inverted cone. I have one, taken in the Agrore Valley by Captain Unwin, that is exteriorly 4 inches deep and 3 inches in diameter at the upper rim ; but, as a rule, the exterior depth does not exceed 2 inches, and the TEKPSIPHOTTE. 23 cavity varies in diameter from 2 to 2'75, and in depth from 1 to 1/6. There is, not uncommonly, a good deal of horsehair woven in the interior surface of the cavity, and this, with the finer grass which is used in this part of the nest, forms a sort of lining. The walls of the nest are scarcely above | inch in thickness, and where the nest rests, as it often does, on the flat surface of some broad hori- /ontal bough, just where some twig (which is then firmly incorpor- ated in the nest) rises perpendicularly or nearly so from that surface, the bottom of the nest is hardly thicker, but at times, when fitted in between two or three such twigs, it is as much as 2 or 2| inches in thickness. The nests in fact exhibit the forms of those of both Rhipidura aureola and It. albicollis, and though larger and perhaps, as a rule, somewhat less densely coated with cobwebs, closely re- semble these, as they do also, in a somewhat less degree, those of ^Et/ithina tiphia and Tephrodornis pondiceriana. The full number of eggs laid is four. As to the plumage in which these birds breed, Mr. Gould says (* Birds of Asia') : — " I believe that when the long feathers have been once acquired by either sex, they are not again thrown off, and that they are not a seasonal or breeding characteristic, as some authors have supposed; the short-tailed birds, which are always chestnut, are very young birds." This, according to my experience, is certainly wrong. I have taken from first to last some thirty nests, and in every case found the sitting female to be a short-tailed cinnamon-coloured bird, and in (dmost every case I found the male to be a long-tailed cinnamon- coloured bird. In a very few cases the males were white, and in a few parti-coloured. AVriting some years ago from Bareilly in June, I said : — " In the public gardens is a large circular reservoir, dry and empty during the hot season, but now half full of water ; on the banks on one side are a number of sheeshum trees (Dalbergia sissoo), and on one of the outermost branches of these, at the very end, where the branch hangs nearly straight downwards, and where only one independent twig dissenting from its principal persists in growing straight up- wards, there, between branch and twig, was placed a half egg-shaped nest, a mere shell, very closely and compactly woven of fine grass- roots and grass, thickly coated exteriorly with cobwebs, in amongst which a great number of small white empty cocoons had been inter- woven. The nest was nowhere much above £ inch in thickness, and the cavity was about 2| inches in diameter at the margin and 1| inch deep. A nest we took the other day was seated on a horizontal branch of a mango tree, had horsehair and a little fine tow interwoven with the grass interiorly, and was a trifle smaller ; exteriorly the two were precisely similar. " On this nest, its head tucked close in, with only the beak pro- jecting in front, but with the whole tail from the vent showing beyond the nest behind, sat a chestnut female, whose centre tail- feathers were not in the slightest degree elongated. The nest contained three fresh eggs, precisely similar to the four which we 24 MTTSCTCAPIDJE. took two days ago. They were white, with a very pale salmon- coloured tinge, with numerous dull red specks and spots, nearly all gathered into a large patch at the broad end, \vhere they were partly confluent, and their interspaces filled up by a haze of a paler shade of the same colour, as if the colouring of the spots had partially run." I took a lovely nest of this species on the 10th of May in the Calcutta Botanical Gardens. Exteriorly it was a broad cone, base uppermost, 3 inches in diameter, and 3 inches in vertical height ; interiorly a deep cup 2*5 in diameter and 1*7 in depth. The inside was a light basket-work of the finest grass-stems — there was no attempt at a lining. It was placed between two twigs, the main one down drooping, the smaller standing up and forming an angle of about 60°. Bound the slight basket-nest and round these twigs was closely twined a series of firm bandages of vegetable fibre, and the whole was so closely plastered over with small white cocoons, bound on by their silk and with cobwebs, as to leave scarcely any- thing else visible. The twigs were quite at the outside of the tree, but the nest was well surrounded and concealed from view by surrounding leaves. The nest contained four partly incubated eggs of the usual type. A short-tailed chestnut female was sitting on the nest and a long- tailed chestnut male was close at hand. Major C. T. Bingham writes : — " I found seven nests of this bird in a mango and peach garden here at Delhi on the 27th May and 12th June. Of these four were on peach-trees not above six feet from the ground, and three on mango-trees about fifteen feet from the ground. All the nests were beautifully made, firm, deep cups, plastered outside by tiny wThite cocoons and constructed of fibres of plantain and grass-roots — no lining. Five contained four eggs each, one five, and the seventh two rather hard-set ones. They are all white (rather a straw-coloured white), with reddish-brown spots chiefly at the larger end. Strange to say, the males belonging to the nest containing five and the nest containing two eggs were in chest- nut garb, w7hile the males of the other nests were white ones. The females in all seven cases were chestnut with white bellies and short tails. The average of 12 eggs was 0*8 inch in length by 0-65 inch in breadth." Captain Hutton remarks : — " Several nests of this beautiful species were taken during the month of June in the Dehra Doon. They are generally perched high upon some tree that overhangs the side of a ravine, and are consequently somewhat difficult of access. The bird is likewise to be found during the summer months in some of the warmer valleys of the hills, and breeds up to an eleva- tion of 5500 feet on the outer hills. " The eggs are four in number, and wrhite, sparingly dotted over with brick-red spots, with an open ring of the same at the large end. The nest is small, beautifully and compactly constructed of very fine blades of grass and a little green moss neatly interwoven into the shape of a small cup, and well plastered over externally with cobwebs ; the lining is of very fine grass-stalks, sometimes TEEPSIPHOXE. 25 with the addition of a little horsehair. It is usually placed at the point where three or four twigs spring from the branch, and these are completely incorporated into the sides of the nest, the materials of which entirely envelope them, so that they appear protruding from, or through, the sides of the light and graceful fabric. They differ somewhat in point of size, some being rather larger and more open than others." Mr. Brooks writes : — " Common in the villages about Almorah, seldom coming up to the elevation of the town itself. I have two males shot off the nest in the chestnut plumage. The nest is a neat cup-shaped one, fixed to a thin branch of a tree by means of fine grass and spiders' webs. It is composed of moss, fibres, and crass, and covered thickly outside with spiders' web. The internal diameter of the nest is about "2 inches, and it is lined with fine grass. The bottom of the nest now described rests on a small twig growing out of the thin branch to which the nest is bound. Number of eggs, three ; 9| lines long by 7j lines broad, of a buffy white ground-colour, or more properly buff, sparingly spotted with reddish brown and purplish grey, tending to form a zone at the larger end in nearly every instance. " It lays in Kumaon in the third week in May." Dr. Scully, writing from Nepal, observes : — " In the valley it breeds in May and June, both sexes sharing in the incubation and feeding of the young. Many nests of this species were seen and taken in woods and gardens, but the account given in ' Nests and Eggs ' is so complete that I need not take up space here by enter- ing into long descriptions ; I must note, however, that although the usual number of eggs laid is four, I have twice met with five eggs in a nest." From Murree Colonel C. H. T. Marshall reports :— " We took ten nests in May, June, and July. The female was in all instances chestnut, with a white breast and short tail. This is one of the commonest nests to be got about Murree. Average elevation 5000 feet." Dr. Henderson says : — " The Paradise Flycatcher was very abundant in Kashmir. Two nests were found, both on the forks of trees — one on an apple-tree, the other on a mulberry-tree, and high up in small branches. There was a single egg in one nest, and in the other four. The nests were made of very fine hair-like strips of mulberry-bark, with grass, moss, and cobwebs outside." Major "Wardlaw Ramsay says, writing of Afghanistan: — "Among the orchards at Shalofyan, in the Kurrum valley, it is especially abundant. I found it there in June, evidently breeding." In Eajputana, Lieut. Barnes informs us that " the only nest of the Paradise Flycatcher that I found was in June and it was not quite finished. I sent a shikaree a week later to examine it, when it contained a single egg, which he brought in." Professor Littledale, writing about the birds of Baroda, says : — " The Paradise Flycatcher is very common here during the rains, when it breeds. In all instances, except one out of nine nests that 26 MUSCICAPID^;. I found with eggs last June and July, the birds were in the chest- nut plumage, and in that one case the male was white and the female chestnut. The Myuas destroyed three nests of one pair of Paradise Flycatchers that built in a mango-tree near my house. I saw the little Flycatcher defend her first nest for nearly twenty minutes against a Myna that at last retired. Next day, however, the nest was torn to bits, by the Myna I suppose. It was twice rebuilt on other branches of the same tree, with the same result." The only note I have on the breeding of this bird in Southern India is one by Mr. C. J. "W. Taylor, who remarks that it breeds in Mysore in July. Colonel Legge writes of the nidification of this bird in Ceylon : — " Mr. Parker writes me that the Paradise Flycatcher breeds about Madewatchiya in April and May. Layard mentions having found a nest at Tangalla, in the fork of a satin wood tree, and that the nest was 'a neat well-built cup-shaped structure, compose.! exter- nally of mosses and lichens and lined with hair and wool.' " The eggs are miniatures of the warmer-coloured types of Bu- clianya ater ; in shape they are, like these, typically a rather long oval, somewhat pointed towards one end. The ground-colour varies from pale pinkish white to a warm salmon-pink, and they are more or less thickly speckled, chiefly at the large end (where there is a tendency to form an irregular cap), with rather bright, but somewhat brownish-red, spots. Amongst the markings at the larger end a few tiny, pale, inky-purple blotches often occur. There is often a faint gloss on some of the eggs, but, as a rule, they are dull and glossless like the rest of the eggs of this family. I have seen eggs of the European Spotted Flycatcher not differing very widely from these except in shape, the eggs of the European bird being typically shorter, if not broader. In length the eggs vary from O75 to O85 inch and in breadth from 0-56 to 0*65 inch, but the average of twenty eggs is O81 by 0-6 inch. 599. Terpsiphone affinis (Hay). The Burmese Paradise Flycatcher. Tchitrea affinis (Hay), Jerd. B. 2nd. i, p. 448. Muscipeta affinis (Hay), Hume, Cat. no. 289. Writing from Pegu, Mr. Gates says : — " This species is common in the hills and not rare in the plains. It may occasionally be seen in the cholera-camp hills in Thayetrayo ; the males in April are generally in the chestnut plumage, but a fine male shot on the 21st May, which was undoubtedly breeding, was in the white plumage. " I found the nesfc in the evergreen forests of the Pegu Hills on the 30th April. It was placed near the top of a small sparsely branched sapling. *' The interior of the nesfc is a perfect hemisphere ; exteriorly the depth is rather greater than the diameter — Interior diameter, about 2| inches. Exterior 3 to 4 inches. HTPOTHYMIS. 27 " The foundation and exterior were formed almost entirely of dry bamboo-leaves, well curved to shape, and rather coarse fibres ; the interior was formed with fine fibres and a few grass-stalks. There were two eggs, quite fresh, both measuring -75 x '58 ; both male and female birds were in chestnut plumage. The female when sitting has the whole head and tail projecting over the nest. The male has a loud harsh chatter, incessantly uttered when any one comes near the nest." Mr. J. Darling, Jun., writes : — " 21st April. Found a nest just building, three feet from ground, in a fork of a small sapling in bamboo jungle, east of Tavoy." Two beautiful little nests are sent me by Mr. Gammie as belong- ing to this species, but differ so much from those of the allied species that, as he did not take them with his own hands, I must consider that their authenticity requires confirmation. The nests were taken in the Teesta valley in April, at an eleva- tion of 500-700 feet only above sea-level. They are deep cups, about 2-5 inches in diameter and 1*75 in height exteriorly, and with cavities about 2 in diameter and 1*3 in depth. They are com- posed of fine blades of grass wound carefully round and round, and completely though thinly coated with moss, firmly held in its place by a few strings of cobweb. The one is lined entirely with excessively fine brown hair-like grass and rootlets, the other with fine black (?) fern-stems, which I took to be horsehairs until burn- ing one I found that it was vegetable matter. T\vo eggs sent me by Mr. Gammie are moderately elongated ovals, a little pointed towards one end. The shells are very fine, but have only a slight gloss. The ground-colour is pinky white, and they are sparingly speckled, chiefly in an irregular ill-defined zone round the large end, where in one egg the specks are rather densely set, with pale, slightly brownish, red. In and about the zone a few pale purple specks and tiny clouds are noticeable. The eggs are very similar to those of T. paradisi, moderately broad ovals, obtuse at one end, somewhat pointed towards the other, the shells fine and delicate, but compact and strong, and with a perceptible though not striking gloss. The ground-colour is a pinky cream, and they are profusely speckled and spotted in an irregular imperfect zone about the large end, and thinly else- where, with red, sometimes bright, sometimes slightly brownish, and more sparingly with pale purple or purplish grey. Six eggs vary in length from 0'79 to 0'89 and in breadth from 0-6 to 0-62. G01. Hypothymis azurea (Bodd.). The Indian Black-naped Flycatcher. Myiagra azurea (Bodd.}, Jerd. B. 2nd. i, p. 450 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. # E. no. 290. The Indian Black-naped Flycatcher breeds in the low, warm, well-wooded valleys of the Sub-Himalayan Ranges to a height of 28 MUSCICAPID^. about 3000 feet, in the forest-tracts at their bases, and generally throughout India and Burma. They lay from May to August, but the majority of them, I believe, in June and the early part of July. Five is, I believe, the maximum number of eggs, and four the normal number. The nests are usually placed in slender forks of the exterior branches of trees, at no great height from the ground, or attached to some pendent bamboo-spray. They are deep, compact little cups, more massive than those of the Rkipidwra, though much of the same general type. The diameter of the cavity is from 1*5 to 1'75 inch, the depth from 1 to nearly Ij, and the sides and bottom of the nest may be about § inch thick. The nest is composed internally of fine grass-stems, well woven together ; externally of rather coarser grass and vegetable fibres ; the whole partially coated with cobwebs, by which numerous small white cocoons and commonly some tiny pieces of dry leaves and lichen are attached to the nest. In nests from the Nilghiris (found on the 10th and 24th June, placed as usual in forks of branches and twigs at heights of from 7 to 8 feet from the ground) a good deal of green moss is intermingled with the cocoons in the exterior coating. The nests, too, are somewhat larger, I think, than our northern ones, having internal cavities of fully 2 inches in diameter and 1| inch in depth. Mr. J. Davison, C.S., when bird-nesting on the Kondabhari Grhat on the 12th July, writes : — " I also found four nests of H. azurea, one with a fresh egg, which I left, and the rest either empty and old or with big young. This bird is very common on this Grhat, and makes its nest generally on an umar tree." Mr. W. Davison says : — "I found a nest of this bird on the 28th August, 1871, between Groodalore and the Ouchterlony Valley. It was an exceedingly neat cup-shaped nest, fastened to one of the sprays of a bamboo that overhung the road ; it contained three very young birds." Dr. Jerdon informs us that " Mr. Ward procured the nest at Honore, in a bamboo-clump, made with bamboo-leaves and fibres, and containing two eggs, white, with a few large blotches of pur- plish red." There must be some mistake here, as this will not answer either to the nest or eggs of our bird. Colonel W. V. Legge writes of the breeding of this Flycatcher in Ceylon as follows : — " H. azurea, which is an inhabitant of our forests and damp jungle from the sea-level in all parts of the island to an altitude of 4000 feet and more, breeds from April to July. I know of no little bird architect in our province who can excel it in the neatness and finish of its little habitation. A nest I found in a Western Province forest on the 2nd June, 1870, was fixed into the fork of an upright sapling at about 4 feet from the ground, and was made in the shape of a deep cup with an internal diameter of 1| inch; the materials of which it was constructed were fine strips of thin bark and moss, very neatly woven together, and the rim and exterior were fancifully decorated and bound with HTPOTHYMIS. 29 a cocoon-like substance ; the lining consisted of fine creeper- tendrils unmixed with any other material. The nest was firmlv attached to the two arms of the fork by means of the cobwebs and cocoons used to decorate the exterior surface of the nest. The eggs were two in number, of a buff-white ground, spotted, mostly at the obtuse end, with light sienna-red and a few specks of darker hue. In shape they were round ovals, and measured O66 inch in length by 0*54 in diameter." Mr. Gates, writing from Pegu, says : — " May 28th. Nest with three eggs slightly incubated." Mr. J. Darling, Jun., writes : — " 4th April. Found a nest of H. azurea, some 30 miles from Tavoy, in the heavy forest at the foot of Nwalabo hill; it was built in the fork of a small sapling, 5 feet from the ground. Xest built of fibres and moss, plastered with spiders' webs, intertwined with the long feathery substance off the ' mealy bug ; ' the bottom of the nest was continued down to a point over an inch long. The nest contained three fresh eggs. " 21st April. Took two nests of H. azurea, both built in small saplings in jungle with plenty of undergrowth, at heights of 2J and 3 feet from the ground ; east of Tavoy." A lovely nest of this species, found with three fresh eggs on the 21st April near Tavoy by Mr. Darling, deserves separate descrip- tion. It is placed between the fork of two upright twigs, each about 5 of an inch in diameter ; it is an extremely regular inverted cone, 3*5 inches in height and 2-25 in diameter at the top, which is the base of the cone. It is composed of fine vegetable fibre closely and carefully wound together, completely enveloping the two twigs betueen which it is placed; it is then coated with green moss, bound together with cobweb, and dotted all over with tiny white cocoons and scraps of these. The cavity is a deep and perfect cup, 1/9 inches in diameter and 1*5 inches in depth, lined first with very fine grass-stems no thicker than horsehair, and then again very thinly lined with black horsehair. The eggs of this latter species, which I have myself taken and which I owe to Miss Cockburn of Kotagherry, Mr. F. E. Blewitt, and others, are of much the same type as those of so many of this family. In shape they are moderately broad and very regular ovals, occasionally slightly compressed towards the smaller end ; the shell is very fine and smooth, but they have little or no gloss ; the ground-colour varies from almost pure white to a pale salmon-pink ; the markings consist of specks or spots of red or reddish pink, varying much in intensity, amongst which a few small pale-purple spots are in some eggs intermingled. As a rule, the markings are chiefly about the larger end of the egg, to which in some they are exclusively confined, and where they often form a more or less strongly marked, and more or less confluent zone, or cap, as the case may be. In some the markings are small spots, in others the minutest specks imaginable ; and where the markings are pretty dense, as they are in some eggs about the large end, they are com- monly more or less enveloped in a reddish halo. The eggs, as will 30 MUSCICAPID^E. be readily understood from this description, vary very considerably in appearance, some inclining more to the type of Terpsiplionc paradisi, others to those of Stoparola melanops, but the character of all is the same. In length they vary from O66 to 0*71 inch, and in width from 0-5 to O55 inch, but the average of seventeen eggs is a little less than 0-69 inch by a little less than 0*53 inch. 602. Hypothymis tytleri (Beavan). The Andaman Blaclc-naped Flycatcher. MyiagTa tytleri, Beavan, Hume, Rouyh Draft N. 8f E. no. 290 bis. A nest of the Andaman Black-naped Flycatcher was found at Aberdeen, 8. Andaman, on the 23rd April, 1878; it was fastened to the branch of a small tree that overhung the path. In shape it is an inverted cone, 3 inches in depth exteriorly and 2^ inches in diameter ; the egg-cavity, which is nearly hemispherical, is 2 inches in diameter and 1*1 in depth. The nest is very compactly woven, of soft vegetable fibre, with which also it is firmly bound against the slender stem to which it is attached. Towards the exterior a good deal of green moss, a number of satiny white cocoons, and a little bright ferruginous fern-root have been incorporated in the nest, and the whole carefully coated, though not thickly so, with gossamer threads and spiders' webs, and the cavity of the nest neatly lined with black hair-like moss-roots. The eggs were three in number, very similar to those of H. azurea, but perhaps more strongly marked ; in shape they are regular broad ovals ; the shell is smooth and fine, and has a faint gloss ; the ground-colour varies from pinky to creamy white, and towards the large end there is a broad irregular zone of red or brownish-red specks or spots, in one egg very minute and closely set, in another larger and less numerous, surrounded more or less with a pinkish Jialo ; here and there a few tiny spots or clouds of lilac may be detected amongst the other markings of the zone ; outside the zone tiny specks, few and far between, diversify the rest of the surface of the egg. In length the eggs measured 0*67 and 0'68 inch, and in breadth 0-52 and 0'53 inch. 603. Chelidorhynx hypoxanthum (Bl.). The Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. Chelidorhynx hypoxantha (-#/.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 455 ; Hume, Rouyh Draft N. $ E. no. 294. I know nothing of the breeding of the Yellow-bellied Fantail. Dr. Jerdon tells us that at Darjeeling he had the nest brought him, but after the young had flown. " It is an exceedingly neat, deep, cup-shaped nest, made of moss, lichen, hairs, and wool, well carded into a compact structure." BHIPIDURA. 31 Mr. Hodgson figures the nest of this species as a very beautiful, deep, and compact cup, placed on a horizontal fork of a thin branch, composed interiorly of grass-roots closely interwoven, and exteriorly thickly coated with moss and lichens. The egg in the drawing in my possession (which is the original) is represented as nearly white without spots. In the finished copy in the British Museum Mr. Blyth says that the egg is shown as "white faintly speckled." Mr. E. Thompson, writing from the Kumaou Bhabur, says that this " species breeds in May and June, and builds its cup-shaped, deeply hollow nest on the horizontal branch of a tree, either in a grove, coppice, or damp valley, the bird preferring thick woods to live in. The nest is composed of fine hairs, moss, roots, and plenty of cobwebs, all nicely felted together, forming a neat com- pact little nest about 2 inches in diameter. I never took down the eggs." 604. Rhipidura albifrontata, Frankl. The White-browed Fantail Flycatcher. Leucocerca albofrontata (Frankl.), Jerd. B. 2nd. i, p. ±o'2 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ J5. no. 292. The White-browed Fantail Flycatcher breeds all over the plains of Continental India, and in the lower ranges of the Himalayas up to an elevation of at least 4000 feet. It certainly breeds twice in the year, and if not disturbed rears a second brood in the same nest. Eggs may be found, for I have myself found them, from the latter end of February to the early part of August, but the two chief periods are March and July. The nests, fully described below, are generally seated on the broad surface of some horizontal bough or else placed on some horizontal slender fork. The following are some of the many notes I have from time to time recorded about the nidification of this species : — " Etawah, 29th of March, 1867. — Took a nest of this Fantail. It was placed, as they almost always here are, on a mango-tree, resting on the upper surface of a nearly horizontal branch. It was a deep hemispherical cup, with an internal diameter of about 1'75 inch and a depth of about 1-12. It had for internal frame- work a sort of basket of very fine grass-stems, and was externally everywhere thickly coated with cobwebs ; the total thickness of the sides nowhere exceeded | inch, but at the bottom, owing to the irregularity of shape of the bough on which it was built, it was in places as much as 0'5 inch thick. It contained three, very similar, slightly incubated eggs. In shape short, ovals. The ground white, with many excessively minute yellowish-brown specks, and near the middle towards the large end a pretty broad nearly confluent zone of these specks and faint greyish-brown, or perhaps very pale inky ones, of a rather larger size. The white ground in the neighbourhood of this zone is feebly and partially tinged with buffy." 32 MUSCICAPID^E. "April \Wi. — Saw a nest of this just ready to lay in. It never appears to lay more than three eggs." " July 22nd. Agra. — Nest and one egg. The nest was built on the junction of a stout three-pronged branch on which it was firmly seated, having the cobwebs with which, as usual, it was coated, entwined round each of the branches successively. It was found in a mango-tree. The interior of the nest was lined with several pieces of flowering grass. The nest was 2 inches in diameter, T37 inch in depth exteriorly, and 1 inch interiorly." " Auyust 1st. — A beautiful little nest containing three hard-set eggs. The nest was of the usual type, round, cup-shaped, wound round entirely with cobwebs and fastened to a branch of a mango- tree. It was lined \vith fine grass-roots and a little horsehair." " July 15th. — Adam found a nest of this species at Muttra in a shrub of Cerbera thevetia ; it contained three fresh eggs. We have a large series of these now, and altogether they show a sort of family likeness to the eggs of many of the true Shrikes, and especially to those of the pretty little Lanius vittatus" Writing from Bareilly, I said : — " The crow whose eggs we had just taken kept flying about uneasily from tree to tree, when suddenly out darted at it a little bird about one-twentieth of its weight ; white below, smoke-coloured above, with a conspicuous white eyebrow plainly visible as it darted after the dusky giant, whose approach it evidently so strongly disapproved. The flight, and the long fan-shaped outspread tail, left no doubt that it was R. albifrontata, one of the Fan-tailed Flycatchers. The nest was seated on a horizontal branch of a mango-tree, a very delicate small tumbler-like affair ; scarcely | inch in thickness anywhere, closely woven of very fine grass, and coated over its whole exterior with cobwebs. The interior diameter was about 1-75 inch, the depth about 1*12 inch. Although the little bird returned and sat across it, its beak and half the head projecting in front, and the whole tail from the vent overhanging behind the nest, the latter contained no eggs." Mr. F. E-. Blewitt, writing of his experiences in Jhansie and Saugor, says : — " Breeds in July and August. I obtained four nests, all on neem trees and firmly attached to the upper surface of a branch where it divided into two slender stems making a fork, on which, in each case, it was placed. The nest is very neatly made ; on the exterior composed entirely of vegetable fibre, with a pretty thick coating of some spiderweb-like substance over the vegetable fibre. It is cup-shaped, the lining of it consisting of very fine grass. The outer diameter fairly averages 2-4 inches, inner cavity 2 inches, depth 1 inch." Mr. R. M. Adam remarks : — " In North Behar I found this bird building on the 21st April. In Oudh I took two nests in May ; one contained three, the other two eggs. About Agra I have taken- nests in June and July." Major C. T. Bingham says : — " I found one nest of this bird at Allahabad on the 3rd of July placed on the fork of a mango-tree, BHIPJDUBA. 33 which contained two eggs ; and a second nest at Delhi on the 8th July, similar to the former and similarly placed ; this also con- tained two eggs. The nests are neat beautiful little cups, firmly made of very fine grass-roots and unlined ; they are plastered, however, on the outside with cobwebs." Colonel E. A. Butler remarks : — " Several nests, containing three fresh eggs each, in March and April at Hydrabad, Sind, and a nest containing two slightly incubated eggs, 1st July in the same neigh- bourhood." Again, from Sind he writes: — "Kurrachee, June 10th, 1877. A nest containing three fresh eggs on one of the small outer branches of a tamarind tree about twelve feet from the ground." And, detailing his experiences at Deesa, he says : — " I found a nest of the White-browed Fantail at Deesa on the 1st June, 1876, containing one fresh egg. The nest Mas placed upon a small bough of a Ficus religiosa about 20 feet from the ground. The old bird when I visited it the first time seemed quite as fidgetty on the nest as they are when hunting for insects, turning constantly from side to side with outspread tail, often turn- ing a complete circle. Every now and then she would fly off on to a neighbouring bough for a second or two and then return to the nest again. The cock bird is always close at hand, and often utters a few soft sweet notes, which can hardly, however, be called a song. He has also a harsh Shrike-like note, which he utters if a Crow or any other bird approaches the nest, upon which occasions he is quite as pugnacious as a King-Crow, dashing angrily at the intruder without the slightest fear or hesitation, and mobbing him persistently until he leaves the spot. I found another nest on the 18th June in another tree about 10 yards off built by the same pair of birds, containing three much incubated " On the 22nd instant I visited the place again and found to my surprise that the same pair of birds had built another nest on a small branch of the same tree within a few feet of the one I had taken on the 18th instant. On the 29th I sent a boy up the tree and found the nest contained three fresh eggs. On the 1st July they built a nest on the stump of the bough broken off with the nest taken on the 18th June, and on the 10th July I took three fresh eggs from it. In a couple of days I visited the place again, and found that they had almost completed another nest (the fifth). I returned on the 19th July, and took three fresh eggs out of it. I visited the place again on the 24th July, and found another nest (the sixth) built on the other side of the tree. On the 28th I went to take it and found three fresh eggs. Strange to say the old birds had built another perfect nest, this time on the same bough about one foot above it, for what reason I do not know, as of course only one (the lower) contained eggs. I visited the place a few days later and saw the two old birds again, but they did not build another nest. VOL. II. 3 34 " On the 21st July, 1876, a nest containing 3 eggs slightly incubated. 29th „ „ 3 fresh eggs. 31st „ „ 3 fresh eggs." Lieut. H. E. Barnes informs us that in Kajpootana this Fly- catcher " breeds from the latter part of February to the commence- ment of August, but most nests are found in March and July, and from this 1 infer that they have two broods in the year." Messrs. Davidson and Wenden writing of the Deccan say :— " Tolerably common, and breeds." Captain Hutton tells us that " a beautiful small nest of this bird was taken in the Doon on the 22nd of May ; it contained three small eggs of a creamy white, longitudinally dashed with dusky brown or pale sepia. The nest was a very elegant little oval cup, composed of an open basket-work of very fine stalks of plants, and thickly plastered over externally with cotton and the seed-down of plants so as to render the whole compact and strong. "It ascends as high as 5000 feet in the summer months." From Murree Colonel C. H. T. Marshall records that "the nest of this Fantail is very neatly made, shallow cup-shaped, care- fully covered outside with cobwebs. It is built on a thin branch about ten feet up a tree. The eggs much resemble diminutive Shrike's eggs. Breeds in June." Dr. Jerdon says : — " I have had the nest brought me, very neatly made with fine roots, lined with hair, deeply cup-shaped, and fixed in the fork of a bamboo. The eggs were white, with some rather large reddish-brown spots." There is here some mistake ; this will not answer at all to the nest and eggs of our bird. Clearly it is the same nest that Ward erroneously took for that of Hypothymis azurea as already noticed. I cannot imagine what the bird is to which this nest belonged, and I wish some of my Southern Indian contributors would try and solve the difficulty. Colonel Legge writes : — " This Flycatcher breeds in Ceylon during the early part of the year. I have not had the good fortune to see its cleverly-constructed little nest myself ; but Mr. Jefferies, of Gangawoora Estate, described to me one which was constructed in an orange-tree in his compound at Hindugalla, as being a beautiful little cup-shaped structure placed on a thin branch which oscillated to and fro with the wind, and which the architect, with wonderful skill, had tied to an adjacent branch with a ' stay ' consisting of a fine creeper-tendril. This is so extraordinary, that had not my friend been a well-known observer of bird life, and very fond of natural history, I could scarcely have credited the statement." The eggs are typically moderately broad ovals, a good deal com- pressed towards one en'd, and almost invariably exhibit the typical Shrike-like zone. The ground-colour varies from pure white to very pale yellowish brown or dingy cream-colour, and the markings are, as a rule, almost confined to a broad irregular zone, near the large end, of greyish-brown specks and spots of greater or less BUIPIDUHA. 35 intensity of colour, often more or less confluent or connected together by a dull haze of the same shade, and at times inter- mingled with spots or tiny clouds of very faint inky purple. The upper end of the egg inside of the zone is commonly thinly speckled with spots similar to those composing it. The lower portion of the egg below the zone is as often as not spotless ; in other cases it is very thinly speckled like the space inside the zone. In some eggs the markings are absolutely confined to the zone. The eggs are not unlike those of Culicicapa rinereicapilla, which, however, are smaller ; but they are always more feebly marked than these. In length they vary from 0*6 to O76 inch, and in breadth from 0*48 to 0*55 inch ; but the average of thirty eggs measured is 0*6(5 by 0-51 inch. 605. Rhipidura albicollis (Vieill.). The White-throated Fantail Flycatcher. Leucocerca fuscoventris (Frankl.}, Jerd. B. 2nd. i, p. 451 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 291. The White-throated Fantail Flycatcher breeds in the wooded Sub- Himalayan tracts and all the warmer valleys of the outer Hima- Inyan ranges (up to an elevation of 4000 or 5000 feet) from Debrooghur to Murree, in Eastern and Lower Bengal, and in the forest districts of Central India, in Eaipoor and the Tributary Mehals, and doubtless throughout Burma. It lays in May, June, and the early part of July. The nests of this species are typically solid, and compactly built, inverted cones, placed usually in some slender upright fork, which is completely imbedded in the structure of the lower part of the nest ; the nests are externally from 3'5 to 4 inches in depth, and from 2'5 to 2*75 in their greatest diameter; they are not, as a rule, true cones, as they generally continue for some distance nearly of the same size, and are then contracted rather rapidly ; the rim of the nest is often a good deal higher on one side than on the other; the egg- cavity is about 1'75 inch in diameter, and is from 0*75 to 1*5 inch in depth ; the nest is composed of grass-stems, and pieces of dry blades of grass, with here and there pieces of woody and other vegetable fibre, and entirely coated with cobwebs ; there is a pretence for lining the cavity with a few fine grass-roots. Occa- sionally, but rarely, the nests are simply more or less shallow cups, exactly resembling those of Rhipidura albifrontata. The eggs are three in number. Blyth, in Jardiue's ' Contributions to Ornithology,' writes: — " The nest of L. fuscoventris is affixed, sometimes to a small stem of bamboo as represented by our figure in the background, and some- times placed as represented in our principal figure. It is con- structed of, and lined with, fine grass-stems, bound round on the outside with some fiat leaves of grass, which are more or less completely covered over with spider's web ; and there is alwavs a 3* 36 MUSCICAPIDJi. quantity of material hanging from the bottom, so as to produce the appearance of a funnel. The peculiarity is much more strongly marked in Mr. Gould's figure of the nest of Rhipidura alblscapa ; but he says of that species that it has invariably but two eggs, whereas the nest of L. fascoventris here figured contained three. These much resemble the eggs of Sylvia curruca (Oarruca garrula, Brisson), being of a sullied white with few scattered spots, except those forming a broad zone towards the large end, and the colour of which are greenish olive-brown, mingled with some dark ashy spots." Captain Hutton remarks: — "These curious little Fan-tailed Flycatchers are only seen upon the hills at about 5500 feet in the warmth of summer, and occasionally they breed at that elevation. More generally, however, they are confined to the Dehra Doon, where they frequent the mango trees, darting out occasionally with a tumbling flight as if falling from the tree, and suddenly return- ing to their perch. It keeps up an almost incessant sharp snapping sound with the beak as it hawks about the tree for insects, and indulges occasionally in a not unpleasing little song. " Its nest was taken on the 25th of May from a lofty tree, and contained three small eggs of a faint carneous white with a ring of earthy-brown spots at the larger end, and a few of a fainter hue scattered over the shell. Diameter -|-J- by T^. " The nest is a very neat and beautifully constructed little cup, being a perfect miniature of that of Tchitrea (Terpsiphone) paradisi, and composed entirely of very fine grassy fibres compactly held together by a complete and thick coating of cobwebs smoothly plastered all over it. It was placed upon a single twig which ran obliquely from beneath it up one side and formed its sole support. Internal diameter about 1| inch ; over all 2 inches." "Writing from Murree, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall says : — " The nest of this species differs from that of R. attnfrontata, being the shape of an inverted cone, beautifully made, lined with the finest grass, and covered with cobwebs ; it was situated in a clump of thin branches. Eggs like those of R. albifrontata, only smaller and rounder. These nests are found in the lower ranges, at about 5000 feet up." Colonel (I. F. L. Marshall writes : — " I found a nest of this species on the 5th June, near Bheem Tal, at about 4500 feet above the sea. It was in a deep shady ravine choked up with brier bushes, the upper branches of which were all green, and the lower boughs shut out from the light were dead and bare. The nest was fixed on to one of the bare dead boughs about three feet from the ground. I had heard the birds singing down the ravine, and creeping under the bushes on my hands and knees to watch them, I came upon the nest; it contained three fresh eggs, and was cone-shaped with the usual tail." Writing from the Kuimton Bhabur, Mr. R. Thompson says : " Many nests of this bird I have found, but not in similar localities to those of R. albifrontata. The present species prefers deep EHIP1DUEA. 37 dense woods, keeping well within a thickly-wooded forest country, whereas the other prefers more open and cultivated tracts." From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes : — " I have only once found a nest of this Fantail. This was in the Cinchona reserves, on the 21st May, at an elevation of 5000 feet, in a bramble thicket on the outskirts of a large forest. It was about five feet from the ground, and attached to a pendent, dead brainble-stem about as thick as a man's thumb, which was quite enveloped by the building material the whole length of the nest. It was an extremely neat and remarkable-looking structure ; in form a cup-shaped funnel with the end lengthened out, and composed of fine grasses firmly bound together by cobwebs. The outside was almost completely covered over with cobwebs, which exactly corresponded in colour with the silvery lichens covering the dead bramble-stem, so that anyone might have passed within a yard of the nest without observing it. It measured externally 4 inches in height by 2'3 inches in diameter. The cavity was 1-9 inches wide by 1 inch in depth, and contained three fresh eggs, which is said to be the normal number." Mr. Benjamin Aitken has the following note on this Fly- catcher : — " I have nothing to add to what you already know of the nidification of this species and the preceding one. Both birds are extremely common in Poona, frequenting the gardens and patches of low babool jungle. I have often been struck with their tameness and familiarity, which exceed that of any other bird I know. H. albifrontata, I can safely say, is unknown in Bombay, and if M. allicollis exists in Akola (Berar), it must be very rare. The latter, however, is quite common in Bombay, and the former tolerably so in Berar. " I once saw R. albicollw collecting cobweb, with which both species seem invariably to cover the exterior of their nests. There was a large spider's web on the ground, and the bird caught a thread in its bill and flew round and round in small circles within a foot of the nest, till a quantity was collected on its bill, but taking the greatest care not to let its wings or tail touch the thread. The Flvcatcher then flew off to its nest, and wound the web round it with great rapidity, exactly as you would wind thread on a reel, only that the bird's short neck required it to hop round about the nest, which it always did one way." Mr. J. R. Cripps, writing from Furreedpore in Eastern Bengal, says : — " A few pairs always seen in the mango topes, in which they delight to remain; is a permanent resident; has a sharp twittering note, very like that of T. paradisi, for which I have often mistaken it ; is continually snapping its beak and going from branch to branch with a short jerky tumbling flight. I took one nest on the 18th May, 1878, with two fresh eggs ; it was attached to one of the outer twigs of a mango-tree which overhung a dry nullah overgrown with cane-jungle, and was about 8 feet off the ground. External diameter 2-16 inches and depth 2; internal diameter 1*75 and depth 0'75. The nest was of the shape of a wine-glass and composed externally of very fine grass and cobwebs, 38 MTISCICAPID^. with a lining of finer grasses ; they had broken off the three leaves, leaving the stumps to support the nest/' The eggs of this species are slightly smaller than, but in other respects precisely similar to, those of 11. alhifrontata. In shape the eggs are a somewhat elongated oval, a good deal compressed towards one end. They are wanting in gloss, and have a very pale fawn-colour or yellowish or greyish-white ground, with, usually near the large end, a conspicuous irregular zone of grey specks and spots, a few yellowish or greyish-brown specks being sprinkled over the rest of the egg. Perhaps the zone may be best described as composed of a series of small spots and specks of yellowish brown, intermingled with tiny clouds and spots of purplish grey. In length the eggs vary from O6 to O7 inch, and in breadth from 0-48 to 0*52 inch; but the average is O65 by O49 inch. 607. Rhipidura pectoralis (Jerd.). The White-spotted Fantail Flycatcher. Leucocerca pectoralis, Jerd., Jerd. B. Ind. \, p. 453; Hume, Eowjh Draft N. $ E. no. 293. The White-spotted Fautail Flycatcher breeds in the western parts of India from Mount A boo to the Nilghiris. I myself have never taken the eggs or nests of this species, but Miss Cockburn, of Kotagherry, has furnished me with the following interesting account of it and of its nidification : — 44 Though not very common on these hills, they are to be found in pairs in certain localities, and their pleasing little song (con- sisting of several notes which follow each other in a regularly descending scale, like the words ' If it's a pity, to say it ; why do you do it ? ') is frequently repeated. " These Fantails are most restless and active, constantly flitting from one spray to another, and snapping up small insects while on the wing. When seated on a branch their tails are raised and spread to the full extent, while their wings are lowered and head slightly thrown back. Sometimes they alight on the ground, where it is amusing to watch their activity, which is evinced in a kind of dance (with expanded tails), varied by a snap (like the noise of castanets) aimed at some unfortunate little insect, whose winged progress has suddenly been stopped by the keen-eyed Fantail. " A pair of these birds are constantly in our garden, and do not show the least degree of shyness or fear, often allowing me to stand and watch them quite close. They build an extremely pretty nest, very much resembling a wine-glass in shape, which, however, appears to be unfinished, and is left with straws hanging down in a careless manner. The upper portion of the nest is entirely composed of very fine straws, with a thin addition of spiders' webs outside, to keep the whole structure firm and also to strengthen its hold on the slender branch to which it is attached. I have sat RHIPIDUBA. 39 for hours watching their untiring industry, and been much amused to see the manner in which the latter part of the. building was conducted. One of the birds would fly to the nest with a spider's web in its bill, and, after fixing one end, the little creature, taking hold of the other, would seat itself in the nest and give a sudden twist round and round until it had drawn the material sufficiently tight, when it would fasten it securely, thus giving a neatly finished appearance to the outside. They build on low twigs of large trees, and always lay three eggs of a brownish-white colour, which have a very distinct circle of dark spots and streaks round the thick end. This, however, is the case more or less with all the Flycatchers' eggs with which I am acquainted. These birds have built on the peach-trees in our garden, and, although we were most careful that no one should touch their nests, Squirrels, Crows, and Crow- Pheasants used to deprive them of their young. On these occa- sions the distress of the parents was sad to witness, but it seemed to last for only a few hours ; before the day was ended their sweet song was resumed, and in less than a week another nest would be commenced. " A pair of these Fantail Flycatchers once had their nest of young ones on an orange-tree, and when my cat went too near it (as they thought) they attacked her in such a manner, fluttering and chattering close to her ears, as to oblige her to take refuge under a wheelbarrow. These birds build in April and the three following months." Colonel Butler thus describes the nest of this species : — " The nest is one of the neatest little structures I ever saw. It is cup- shaped, with often a long untidy tail in continuation of its base. The interior is composed of fine dry grass compactly woven to- gether, and the exterior is bound with cobwebs, which are wound round it so thickly that from the outside it looks perfectly white. Many of these cobwebs are attached to twigs, to give the nest support. It -is generally placed in the fork of one of the small branches of some low thick bush about 2| or 3 feet from the ground, or on small branches of big trees or low bushes overhanging drv or watery nullahs running through thick jungle or clumps of high trees, in the shade of which these birds are so fond of hunting for insects. " The dimensions of the nest are as follows : — Diameter, mea- sured across the mouth from the outside, about 2| inches ; depth, measured from the outside and not including the tail, If inch ; depth, measured from the inside, 1£ inch. " The following are some of the dates upon which I found nests at Mount Aboo : — " April 24th. A nest containing 3 fresh eggs. 29th. 3 May 1st. , 2nd. 3rd. 40 MUSCICAPID^E. " May 6th. A nest containing 3 fresh eggs. „ 8th. „ „ 3 „ " In one or two nests I found a few horsehairs mixed in the lining." In August Colonel Butler found the nests of this species in Deesa. One contained four fully-fledged young ; another had not yet been laid in. Messrs. Davidson and Wenden, writing of the Deccan, say : — " Tolerably common. A nest with three eggs taken at Egut- poora on 6th September ; " and the former gentleman subsequently states that he found a nest of this species with three eggs on the Kondabhari Grhat in July. Mr. Iver Macpherson, detailing his experiences in Mysore, says: — "The White-spotted Fantail Flycatcher is particularly partial to areca-nut gardens, and I have also observed it in scrub- forest near cultivation and amongst avenue-trees. " In my friend Major Mclnroy's garden at Hoonsoor a pair have to my certain knowledge built for the last two years, and these are the only two nests I have as yet been able to procure. " These birds are so tame that they frequently fly into the verandah after insects, and this year they built their nest low down in a shoeflower-tree close to the verandah. " After this mark of confidence we had not the heart to take more than one of the three eggs laid. " Both nests were found in the latter part of June, and each contained three eggs." Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says : — " The nest of this lively little bird is very difficult to find. The first I ever discovered had been within a couple of feet of my head for more than one hour ; and it was only when my dog-boy attrac- ted my attention by pulling it down and saying ' What a very odd-looking nest this is,' that I saw it. It contained three eggs of a light hair-brown colour, with a ring of darker spots of the same colour at the larger end. It was shaped like a funnel, and was constructed entirely of fibrous grasses bound together with cob- webs, and was lined with very fine grass-stems. The eggs ave- raged '6 in length by *5 in breadth. The nest is usually placed very low down, some 2 or 3 feet from the ground ; and when discovered the bird flies out and flutters feebly along the ground in front of you, trying to allure you away." The eggs of this species are very similar to those of JR. albifron- tata, but are slightly smaller. In shape they vary from very regular, moderately broad ovals to considerably elongated and much pointed ones. The ground is a very pale buffy or creamy white, and round the egg, towards the large end, runs a broad zone of yellowish-brown and inky grey specks and spots, all more or less enveloped in a yellowish haze or nimbus. In some eggs this zone is denser, in some much thinner; inmost the markings are almost absolutely confined to this zone, in some few they are sparsely scattered over PEATIXCOLA. 41 other parts of the surface. In some the zone-markings are much feebler and fainter, in others they are comparatively decided. The eggs vary in length from 0*61 to 0'7 inch, and in breadth from 0-45 to 0;49. Family TURDID^l. Subfamily SAXICOLIN^E. 608. Pratincola caprata (Linn.). The Common Pied Bvgh-Chat. Pratincola caprata (L.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 123; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 481. The Common Pied Bush-Chat breeds throughout the plains country of the continent of India and Burma and in the Hima- layas, and ranges running southwards from these up to elevations of from 4000 to 8000 * feet, according to latitude. The breeding- season is from March to June, and eggs may be found everywhere during this period ; but for all that the majority lay in the plains in March and April and in the hills in May. In the plains perhaps the most favourite site for the nest is in a hole some little way down the side of a well ; but any hole almost in the ground will, if sheltered, serve their purpose, and at times, but rarely, they will build in a dense bush or tuft of grass, but still even then on or dose to the ground. The nest as a rule is a shallow, somewhat saucer-shaped pad, composed of soft grass, fine roots, and lined with the same, hairs, or other soft material. I have found them composed entirely of human hair and sheep's wool, fitted together without any attempt at rounding, and I have once or twice taken neat circular nests closely woven of very fine grass and carefully lined with horsehair. Four is the full complement of eggs ; but I have continually found only three more or less incubated ones in a nest, and five are recorded by more than one of my correspondents. Mr. F. R. Blewitt says : — " This Stone-Chat is somewhat com- mon in the Saugor and Nerbudda and Hoshungabad districts. It is also to be met with in the more open country the whole way from Saugor to Sumbulpoor. I have repeatedly secured its eggs. The nests were always on the ground, of very simple construction, composed of grass-roots externally, and lined with fine grass or a little hair." * Dr. Stoliczka correctly remarks : — " Common all through the Sutlej Valley up to Nachar, but seldom further east above elevations of 8000 feet." 42 TURDID^E. Captain Hutton tells us that " this little species, which is by no means uncommon in the hills even up to 8000 feet, is also very abundant in the warmer climate of the Dhoon, where it breeds in May and June. On the first of the latter month I obtained a nest containing five eggs of a pale greenish white, thickly spotted with rufous, especially at the larger end, where they become confluent and cloud the shell. One egg was larger and whiter than the rest, the rufous marking of the larger end not being quite so con- fluent, but forming an ill-defined ring. The nest was placed on the ground at the side of a low bank among grass, and was com- posed of very fine roots, dead leaves, and grass externally, and lined with black hair of cattle. It was of a rather flat cup-shape." Prom Sambhur Mr. R. M. Adam records : — " I found a nest of this bird on the 23rd June, 1873. The nest was in a hole in the bank of an open well. The hole appeared to have been made in the loose sand by the bird, and measured about 3'5 in diameter. The outer lining of the nest consisted of a few pieces of coarse grass, while in the egg-cavity there were a few pieces of fine roots carelessly placed together and not rounded. The nest contained three eggs of a pale greenish colour, with a zone of rust-coloured spots at the broad end, and a few spots and freckles of the same colour on the body of the egg. " On the 29th June I saw a male bird making a hole with its bill in the bank of an open well ; but on visiting it after several days no progress had been made." From Saharunpoor Colonel G. F. L: Marshall writes : — " The only two nests that I have taken of this bird were structures of a most unique type ; they were situated in the middle of tufts of surkery-grass, the insides of which had been all hollowed out, so as to leave a circular space of bare ground in the middle about a foot in diameter, which was sparsely covered over with bits of grass ; this circular space was roofed over by drawing the surrounding grass-stems together and weaving in other pieces, so as to form a sort of dome. The interior height of the structure was about 18 inches. The entrance was circular on one side near the top, about 15 inches above the floor of the chamber. The egg-receptacle was a hollow in the floor of the chamber near one side farthest from the entrance and neatly lined with grass, about 2| inches across and about 1| inch deep. " In one nest 1 found four eggs, slightly set, on the 8th April, and in the other nest were four young ones. This was towards the end of April." Major C. T. Bingham tells us that this Bush-Chat is " uncommon at Allahabad, common at Delhi, breeds in May and the early part of June in holes in banks lined with grass-roots and a few feathers. Eggs very like those of the Home Stonechat, four in number." Mr, E. Aitken remarks : — " From the neighbourhood of Bombay this bird retires to the hills to breed. I found a nest at Khan- dalla last year in the middle of May. "It was in a hole iu the perpendicular bank of a railway- PRATINCOLA. 43 cutting, and of course at the level of the station, which is about 1900 feet, I believe, above the sea. The birds never seem to go much above that, in Khandalla at least. 1 do not think the hole was excavated by the birds, for I have seen one or two other nests in different situations, such as a small depression or shallow hole, partly covered by a rock. In this case the hole was rather deep, so that I could not see very distinctly into it ; but the hole seemed well lined (as it usually is) with grass or fibres, and there seemed to be at least four eggs. In one that I saw two years ago there were four eggs. They can scarcely have more than one brood in the year, for I do not think they begin to breed till May, and they return to the plains before the end of June." Mr. Benjamin Aitken observes : — " The Pied Bush-Chat does not occur in Bombay, and I have not seen it abundant anywhere on the plains of the J3eccan or Berar ; but on the hills, from Khan- dalla (about 2500 feet) to Poorundhur (4472 feet), its name is legion, and there it breeds in the end of April and in May. Its nests are everywhere, but as the bird is as wary as the Lapwing or the Holier, it requires much patience and considerable practice to find one. Personally I only once found as many as five young ones in a nest ; but I have twice had seven brought to me by natives, and under circumstances that made it improbable that they had been taken from different nests. I do not know whether many of these birds retire to the hills to breed ; but I have seen them commoner at Poorundhur in November than I saw them at any time on the plains." Mr. H. Wenden writes : — " I only obtained one nest of this bird in Sholapoor, although 1 had several men out daily to look for more. Yery few of this species are seen in that station, but 100 miles south they are very numerous and seem to take the place of the Indian Black Eobin ; and this may be accounted for by that part of the country being covered with bush and scrub-jungle. The only nest found at Sholapoor was built in a hole in the mud walls of a stable — the hole in which the top bar of a loose box would, when the stall was in use, be inserted. As regards con- struction, it di tiered but very slightly from that of Thamnobia fulicata, and that only in point of size, being smaller. The nest contained four eggs, three of which I send you." Colonel E. A. Butler sends me the following note : — " Belgaum, 1st April, 1880. — Four slightly incubated eggs. The nest was built in the hole of a bank of a ditch 4 feet deep encircling the jail compound, and consisted of a neat little hollow pad of very fine dry grass-stems and roots, scantily lined with horsehair and a tuft or two of rat's fur, probably pulled out of an old dead car- case. The eggs were pale greenish white, spotted all over, but most thickly at the large end, forming a cap or zone, with reddish chestnut. On the same date I found two more nests both similar to the above, one being built in the same bank as the above, the other in the hole of a bank of an open well. Both contained two fresh eggs. One of the nests was composed externally principally 44 TTJKDIDJB. of coarse worsted-like material, collected evidently from some old piece of prison clothing, intermixed with tine dry grass-stems, being substantially lined with black hair, probably human. The other was composed externally of fine dry grass-stems, intermixed with a piece of red dungaree, and lined with black hair, either goat's or human. I left these nests for more eggs, and on returning two day's later with my usual luck found both empty and deserted. What it is that takes the eggs of these small birds I can't con- ceive ; but so sure as eggs are left, so sure are they to be taken by whatever it is that robs the nests. On the 3rd inst. I visited no less than four nests, all oi: which contained eggs when I looked at them on the 1st April, viz. two nests of Corydalla rufula and the two Bush-Chats above mentioned, and in all four instances the eggs that I had left but two days before were gone and the nests of course deserted. " On the 8th April I found another nest in a hole in the bank of the fort ditch containing three fresh eggs, similar to the above, but rather greener, and with a few lilac markings mixed with the chestnut spots at the large end. I shot the hen bird as she left the nest to be sure of the species, and on picking her up discovered another egg in her broken by the shot. The nest was similar to those already described, being warmly lined with horsehair and tufts of rat's fur. Jerdon gives 5 inches as the length of P. caprata and 6| inches for P. bicolor, and mentions that he has observed no intermediate form. " Eeferring to my measurement-book I find that in all of the specimens I have collected both in Guzerat and in Belganm the cocks vary from 5-j-£ to 5| inches and the hens from 5| to 5| inches*. "Hen birds about Belgaum show signs of a rudimentary white wing-patch, " I noticed two young birds on the same date being fed by the parent birds on a low bush near the same place ; the eggs in this instance must have been laid therefore about the middle of Feb- ruary, as they had evidently left the nest some days. On approach- ing them the old birds uttered notes of alarm and flew away, and the young ones dived simultaneously into the grass below, to be seen no more, although I searched the spot closely for them for some minutes. The way in which they disappeared like a flash of lightning the moment they heard the alarm-notes of their parents was very remarkable, and the way in which they managed to escape my eye afterwards when I searched the grass for them was more remarkable still. I have often seen a whole brood of dab- chicks (P. minor} dive simultaneously with one loud splash on being approached and reappear again gradually one by one until they were all together, and then disappear again with another loud splash on the slightest movement of the person watching them ; * P. bicolor does not extend so far north as Belgaum. All the specimens I have examined from this place are P. caprata. — ED. PBATINCOLA. 45 but have no recollection of seeing birds before of the present family perform such antics. The pair of birds whose nest I robbed on the 1st April in the bank of the jail compound commenced building a new nest a few days afterwards in the same hole, and on the 15th inst. it contained a single egg. On revisiting it on, the 17th inst. as usual I found it empty and deserted. On the 18th April I found another nest in a bank surrounding an open field, containing four fresh eggs, and on the 19th ano' her in a hole in the bank of a quarry, containing three slightly incubated eggs. I was surprised in many instances to notice that these birds excavated the holes the nests were built in themselves, instead of using holes already made, of which the banks were usually full. Two more nests on the 4th May containing five fresh and four incubated eggs respectively, and a nest on the 2nd May containing two fresh eggs." Mr. G. W. Vidal, in his ' List of the Birds of the South Konkan,5 remarks of this species : — " Very common inland and under the Ghats in scrub-clad hill-sides. Less common on the coast. Breeds in April." From the Deccan Messrs. Davidson and Wenden note : — " Common, and breeds from April to July." Finally Mr. Oates, writing from Pegu, tells me : — " I have fre- quently found the nest of this species in Pegu in April and May. It is usually placed in a hole in the ground, the deep footprint of a bullock serving the purpose very frequently; sometimes it is placed on the ground under the shelter of a tuft of grass." I should note that in some parts of the country, though common enough in the cold weather, it breeds very sparingly. This is the case, for instance, in South Behar and Mirzapore, and even more so, I think, in Lower Bengal. Further detailing information, as to where it does and does not breed freely, is much needed. The eggs are rather broad ovals, somewhat pointed towards one end and fairly glossy. Somewhat spherical varieties, however, occur. The ground-colour is a delicate pale bluish green, and they are pretty finely speckled, mottled, and streaked with brownish red. The markings are always densest at the large end, where they commonly form a mottled irregular cap, or rarely a zone, while towards the small end they are thin and sometimes altogether wanting. There are two types of marking — the one comparatively streaky and mottly, the other, which is the least common, speckly and spotty. They are not unlike, whether in shape or colouring, the eggs of the English Stonechat, but they are usually considerably smaller, being scarcely, if at all, larger as a rule than those of the Chiffchaff or the Willow- Wren. They vary, however, enormously in size — in length from O6 to O77, and in breadth from O44 to 0-64 ; but these extremes repre- sent exceptional eggs, and the majority run near to what I found the average of the fifty eggs measured to be, viz. 0-67 by 0*55. 46 TUKDID.E. 609. Pratincola atrata, Kelaart. The Southern Pied Bush-Chat. Pratincola atrata, Blyth, Jerd. B, Ind. ii, p. 124. Pratincola bicolor (Sykes), Hmne, Rough Draft N. 8f E. no. 482. Specimens of Pied Bush-Chats from the Nilghiris, Pulneys, mid other Southern Indian ranges are absolutely identical with others from the hilly portions of Ceylon. Under these circumstances I retain Kelaart's name atrata, assigned to the Ceylon bird. Many naturalists will doubt the propriety of separating specifi- cally the Southern Pied Bush-Chat. The only difference between this and the preceding species is one of size, and had I been able to obtain intermediate sizes I should most certainly not have ad- mitted the distinctness of the two. None of my specimens, how- ever (and they are numerous), seem to show a gradation between the lesser and greater races, and I therefore accept these as distinct. 1 have never taken the eggs myself, but many of these, as well as of the nests, have been sent me from time to time by Mr. Carter and other friends from the Nilghiris. All the nests appear to have been taken in holes in banks and walls during March, April, and May. They are all comparatively large, loose, saucer-shaped pads from 4 to 5 inches in diameter and from an inch to 1| inch in thickness, composed of grass and vegetable fibre, with in some a few dead leaves, in others grass, roots, or a little wool, or a piece or two of rag incorporated into the body of the nest. In some nests there is a regular egg-cavity some 3 inches across and nearly an inch in depth, while in others a very trifling depression towards the centre of the pad serves to contain the eggs. The nests seldom appear to have any regular lining. Mr. H. E. P. Carter says : — " At Coonoor, on the Nilghiris, I do not think this bird commences to build before the 15th March. On the 18th I found two nests just finished. I constantly found nests with eggs from that time until 22ud April. All the many nests I found were placed in holes in a cutting or slope, generally on the side of the road. They were more or less cup-shaped, and often neatly made, generally of grass and fibres mixed with the fur of hares. One nest I noted as made of grass, a small bit of coir matting, fern-leaves, and down of thistle ; no lining. Some are distinctly lined \vith fur and hairs. I think three is the most usual number, but I have found four eggs in a nest on more than one occasion. " The male, so far as I could make out, never sat on the nest nor assisted the female during incubation." Mr. Davison remarks : — " The nest of this bird is certainly the most common on the Nilghiris. It nidificates in holes of banks or old walls. The foundation of the nest is composed of dry leaves, grass, roots, &c. The egg-cavity is usually lined with hair or fur, or, where neither are obtainable, with fine dry grass. PHATIXCOLA. 47 " The eggs vary greatly in coloration. The general type of colouring is a dingy greenish blue, spotted with a dingy brick-red, chiefly at the larger end, where the spots form a zone. " It is a very familiar little bird, often building its nest in the banks of the busiest thoroughfares of Ootacamund. " It lays four or five eggs, and sometimes only thre^." Mr. Wait tells me that " it breeds pretty well throughout the Nilghiris, at elevations of from 3000 to 7000 feet, at all times from February to July. It builds in holes in banks, and often in drain-holes in walls, 3 or 4 feet from the ground. The nest is cup-shaped, with an internal diameter of from 1| to 2 inches, com- posed of root-fibres, grass, weeds, and scraps of woven materials, anything soft, and is more or less lined with very soft fibres or hair. Five, I think, is the regular number of eggs, but they often lay less." From Kotagherry Miss Cockburn sends me the following note : — " During the breeding-season the cock is particularly loud in his song, and shows considerably more of his white feathers above his wings (which he has the power of doing) than at any other time of the year. I have often been amused watching a pair from my window when they fancied themselves unobserved. The little brown lady would be busy discussing some large grub tenderly provided for her by her lord and master, while he enlivened the repast by dancing and singing round her on the gravel- walk, at the same time displaying every thread (or, rather, feather) of his snow- white Bishop's Lawn from beneath his little black silk surplice. Their nests are very plentiful in the months of February, March, and April. They generally build in small holes in the banks of roads, and collect a quantity of soft materials, such as wool and down, and usually lay four eggs. However, I once found a nest with six, and watched it with great interest until the young brood were all reared. " Sometimes they choose curious places to build in. In my vine- yard an old basket, bottom upwards, was put aside, and not moved for some little time. One day I noticed a hen Eobin fly in and out through a small hole, and on looking in found a nest nearly finished. A few days after it contained four eggs, which in some way disappeared in a short time." Mr. J. Darling, Jun., remarks : — " This bird breeds very com- monly on the Nilghiris from one end to the other. The place selected is usually a hole in a bank ; but I have found it building in holes of trees, in the eaves of houses, on the ground in the same place as a Lark, and once in a Swallow's nest. The nest is usually built of leaves and grass-roots and lined with hair, wool, and fur, sometimes feathers. Taking 100 nests found by myself, 70 nests had 4, 10 nests 5, and 20 nests 3 eggs each. I also found 4 nests in the AVynaad with 4 eggs in each. They breed from about the loth February to the loth May." Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says : — " It breeds in holes of banks from February to May, laying three or 48 four pale greenish -blue eggs, minutely speckled with reddish brown, the dots forming a very distinct zone at the larger end. The nest is constructed of moss, pieces of old rag, frayed bits of grass, &c., and is lined with feathers and the dried droppings of the wild cat (Felis c7iaus\ which, being principally composed of rat's fur, are very soft ; the nest in consequence is often rather odorous. An egg measured '78 inch by *6." The eggs are typically broad ovals, slightly pointed towards, but somewhat obtuse at, the small end, and with but little gloss ; they are, though closely resembling them in character, conspicuously larger and slightly more elongated than those of P. caprata. The doubts as to the distinctness of the two species, which must exist, are a good deal weakened by the very marked difference in the size of the eggs — a difference far more apparent to the eye than might be expected from a comparison of their respective linear measurements. The ground-colour is a delicate, very pale, bluish green, and they are more or less thickly freckled, speckled, and streaked with somewhat brownish red. The markings are most dense in all cases towards the large end, where they form in most an ill-defined mottled cap, and in some a broad, conspicuous, though irregular zone. Their style of coloration closely resembles those of the eggs of the Black, Black-eared, Russet, and Pied Wheatears, as figured by Bree; but the ground-colour is far paler and bluer than in his figures, and the markings are brighter and redder. I ought to notice that a faint purple mottling often underlies, or is intermingled with, the red or brownish-red cap or zone. The eggs vary in length from 072 to O82, and in breadth from 0-53 to O63 ; but the average of forty eggs measured was a trifle less than 0*77 by rather more than 0*6, so that, as a body, the eggs are full one third larger (taking cubic * contents) than those of P. caprata. 610. Pratincola maura (Pall.). The Indian Bush- Chat. Pratincola indica, BlytJi, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 124. Pratincola ruhicola (Linn.), Hume, Rouyh Draft N. fy E. no. 483. The Indian Bush-Chat breeds throughout the lower ranges of the Himalayas (south of the first snowy range) at almost any ele- vation not exceeding 5000 feet, from Afghanistan to Assam. Occasionally, too, they breed in the Salt Eange, in the Suleiman Hills, in the plains districts of the Punjab which skirt the bases of these lower hills, and we have one instance on record of the nest being taken at the extreme south of the Saharunpoor district. All about the valley of the Sutlej below Kotegurh, and again in * To calculate the actual cubic contents of an egg is a rather complicated problem ; but the cubic contents of different sized, similarly shaped eggs are proportional to their lengths multiplied by the squares of their diameters. So, taking the eggs of P. caprata as averaging 0'67 by 0'55, and those of P. bicolor as averaging 077 by 0*6, their respective volumes are as 201 to 277, those of P. bicolor being thus more than one third more massive than those of P. caprata. PBA.TINCOLA, 40 the Valley of the Beas below Bajoura, I have found numbers of their nests, and even in the immediate vicinity of, though at a much lower level than, Simla itself I have seen several. April and May seem to be the months in which they mostly lay ; but they have certainly two and possibly three broods, and I have had eggs sent me in from Kotegurh as early as the first week in March and as late as the middle of July. The situation of the nest varies according to locality. I have found them generally in some low thick bush (generally a thorny one), or dense tuft of grass, on or near the ground. Mr. Brooks, as will be seen, found them mostly in between the crevices of the rough stone walls that support and bound the terraced fields which adorn our hill-sides. I, too, have found a few in such places, in the walls of old deserted cattle-byres, and once in amongst the debris of an old broken and forgotten culvert. The nest is generally a more or less regular cup, composed exte- riorly of rather coarse grass intermingled at times with moss, lined sometimes with tine grass, at others with soft grey fur, the hairs of cattle, a few feathers, and the like. The nests placed in holes in walls are, according to my experience, less regularly and care- fully built, and sometimes are mere shapeless pads. The eggs appear to be indifferently four and five ; and though a nest was sent me containing six, I have never seen so large a number in any of the fifty odd nests that I have examined in situ,. At Murree, on the west, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall says that the Stone-Chat breeds in numbers in the valleys. Eastwards they seem to be comparatively rare in the breeding-season ; but I have had one nest and eggs sent me from Darjeeling. Of its nidification at and near Almorah, Mr. Brooks has recorded the following interesting note : — " At Almorah the young of the first broods were fully fledged by the middle of April. On the hills the cultivated laud on the hill-sides is all terraced, and to keep up the earth low retaining walls of dry rubble-stone are built. In course of time these low walls, generally only 3 or 4 feet high, become rather broken and over- grown with grass and plants of different sorts. Sometimes even small thorny shrubs grow from the face of the wall. It is in holes or hollows in these walls that the Stone-Chat delights to build, the situation of the nest being generally near the top of the wall. The nest is always more or less hidden by grass and other plants which grow in all the crevices of these walls. It is generally composed of moss, grass, fibres, and fine roots, and lined with hair and some- times feathers, in fact just the nest of the English Stone-Chat ; number of eggs five, which in size and colour exactly resemble those of the English bird. In addition to the terraces on hill-sides the bird breeds on open uncultivated hill-sides, where the ground is pretty well overgrown with stunted bushes which resemble the English blackthorn. In these places I never succeeded in finding the nest, for the birds watched me more successfully than I watched them, and found me out whenever I had hidden myself for the VOL. II. 4 50 TUBDIDJS. purpose of watching them. I have no doubt, however, that in these sort of places, without broken banks or walls, the situation would be upon the ground at the bottom of a stunted bush a foot or 18 inches high, as in England we find the nest at the bottom of a stunted whin-bush, and rather at one side of the bush, the entrance being from above, not from the side of the bush, the latter being the situation sometimes chosen by the Whin-Chat. They lay in Kumaon from the end of March to June." Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall writes : — " I found a single nest of this bird on the 28th May near the village of Jaroundah, on the southern border of the Saharunpoor district. It was in a thick karounda (Carissa carounda) bush in a small patch of jungle on the banks of the Kullurpoor branch of the Eastern Jumna Canal. The nest was deeply cup-shaped, made entirely of grass, the coarser bits outside and the finer and softer pieces neatly woven inside. There were two fresh eggs." Dr. Scully informs us, writing from Nepal, that " two nests of this species were found in the valley in June, placed on the ground and well sheltered by grass and wormwood-bushe s. The eggs of our Indian form are somewhat smaller than those of its English representative. The largest egg that I possess, and I have numbers from Almorah, the Dhoon, and Kotegurh, is smaller than the egg figured by Mr. Hewitson, and several are so much smaller as to be if anything less than his figure of the Chiffchaff's egg. In shape, too, they are possibly somewhat more elongated, being typically I think, to judge from numerous examples, a rather elongated but obtuse-ended oval. In colour and character of markings they are, however, apparently identical, or, if they differ, differ less so even than those of P. caprata and P. atrata. The ground-colour is dull pale green or greenish white, and they are very finely and faintly freckled with pale brownish red, the mark- ings, which are very delicate, being always most numerous at the large end, to which they are often confined as a feeble cloudy zone or cap, but at times extend over nearly the whole surface. In length the eggs vary from 0-62 to 0*77, and in breadth from 0*48 to 0-6 ; but the average of sixty-three eggs measured is 0'7 by 0-55 nearly. 615. Oreicola ferrea (Hodgs.). The Dark-grey Bash-Chat. Pratincola ferrea ( Hodgs.}, Jerd. S. Ind. ii, p. 127; Hume, Rough Draft N.$E. no. 486. The Dark-grey Bush-Chat breeds throughout the Himalayas, at any rate from Murree to Bhootan, along the hills south of the first snowy ranges (and in some cases, where these are broken through by large rivers, up the valleys of these latter, far beyond these ranges), at elevations of from 4000 to 8000 feet. The breeding-season lasts from the commencement of April to the end of July, during which they often, to my certain knowledge, OREICOr.A. 51 and very probably always, have two broods, which (if not molested) they rear in the same nest. The nest is placed on the ground, sometimes under some large overhanging stone or stout earthen clod, inside, or more or less concealed by, a tuft of grass or weeds, sometimes in a little depres- sion in the hill-side under some thick bush, often half under some great bulging root of a forest-tree, and occasionally, but rarely, in some hole in the loose stone-walls that in the hills support and protect our roads. It is a tolerably neat cup-shaped structure, sometimes slight and loosely put together, sometimes comparatively massive and compact, composed chiefly of moderately coarse grass, fine twigs, or moss, and lined either with finer grass-stems, fine roots, horsehair, or soft fur : sometimes a great deal of vegetable fibre and even a little lichen is incorporated in the sides and towards the bottom of the nest. Externally they vary in size from 3*5 to 4*5 in diameter, and from 2 to 3 inches in height. The cavity is about 2'5 in diameter and rarely much more than 1 J inch in depth ; very often it is barely an inch. The eggs are four or five in num- ber. I have as often taken five as four, and I have never found less than the latter number when the eggs were deeply set. Prom Murree Colonel Marshall and Captain Cock report : — " We took numerous nests of this species between the 1st May and the end of July. They breed in banks. Their eggs resemble those of P. indica — pale blue, with a few russet spots at the larger end. We twice found the egg of Cuculus canorus in this bird's nest. Elevation 7000 feet." I have found many nests in Kooloo and in the Valley of the Sutlej and in and about Simla. At the latter station a pair have bred for some seasons close above my house. Of two nests taken, the one near Sultanpoor in Kooloo, the other above Ham poor in the Valley of the Sutlej, I recorded the following note : — " Xests of this species found, the one on the 17th April under a rock in a dry bank, aud another on the side of a bank overhung by a little grass on the 25th May, both at an elevation of about 5000 feet, and both containing five eggs, were rather loosely con- structed grass cups, measuring about 4| inches in diameter and 2| inches in height. The egg-cavities were about 2| inches in diam- eter and 1| inch in depth. The one was thinly but very neatly lined, chiefly at the bottom of the cavity, with fine white hairs from the fur of some animal. The other had scarcely a trace of this same lining. From their size, and considering the genus to which the bird belongs, the nests were rather massive and compact. I have often seen nests of the same species of much the same materials, but scarcely half the size and not nearly so compact." At Simla the late Captain Beavan tells us that on the 7th May he shot a female " off the nest, wrhich was carefully concealed in a hole at the root of a tree not far from the house. It is a neat cup, the outside and bottom composed of dry moss, lined inside with horsehair and stems of grass ; depth outside 2'5, inside 1'75 ; diameter inside 2'5, outside 4-25 ; number of eggs four.'' 4* 52 TUBDID.E. We hear from Captain Huttou from Mussoorie that he " took its nest on the 30th June at about 6000 feet elevation ; it was placed on the ground well concealed among short grass on the side of an open hill free from forest. It was a shallow flattish cup in shape, composed of dry grass rather thickly disposed at the sides, and lined with horsehair. Eggs three, of a pale greenish colour minutely speckled with rufous, chiefly so at the larger end. In some there is a faint indication of a ring at the larger end." Mr. Hodgson's notes contain the following record as to its nidi- fication in Nepal : — "May ls<, Jaha Poivali. — Female and nest ; nest saucer-shaped, of fine grass and a little moss ; no lining ; on ground in open Held against a small clod, only partially hid by grass ; three eggs. "June 6th. — One nest with male and another with female, both on the ground half under bank of a field ; nests of the ordinary shape, of soft dry grass with sparse lining of hair; internal diameter 3 inches, depth less than 1 ; eggs two in one nest, four in the other. Of the latter nest a Cuculus canorus was eating the eggs, and ate two out of the four while watched." Dr. Scully writes from Nepal : — " A nest of this species, taken on the 14th June, contained three eggs, of which one undoubtedly belonged to a Cuckoo." Writing from Sikhim Mr. Gamrnie says : — " I have often found the nest of this species. On the 23rd of last May I found one in a hole in a bank by the roadside ; this was above Eishap, at an elevation of about 5000 feet. The nest was a very compact little cup, measured externally 3*75 in diameter and 2'5 in height ; in- ternally 2*5 in diameter and 1*5 in depth. Internally it was smoothly lined with black hair ; externally composed of fine twigs, fine dry grass, a little moss, and moss-roots. It contained four hard-set eggs." Occasionally I have seen a nest composed entirely of fine black fibrous rootlets, well felted together and lined with soft brown rootlets, and with a little moss woven into the outer surface on the sides of the cup. The eggs, although as a body averaging slightly larger, and also, I think, varying less in dimensions, are almost facsimiles of those of Pratincola maura. They may be, as a whole, somewhat deeper coloured ; but I can discover no such difference as would necessi- tate a separate description of them. In length they vary from 0-68 to 0-76, and in breadth from 0-53 to 0-6 ; but the average of twenty-one eggs measured (and I much regret that I have measured so few out of the great numbers that I have taken and received) is 0-72 by 0-57 nearly. 618. Saxicola picata, Blyth. The Pied Chat. Saxicola picata, BL, Jerd. JB. 2nd. ii, p. 131 ; Hume, Cat. no. 489. Professor Valentine Ball thus writes regarding this Chat's habits in the Suliman Hills, west of Dera Ghazi Khan : — " The Pied Stone- Chat was perhaps the most abundant bird which I met with in the SAXICOLA. 53 higher regions. A nest which I found in the rocks on the 10th of July at an elevation of 5880 feet contained three very young quite unfledged nestlings, which were probably not a week old. The nest was a very loose structure, the component parts of which (chiefly dried grass) were kept together by their position in a sheltered cleft of rock. " 1 noticed that these birds had very much the habits of Cop- sychus saularis. Towards evening they used to come about the bungalow, perching on the verandah, and singing with a low twit- tering note. Occasionally they would pick up insects off the ground, and sometimes capture them while on the wing." Lieut. H. E. Barnes, writing from Chainan in Afghanistan, says :— " The Pied Stone-Chat arrives early in March. The first nest was found on the 20th of that month ; it was built in a hole in a tree, and was composed of dry grass, lined with feathers, and contained four eggs of a very delicate greenish-blue tint, obsoletely speckled with rusty brown or pale brownish red at the larger end, where the markings form an irregular zone *. A few specks of the same colour are scattered over the rest of the surface of the egg. The average of twelve eggs is -81 by '56." He subsequently added the following note : — " The Pied Stone - Chat is very common and breeds, arriving at the end of February and leaving in September." Colonel J. Biddulph remarks regarding this Chat's breeding in Grilgit : — "In the middle of June a nest was found deep in the crevice of a stone wall of a ruined fort. After two eggs had been laid the bird was apparently killed by some animal. One egg was found broken and the ground strewn with feathers of the hen bird. The egg is pale blue, thinly spotted all over with rusty red, more thickly (but not very thickly) at the larger end." 621. Saxicola pleschenka (Lepechin). The Siberian Chat. Saxicola hendersoni, Hume ; Hume, Cat. no. 492 bis. Colonel J. Biddulph writes : — " I took a nest of this Chat in Astor on the 26th June, at an elevation of 7000 feet, containing five hard-set eggs. It was placed, about a foot deep, in a wall of loose stones supporting a built-up road on the mountain-side, over which was constant traffic. The eggs were very pale blue, with small dusky red freckles thinly scattered over the surface, slightly tending towards a zone at the thicker end, and measured '725 inch in length by '565 in diameter." Major "Wardlaw Eamsay says, writing of this species in Afghan- istan : — " The nest is very difficult to find, and I have sat some- times for half an hour or more hoping that the birds would give some indication of its whereabouts. The only nest secured con- tained but one egg, of a pale unspotted blue, otherwise like a large Stone-Chat's (Pratincola maurd) egg. The nest was placed under a collection of small rocks piled up by the torrent in the then dried- * " I b;\ve taken eggs of Cercomela fusca at Aboo very similar to these." — II. E. B. 54 up bed of a mountain-stream. A considerable number of huge stones had to be removed before the nest could be got at" *. 629. Cercomela fusca (Blyth). The Brown Rock-Chat. Cercomela fusca (Blytli), Jerd. B. Ind. ii; p. 134 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. # E. no. 494. The Brown Bock-Chat breeds in the northern portions of the Central Provinces, the western and northern districts of the North- western Pro\inces, and the eastern and central parts of the Punjab and Bajpootana, from about the middle of March to nearly the end of July. It may occur and breed elsewhere, but it is only within these limits that I have any certain knowledge in regard to its nidifioation. During the breeding-season it lays regularly twice, at times thrice. It is a great frequenter of old buildings, and all the grand Mahomedan and Hindoo ruins, forts, and palaces, mosques, and temples afford nesting-sites for one or more pairs of this species. They are tame and fearless. A pair built for years regularly in my house at Etawah, and they often build about native huts. Deep ravines and earthy cliffs also attract them, and thousands of pairs build yearly in that vast network of ravines that fringe the courses of the Jumna and Chambul from opposite Agra to Calpee. Others nest in quarries, and I got several nests from those in the neigh- bourhood of Puttehpoor Sikri. Holes in walls, whether mud or stone, and in earthen cliffs and banks, ledges and chinks in rocks and quarries, and the like, are the sites chosen, and in these they build, for the most part, a loose pad-like nest with a feeble central depression, composed of grass stems and roots, the hollow scantily lined with finer roots, horse- hair, and a little wool. Barely they construct a regular and fairly neat, but still shallow, cup-shaped nest, using the same materials. Three is the usual complement of eggs, but I have repeatedly (say in five cases out of fifty) taken four. Major C. T. Bingham writes : — " Very common at Delhi among the ruins around. Breeds from March to August in holes in walls lined with grass and feathers. Eggs usually four in number, pale green, blotched and spotted with reddish." Writing of his experience in the Saughor, Jhausi, and the Delhi divisions, from all of which localities he sent me eggs, Mr. F. B. Blewitt says that this species " breeds from the middle of May to July. The nest, if it can be so called, I have found in holes of old walls, under ledges of rocks, on the ground, and on one occa- sion at the base of a thick growing bush. Occasionally, too, it- makes its nest in the roofs of outhouses. * SAXICOLA ISABELLINA, Cretzschm. The nest of this species lias not yet been found in or near India, and the following note by Dr. Scully will be of interest : — " In the neighbourhood of Yarkaud it breeds in April and May ; three quite young birds were obtained there during the latter month.' CEBCOMELA. 55 " For the construction of the nest roots, grass, khus, feathers, and sometimes horsehair and wool are used, all loosely but thickly- packed together, the finer material above. One nest I obtained at the base of a rock was neatly put together. The exterior, an inch or so thick at the base, was formed of roots and coarse grass ; the inner cavity cup-shaped, an inch and a half deep, was lined with fine khus and grass. The outer diameter was 5-5, inner 3. " The eggs are in colour a very light blue-green, with close dark brown spots, sometimes at the upper end coalescing so as to form a well-defined ring. I have never found more than three eggs in a nest, although I am informed that four are sometimes met with in a single nest. The eggs are almost uniform in size ; 0-8 in length and 0-6 in breadth may be taken as the average. " I have seen this bird more frequently on the plains than among rocks and cliffs. It is in its habits free and familiar, much like the Eobins." I notice that out of several scores of nests that I have seen I myself never met with one out in the open built merely at the base of a bush. Such situations for their nests must, I think, be quite exceptional. I quote a couple out of many notes that I have made about this bird's nidification : — • "March 23rd, Etawah.—Took a nest of this Chat, The nest contained three eggs slightly incubated. It was a flat pad of fine grass stems and roots, 4 inches in diameter and 1| inch thick, with a broad shallow depression in the upper surface, which was very scantily lined (a mere pretence for lining) with a little wool and a few horsehairs. It was in a hole of an earthen cliff of a dry nullah, about 9 or 10 feet from the ground and a foot in. The eggs were oval, a good deal narrowed towards the small end, pale blue, with numerous very faint reddish-brown spots and specks, predominating at the large end." "March 29Z#, Ajmere. — Took a nest in a hole in one of the old walls of the grand Arhai-din-ki-jompri. It was a shallow circular nest about 4 inches in external diameter, chiefly of grass, but with an intermixture of horsehair, thread, sheep's wool, and cotton wool. There were three fresh eggs, rather long ovals, of a delicate pale blue, one almost entirely spotless, the others with numerous reddish-brown specks and spots, in one most numerous over the large end and sparse elsewhere, the other with most of the spots collected into a zone near the little end." From Sambhur Mr. R. M. Adam tells us that " the Brown Rock- Chat is very common, and is generally seen in pairs about old buildings, near villages, or the loose stony portions of the hills. On the 23rd March I found a nest in the Sambhur fort in a wall of an inner room. It was about 5 feet from the ground. It was cup-shaped, the outside measuring 4| inches in diameter and the egg- receptacle about 2| inches. The nest was composed of fine grass, loosely rounded together, and had for a lining a layer of goat's hair worked carelessly round into the shape of the nest. The eggs are blue, with pale, or sometimes dark, reddish-brown spots near the thick end. 56 TURDID.E. " To show bow fearless this little bird is, I may mention that in April last one of them built in a hole in a bath-room wall, and did not appear to be frightened by the people going out and in. About three weeks after, when the young had left the nest, the birds laid three eggs in the same nest, and these I took on 10th April, 1873. Later these birds laid a third batch of eggs in the same nest, and these they were allowed to hatch." Writing from Mount Aboo Colonel E. Butler inquires : — " Have you any instances recorded of Cercomela fusca depositing its eggs in the disused nests of other species ? I found this bird last month (z. e. in June) sitting upon three eggs in a nest (in a cave) which appeared to me to have belonged to Cotyle concolor. It was unmistakably a nest belonging to one of the Swallows — a broad inverted cone built of mud to the side of the cave and lined with dry grass. I have seen many nests of this species this year, but in no other instance have I found the eggs laid in another bird's nest. ** The Brown Rock-Chat breeds at Mount Aboo in February, March, and April. The nest is usually built in holes of rocks, buildings, or stone walls, and when in the former is often supported by a heap of small stones and pellets of dry earth, forming an embankment that extends from 6 to 10 inches beyond the side of the nest, which is evidently intended to make the nest rest hori- zontally. I have noticed it in so many cases that I look upon it now rather as a rule than as an exception. During the period of incubation both birds are extremely pugnacious, and vigorously attack any small birds, squirrels, rats, lizards, &c. that venture to approach the nest. The eggs, varying in number from three to four, are pale blue, with small dark reddish-brown spots thinly scattered over the whole shell and formed into a narrow circle round the large end/' Lieut. H. E. Barnes informs us that in Eajputana the Brown Bock-Chat breeds from March to the end of July, rearing, he believes, two or three broods in the season. The eggs are truly Saaricoline. In shape moderately broad ovals, generally somewhat pointed towards the small end, and usually with a good deal of gloss. The ground-colour is a most delicate pale pure blue. The markings consist of tiny specks and spots of different shades of red and brownish-red ; often very faint, commonly almost exclusively confined to the larger end, but sometimes thinly speckled over the whole surface, and in one egg that I possess forming a broad, irregular, dotted zone round the small end, while the large end is almost entirely free from spots. This latter, however, is quite an abnormal variety. Occa- sionally the markings are entirely wanting. Considerably elongated examples occur, but as a rule the shape is very uniform. In length the eggs vary from 0'75 to 0*88 in length, and from 0*58 to 0'65 in breadth ; but the average of twenty-four eggs measured is 0-82 by 0-62. HKXICUhUS. 57 Subfamily RUTICILLIN^E. 630. Henicurus maculatus, Vigors. The Western Spotted Forktail. Enicurus maculatus, FiV/., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 212 j Hume, Rough Draft N. 8? E. no. 584. The Western Spotted Forktail breeds throughout the Himalayas west of Nepal and south of the first snowy range, along the banks of almost every mountain-streamlet, between the elevations of 2000 and 7000 feet .or even higher. The breeding-season extends, according to locality and elevation, from the commencement of April until the middle of June. The nest is almost always placed in close proximity to water, sometimes completely hidden in a rocky niche, sometimes on a bare ledge of rock more or less overhung by drooping ferns, and sometimes on a sloping bank, at the roots of some old tree, in a very forest of club-moss. The nest is cup-shaped, fully 4 inches across and from 2| to nearly 4 inches in height, the cavity being sometimes shallow, sometimes deep. It is composed of very various materials — moss, moss-roots, horsehair, silky fibre, and the like ; but a quantity of dead, more or less skeleton, leaves are always intermingled, and at times form the chief lining, which, however, according to my experience, is more commonly fine rootlets. Three or four eggs are usually laid; but I have a note of five having once been brought in, all ready to hatch off, by one of my hunters. Captain Hutton writes from the Dhoon : — " The Spotted Fork- tail frequents the sides of streams and rivulets, flitting from rock to rock and stone to stone with a light and graceful movement, which is half flight, half hop. Its habits have obtained for it, among the European visitors to the hills, the name of the Dhobi- bird, or ' Washerman,' from its loving to frequent the places to which those worthies likewise resort to destroy our clothing. It selects a retired spot along the margin of some quiet streamlet, and there constructs its curious cup-shaped nest upon the ground among the plants and mosses which there abound. The ne tis a deep cup, composed exteriorly of fine roots neatly interwoven with horsehair and green mosses, and thickly lined with the gauze-like skeleton leaves of the willows that fringe the margins of the stream ; many of these skeleton leaves are likewise interwoven among the external roots. It has a neat and beautiful appearance, in perfect keeping with the trim and dainty plumage of the bird itself. " A nest taken on the 12th May, at the foot of the hills in the Dhoon, contained three faintly greenish-u hite eggs, sprinkled over with spots and blotches of rufous or rust-colour. They were hard-set/' 58 TURDID.I:. From Alrnorah Mr. Brooks remarks : — " Common in all moun- tain-streams. Mr. Home found the nest near Bheem Tal, which was placed in the side of a rocky watercourse, and was a large one composed of moss and fibres. Eggs three or four; ground-colour white, with a faint shade of green, speckled rather sparingly with rusty brown ; lays in Kumaon in May." Captain Cock informs me that this species " breeds in May and June near Dhurmsala and in Cashmere. It makes a large solid nest of moss, placed on a shelf of a bank overhanging a bill-stream, but always well overlapped by the top of the bank, so that the nest is not observable. The nest is large for the bird, of a deep cup-shape, lined with dry leaves and grass-roots. The birds usually lay four eggs, of which there are two distinct types of coloration, or, I should say, of the ground-colour — one having a greenish ground covered with rusty spots, and the other a dirty pink covered with similar spots." Colonel C. H. T. Marshall writes :— " The Spotted Fork tail is common about every stream in Cbamba. In April it commences breeding, and does not seem particular as to the elevation at which it builds. I have found a nest in the root of a fallen deodar tree, near where snow was lying in a ravine, about 7000 feet up, and several pairs remain all the summer in their winter-quarters between 2000 and 3000 feet up." The eggs are oval, in shape resembling those of the "Wagtail, but differing from them in the comparative sparseness and clearness of the markings. The ground-colour is generally a pale clear greenish white, rarely a dingy carneous, and they are thinly spotted, speckled, and even streaked with yellowish or reddish brown. Where several of the spots occur close together, a nimbus of the some colour, but paler, more or less unites them, and a few somewhat faint brownish-purple spots and clouds, or an indistinct mottling of this colour, are here and there occasionally observable. The eggs vary much in size and shape : some are a good deal elongated, and some conspicuously pyriform. They have very little, if any, gloss. In size they vary from 0*9 to 1*03 in length, and from 0*68 to 0'75 in breadth. 631. Henicurus guttatus, Gould. The Eastern Spotted Forktail. Enicurus guttatus, Gould, Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 584 bis. When speaking of the previous species, Dr. Jerdon remarks : — " The nest and eggs of this bird have been brought me more than once, made of roots, fibres, and a little moss, with three or four eggs, greenish white, with a few rusty-brown spots." This, however, as he told me, occurred at Darjeeling, where only the present species, the Eastern Spotted Forktail, and not the preceding one, is found, and his remarks therefore apply to this species. From Sikhim Mr. Gammie sends me the following : — " Heni- curus guttatus makes a similar nest to that of H. schistacevg, HKNICUBUS. 59 but a good deal neater. I have found only two nests of it, both unfortunately containing young — one three, the other four ; both nests were on tiny ledges of moss-covered rocks, a little above water-mark, in beds of streams. The outer parts of the nests were made flush with the natural moss on the rocks. One had but one skeleton leaf in the bottom, but the other was well lined with them. The eggs, to judge from the broken shells, are very much like those of H. schistaceus. It breeds in May and the beginning of June." Later on, he writes : — " I have seen at lest half a score nests of this Porktail, but only three or four with eggs. It breeds in May and June, from 2000 feet upwards. Two of the nests I found had been used at least two years, for their walls were living masses of roots of neighbouring plants and green moss of one or more years' growth. They are usually placed on ledges of rocks by sides of streams, very little above water-mark, and are deep massive structures, round or oval according to the shape of the ledge on which they rest. They are composed of moss intermingled with skeleton leaves, and lined with fine roots. Externally they mea- sure about 6 inches across by 3*5 deep ; internally 3*5 inches by 2'5. The eggs are three or four in number/' A recent writer in the ' Asian ' remarks : — " The nest is a rather massive cup-shaped structure, almost entirely composed of moss, lined with a little hair, a few fern-roots, or scraps of the same moss as the whole of the exterior is made of. The base of the nest is nearly always much mixed with damp earth, making the nest very substantial and heavy ; one that I had the curiosity to weigh was no less than two and a half pounds. Another effect of the damp earth is to keep the moss beautifully fresh and green, making the nest look much like a clump of growing moss. Jerdou states that the nest is composed of roots, fibres. &c., but I have never come across one so made, though I have taken a great many both of this and other species. It is invariably built near water, and frequently on the banks of some hill-stream, either in a hollow in the bank, amongst or under the rocks, or else under the protecting cover of a stout tree-root, bunch of ferns, or other suitable position; occasionally the nest may be found placed amongst the ferns and fern-moss which grow amongst the rocks at the side of some little-used hill-path, but even then there is sure to be water at no great distance, and the site chosen will be a damp one. I found one nest placed in a hollow in a wall of rock forming a part of one side of a big hill-stream. The hollow was nearly filled with moss, and it made a peculiarly comfortable abode, and, more- over, a very safe one, as, though quite visible from the low bank opposite, it could only be got by means of a boat or raft. " The eggs are either three or four in number ; sometimes, though but rarely, they are as many as five. They are of a very pale greenish-white ground-colour, freckled throughout with pale reddish : the amount of spots and the depth of their colour varies greatly in different specimens, sometimes they are quite profusely covered with dark reddish, and at other times almost unspotted, 60 TURDID/E. such freckles as there are being entirely confined to the larger end. The most common type, however, will be found to be that first mentioned. " They breed from May to July, commencing to lay at the end of the first month. I had a ForktaiPs nest with eggs, four hard- set, brought to me once in August, which may have belonged either to this species or to H. schistaceus, the eggs of which differ but slightly from those of H. immaculatus." A lovely nest of this species sent me from Sikhim, taken near Mongphoo on the 6th May, at an elevation of 3000 feet, and which contained four fresh eggs when taken, is a massive cup of green moss firmly felted together, lined with fine fern-roots, and then the cavity completely coated inside with skeleton leaves. Exteriorly the nest is about 5 inches in diameter and 3 in height ; the cavity is 3 inches in diameter and 2 in depth. Eggs of this species, with which I have been favoured by Mr. Gammie, belong to quite the same types as those of its congeners. The eggs are somewhat elongated ovals, typically pointed towards the small end, but more or less pyriform and obtuse-ended varieties occur. The shell is fine and compact, but it never has much gloss, and in some specimens scarcely any. The ground-colour varies, sometimes nearly pure white, sometimes greenish white, and sometimes a pinky or creamy stone-colour. The markings consist of freckling and mottling of different shades of reddish, purplish, or yellowish brown, the shade varying in every egg, often densest about the large end, and often more or less sparse over the rest of the egg. In some eggs small spots and specks of more pronounced colour, olive or reddish brown, are dotted about amongst the mottlings, and in some eggs there is a little faint purple or lilac mottling intermingled at the large end. In length the eggs vary from 0-86 to TO inch, and in breadth from 0-65 to 07 inch. 632. Henicurus schistaceus, Hodgs. The Slaty-backed Forlctail. Enicurus schistaceus, Hodgs., Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 214 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 586. The Slaty-backed Forktail breeds in the valleys of the Surjoo and Eamgunga in Kuinaon, near the junction of which I obtained the nest with half-fledged young in July, and thence eastwards in all the warmer mountain-valleys, at elevations of from 1500 to 3500 feet, throughout the Himalayas and the various chains and hill-systems running down from Assam to Burma. As far as I know, Mr. Gammie was the first oologist who obtained the eggs. He says : — "I found one nest this year in the Eyang, below our chinchona-plantation (Sikhim), at an elevation of about 2000 feet, oil the 4th May. It was close to the ground, on a natural ledge in the root of an uprooted tree, at the edge of a shady stream. It was cup-shaped but shallow, and composed of HENICUHUS. 61 moss and liued with a few skeleton leaves and a few fibres. It measured 4-5 in diameter and 2 inches in height externally ; the cavity was 3*1 inches wide and T5 deep. This nest contained four hard-set eggs." Another nest of this species was sent me from Native Sikhim, where it was found in July, at an elevation of about 5000 feet, in the hollow of a rock on the bank of a mountain-torrent. The nest was a small shallow cup, about 4 inches in diameter, composed externally of fine dry moss and a few blades of dead grass, and with a quantity of skeleton leaves incorporated in the substance of the nest, and more or less forming its inner surface, for it cannot be said to have had any regular lining. It contained a single perfectly fresh egg. Major C. T. Bingham, writing from Tenasserim, says : — " Toiling along the steep ascents and descents on the road from Kaukarit to Meeawuddy, on the Thoungyeen river, on the 1st March, I came to a small stream, rocky and covered with boulders. As I wished to get a few Forktails for ray collection, I approached cautiously. On the left I could see nothing. On the right — yes, there, hopping out from under a fallen log, was a specimen of //. schistaceus. Next moment I had rolled it over, and secured the body as it came floating down the stream. With some trouble I worked my way up to the fallen tree, and after a good hunt suc- ceeded in finding the nest, beautifully concealed in a crevice between the roots on the underside of the tree. Nest made of moss felted together into a cup about 2 inches deep and the same in diameter, lined with the skeletons of peepul leaves, and containing three slightly-set bluntish oval eggs, pure dead white, sparsely speckled and spotted, chiefly at the larger end, with pale brown. " On the 13th March, lower down in the valley of the Meplay river, a feeder of the Thoungyeen, I found a second nest, similarly wedged into the crevices of the roots of a fallen tree, in a little rocky stream. Nest, not two pins different to the last one, con- tained three unfledged young ones. Two of the eggs taken as above described measured 0-y7xO-62 and 0*85 x 0*63 inch re- spectively." Mr. J. Darling, Jan., also records the finding of the following nests in Tenasserim : — "On the 8th April I shot a female H. schistaceus, and on the 10th in the same spot a male, which had been with the hen, and which was flitting about with an insect in its bill. On the 12th, passing the same spot, I noticed a young one, half-fledged, lying on the ground dead, and saw it had fallen out of its nest. This was built in a hole of a tree overhanging a stream, 5 feet from the ground, and was constructed entirely of moss : a good large nest, and lined with dry thin leaves ; the cavity was 2| inches in diameter and 2 inches deep. " On the same day I found an exactly similar nest, built on a ledge of rock on the bank of a stream. These two nests were 62 TURDID.B. found at the foot of Nwalabo mountain, in heavy forest, some 35 miles in an easterly direction from Tavoy." The eggs are very regular ovals, only just a little compressed and pointed towards one end. The shell is very fine and fragile, and has a fair amount of gloss. The ground-colour is white, with the faintest possible greenish tinge, not noticeable until the egg is placed alongside of some other really pure snow-white egg: as for markings, there is at the large end a small cap composed of densely-crowded specks and spots of brownish red or dingy pale raw sienna of varying shades and intensity, and a few specks of the same scattered over the rest of the egg, nowhere numerous, but much more sparse towards the small end, where they are in some eggs absolutely wanting. In amongst the markings of the cap a few pale reddish or lilac-purple clouds, as a rule faint and dull, underlie the more conspicuous brownish-red specklings. All the eggn are very similar in appearance and uniform in size, and thev only vary in length from O84 to O87 inch, and in breadth from 0-63 to Ob*7. 633. Henicurus immaculatus, Hodgs. The Black-backed Forktail. Enicurus immaculatus, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ltd. ii? p. 213 ; Hume, Cat. no. 585. A note I have on the nidification of this Forktail was sent me by Mr. Gates, who writes : — " I found the nest, with three fresh eggs, on the 20th April, in a nullah on the eastern side of the Pegu hills." A writer in the * Asian ' remarks : — " The nest is like that of H. maculatus, but the eggs are much smaller and are profusely marked throughout with dark reddish. "In this, as in the other Forktails, the tail of both sexes becomes much frayed whilst the incubation of their eggs is in progress. " It is much rarer than either of the two birds already men- tioned, and keeps to small streams and paths in dense evergreen forests. The usual note is rather softer than is the case with the other birds of this genus." 637. Microcichla scouleri (Vigors). The Little Forkta'd. Enicurus scouleri, Vigors, Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 214 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 587. Enicurus nigrifrons, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 215. The only note that I have as yet received in regard to the nidi- fication of the Little Forktail is from Mr. Brooks. He says : — " I noticed a pair of these birds between Batwari and Duugulla, which appeared to have their nest in a very peculiar situation. CHIMARRHORXIS. 63 This was on the llth May. In the middle of the foaming torrent of the Bhagiruttee was a large rock, over which the water rushed furiously in the form of a cascade. Through this cascade the birds dived or darted numbers of times, with either food or nest- materials in their bills. They generally remained some minutes within the water, and from their attachment to the spot they evidently had their nest there. The place was perfectly inaccessible, and however the little birds managed to got through the sheet of rushing broken water without being swept away I do not know." Dr. Jerdon writes: — "A nest was brought to me, said to be that of this bird, found on a ledge of rock near a stream, with three eggs, very similar to those of E. maculatus, but smaller." 638. Chimarrhornis leucocephalus (Vigors). The White-capped Redstart. Chaemorrornis leucocephala (F^.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 143 ; Hume, Cat. no. 506. The late Mr. A. Anderson, when on a trip through Kumaon, found the nest of this species. He writes : — " Whilst at Furkia I was so fortunate as to fall in with two nests of Chaimmarrornis leucocephala and one of Riiticilla fuliginosa, which may just as well be included in the present notice, the more so, as I can find 110 allusion to the nidification of the former in any of the ornithological works to which I have access. " I do not know of any better instance of the importance of oology as an element in the classification of birds than the eggs of these two species, and, I might almost add, of Eincurus maculatus. Alike in their habits, the situations they frequent, and the style of nest architecture, the perfect similarity in the coloration of the eggs of these two species of Redstarts indicates a close alliance with each other. " Both nests of the White-capped Redstart were taken by myself on the 20th of May, from a high precipitous moss-covered bank which overlooked the boiling rapid (Pindar), very much to the horror of my (^tfsz-shikaree ' Kheima,' who professed to be my guide and keeper, but in reality \vas the most arrant humbug I ever met. The nest of this bird is very like that of the European Robin, and is composed outwardly of green moss roots and fibres, the egg -cavity being profusely lined with goat's hair; its natural position is in a hollow of a bank on the side of a stream, the entrance being sheltered by overgrowing moss and ferns. " The eggs are three in number (I allowed ample time for a fourth to be laid) ; and as they are so very like giant specimens of the eggs of JRuticilla fuliginosa, as described by Captain Cock and Mr. Brooks, and the exact counterpart of those taken by myself, any further description is almost superfluous. The ground-colour of both sets is greenish white, profusely covered with rufous or reddish-brown spots ; the markings in one clutch have a tendency 64 TURJDID.E. to become confluent at the larger eud, somewhat in the form of an irregular cap ; in the other the spots and blotches are larger and more equally diffused throughout the surface." 639. Ruticilla frontalis (Vigors). The Blue-fronted Redstart. Ruticilla frontalis ( Vig.}, Jcrd. B. Ind. ii, p. 141 ; Hume, Cat. no. 503. Maudelli's native collectors brought 13 eggs, probably belonging to this species, from Native Sikhim, where they were found during the latter part of June. Many of the smaller birds and eggs they brought with them were sadly mixed together and they could not point out the parent bird of these eggs with certainty ; the eggs are no doubt those of a Ruticilla and the only bird of this genus they brought was a R. frontalis ; whether all the eggs belong to this species or to some other Ruticilla besides, it is of course impossible to say. The eggs are somewhat elongated ovals, more or less conspicu- ously pointed towards the smaller end and are sometimes pyri- formed. The shell is extremely fine and delicate and sometimes has but little, at others a fair amount of gloss. The colour is an extremely beautiful uniform pale slightly greenish blue ; they vary in length from O75 to 0-86, in breadth from 0-58 to 0-62, but the average is 0-82 by 0-59. 644. Ruticilla rufiventris (VieilL). The Indian Redstart. Ruticilla rufiventris ( V.\ Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 137 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 497. Dr. Stoliczka told me that he saw four eggs of this species at the camping ground of Lama Yuroo, in the valley of the Tsarap in Rupshu, at an elevation of about 13,000 feet. They were a little larger, and their uniform sky-blue colour was a little paler than that of the eggs of the common European Redstart. I may notice that the bird is absolutely a winter and spring visitant only to the plains, and that in the following account Colonel Sykes must have made some mistake. He says : — " Has a peculiar manner of vibrating its tail when seated on a bough. A pair of these birds built their nest in an out-house constantly frequented by my servants and within reach of the hand " (Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 92). It is absolutely certain, in my opinion, that this bird never breeds in the plains of India*. Major Wardlaw Rainsay says, writing of Afghanistan : — " At 12,500 feet on the Safed Koh, on the 1st of July, I observed a pair * But birds of this species are certainly met with in the plains in summer and cannot be very rare. There are three in the Hume Collection shot at Sambbur by Mr. Adam in July and one procured at Ahmednuggur by Dr. Fairbank in June. — ED. BHYACOENIS. 65 of Redstarts hanging about an old tree-stump ; I shot the male, and on searching the stump found the nest in a crevice ; but, un- fortunately, it contained no eggs. The nest had the appearance of having been used ; so that it is possible that the young had flown." Colonel J. Biddulph remarks : — " These birds go beyond Grilgit to breed as a rule ; one female was shot off the nest with young at 10,000 feet elevation in the Gilgit district ; " and he subsequently added " I procured a specimen as late as the 27th November. It apparently breeds on the Shandur plateau, whence I received an immature specimen in August." 646. Rhyacornis fuliginosus (Vigors). The Plumbeous Redstart. Kuticilla fuliginosa (Vig.}^ Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 142. Nymphaeus fuiiginosus ( Viy.), Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 505. I have never myself taken the nest of this species, but I have had it brought me by my collectors. The birds breed in May and June (apparently at all elevations in the Himalayas from 5000 to 13,000 feet), laying three, four, and even five eggs, generally in the immediate vicinity of running water. One nest found in a hole in a rock was composed of fine grass and moss-roots with a little moss — a very slight nest, little more than a lining to the hole. Another was described as far more substantial, planted in a niche of a rock with some few dry leaves and much moss intermingled in the structure. Writing from Dhurmsala Captain Cock remarked that " the so- called Water Robin nidificates in May and June in the North-west Himalayas. The nest is composed of moss, mixed with a little dried fibre and lined with white goat's hair ; it is cup-shaped and rather deep; inner diameter of cup 2| inches. The nest is generally placed on a shelf of rock, where it is protected from the rain and out of the reach of animals. It is always by the side of a hill-stream. I have found two nests close together within 2 yards of each other. They lay four eggs, greenish-white, covered with rusty freckles. " The eggs do not vary much either in size or colour." Writing from the hills north of Mussoorie, Mr. Brooks says : — " I found two nests between Batwari and Dangulla on the llth May : one contained fresh eggs, and the other eggs deeply incubated. The situation of both nests was the same, viz., in the crest on top of the small steep bank formed by the excavation for the road on the hill-side above the river. The top edge of the excavation was about 7 or 8 feet above the footpath, and the nests were placed in small shallow holes or cavities and overhung by tufts of grass. They were composed of mo.ss, fine roots, and fibres, and lined with hair and wool. The number of eggs was five, and they measured from 0-73 to 0-76 long, by 0*6 broad ; 0'76 was, however, the average length, and only one was so short as 0-73. " The eggs of one set were of a greenish-white ground-colour, profusely mottled and spotted all over, almost hiding the ground- VOL. ii. 5 66 TUEDID^E. colour, with pale reddish brown, the markings being denser towards the larger end of the egg. This I take to be the typical coloration of the egg. The other set of eggs were of the same ground-colour, but the spots and blotches were larger and more open and distinct, allowing considerable portions of the ground-colour to be seen. Towards the large end the spots somewhat coalesced in the form of a zone, and at this part of the egg they were mixed with other spots of a reddish grey. This latter set of eggs much resembled the better marked ones of Pratincola caprata. " One nest was about 50 feet above the water-level of the river, while the other was fully 100 feet. This bird was tolerably abun- dant along the course of the Bhagiruttee from Batwari to above Deralee; and so was Choemarrliornis Jeucocephala ; but although I spent much time in watching the old birds, I never succeeded in finding the eggs of the latter, so very careful is it not to disclose the whereabouts of its nest." Dr. Stoliczka remarks that he " found it breeding near Losar, in the Spiti Valley, at an elevation of 13,000 feet. It lives here during the summer, but migrates to the lower hills about October, when the young birds are full-grown." A lovely nest of this species taken by Mr. Gammie at an ele- vation of 4000 feet near Eungbee, in Sikhim, on the 17th April contained three hard-set eggs. It was, for the size of the bird, a massive nest composed entirely of moss and moss-roots finely felted together and sparingly lined with silky vegetable fibre, extremely fine, some of it white and some red. The nest was 5*5 in diameter and 3 inches in height exteriorly, the cavity 2'5 in diameter by 1*25 in depth. Canon Tristram remarks that the eggs otRuticilla are never spotted, though the ground-colour varies from pure white (in the single instance of R. titliys} to the most delicate white with a faint bluish tinge (in R. moussieri) up to the very dark blue of 11. semirufa. If this generalization be correct, it constitutes another proof that the present species cannot be classed as a Rutidlla-, indeed, in. its habits it most closely approaches the Forktails, especially Henicurus scouleri, in whose company it is so commonly found, and its eggs are not unlike, so far as coloration is concerned, many varieties of those of Motacilla maderaspatana. As regards character and colour of markings, and even as to shape (though those of the present species are considerably smaller), Mr. Eewitson's figure of the egg of Calandrella brachydactyla faithfully represents the most typical form of the Plumbeous Red start's eggs. More or less broad ovals iu shape, somewhat pointed or com- pressed towards the small end, the faintly greenish-white ground is almost entirely obscured in most specimens by a dense mottling and freckling of somewhat pale and dingy yellowish or reddish brown. Except for the faint tinge of green in the little of the ground-colour that appears, some of these eggs are very similar to those of several species of our Indian Larks, unless indeed a somewhat CALLIOPE. — TABSIGER. 67 greater fineness of texture and glossiness of surface help to separate, them. Abnormal as they may appear for a bird hitherto classed as a Redstart, such are truly the eggs of the present species. I may add that the colouring of these eggs somewhat recalls that of those of the sub-Alpine and Sardinian "Warblers as figured by Mr. Bree. In some eggs the markings are much redder, and these eggs of course approach nearer to those of the Common Robin. They are, however, always browner, more dingy, and smaller than the eggs of this latter bird. The markings have a strong tendency to become confluent at the large end, where they are always most dense, and often exhibit a strongly marked but mottled and irregular cap. The eggs vary from 0-7 to O8 in length, and from O56 to 0-64 in breadth ; but the average of eighteen eggs is 0*76 nearly by O6. 651. Calliope pectoralis, Gould. The Himalayan Riiby-Throat. Calliope pectoralis, Gould, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 150 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. 8f E. 110. 513. Of the nidification of the Himalayan Ruby-Throat nothing very authentic is known. A nes%, said to belong to this species, was sent me from Native Sikhim, where it was found in June in a deep crevice in a rock, at an elevation of about 12,000 feet. The nest is only a warm saucer-shaped pad of very fine moss and fern-roots closely felted together. The eggs, of which it contained two, are regular ovals, slightly compressed towards the small end. The shell is fine, but exhibits scarcely any gloss. In colour the eggs are a uniform pale salmon- buff. As these were brought in by native collectors, much reliance cannot be placed on them. At the same time all the eggs brought in by the same men with which we were previously acquainted were correct, and it is quite as likely as not that these may be so also, though Pallas says that those of the nearly-allied C. camts- cJiatkensis are greenish. The eggs measure 0*9 and 0'91 in length, and 0-67 and 0'66 in breadth respectively. Mr. Brooks remarks : — " Found beyond the Pir Panjal Pass, frequenting large beds of broken rock on the grassy hill-sides where they breed. The song is pretty and Accentor-like" Colonel J. Biddulph writes from Gilgit : — First seen on May 1, by which time it was in full breeding-plumage. It breeds at 10,000 feet. Evidently two broods are produced in the year." 653. Tarsiger chrysaens, Hodgs. The Golden Wood-Chat. Tarsiger chrysseus, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 149 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. 8f E. no. 511. The Golden Wood-Chat, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, breeds in the central regions of the mountains of Nepal, and is 5* 68 TURDIDJE. shy, solitary, and bush-loving. It lays from three to four eggs, a pale verditer-blue ; regular oval eggs about 0*72 by 0'5 ; and makes its nest on the ground, in holes of rocks or banks, or at the base of some decaying tree. The nest is a compact saucer, com- posed of moss and moss-roots, and lined with sheep's wool and a few soft feathers. One nest obtained in August measured 4-62 in diameter, and 1-87 in height externally ; the cavity measured 2-75 in diameter and 1-12 in depth. This species apparently breeds from May to August. Two eggs, said to belong to this species, were procured in Native Sikhim together with one of the parent birds, in June. In shape these eggs are very regular ovals, a little pointed towards both ends ; the surface of the shell is rather uneven, but there is a fair amount of gloss on them ; the colour is a uniform rather deep blue. They measure 0-81 by 0'58 and 0-80 by 0-57. 654. lanthia rufilata (Hodgs.). The Red-flanked Wood-Chat. lanthia cyanura (Pall.}, Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 146. Nemura rufilata, Hodgs.y Hume, Hough Draft N. 8f E. no. 508. I have never succeeded in finding a nest of the Red-flanked "Wood-Chat. In the hills north of Simla they breed, I believe, very high up. "Writing of the Sutlej Valley, my friend Dr. Stoliczka says: — "This species does not occur in summer to the west of Nachar and not below 8000 feet. It breeds near Chini, and even here almost only near the limit of trees, at about 12,000 feet. It is often seen about Korzog in Eupshu, at an elevation of between 15,000 and 16,000 feet." But further west in Cashmere they breed as low as 6000 feet, and 1 have eggs taken there during the latter half of May and the first half of June. They breed there, it appears, in holes, making a nest of moss and grass lined with soft white grass. From Cashmere Mr. Brooks noted that " this bird, like Siphia leucomelanura, breeds in the immature or female dress. I shot several pairs which were nesting, and saw others. Only one pair had the male mature, and differing from the female. It nests in hcles in bank-sides, under tree-roots, or fallen tree-trunks. The eggs, four in number, are bluish white, very faintly marked towards the larger end with the palest reddish brown. Those markings can only be seen upon a close inspection. Length 0'74 by 0*56." He obtained, if I remember right, only a single nest, and this was at Goolmergh, and on the 2nd June. Each of the three nests of which I have notes contained four eggs. Mr. Brooks mentioned in epist. : " The shape of the egg is similar to that of other Eobins, but diminishes rather more rapidly from the centre of the egg towards each end. The texture is smooth with a slight gloss ; ground-colour pale greenish white, with some indistinct faint mottlings of very pale red at the larger end with a tendency to form a zone." ADELTJBA. 69 The eggs of this species are broad ovals, much compressed and pointed towards the small end, and at times somewhat pointed even towards the large end. They are white with a delicate green tinge, and towards the large end exhibit a faint zone of the most minute reddish-brown specks conceivable. The shell is very smooth and compact, has always a certain amount of gloss, which in some cases is very bright and decided. In length they vary from O09 to 074, and in breadth from 0*54 to 0-58 ; but the average of twelve is 0*71 by 0*56. 657. Adelura caeruleicephala (Vigors). The Blue-headed Wood-Chat. Ruticilla caeruleocephala ( Vig.\ Jerd. B. Lid. ii, p. 141 ; Hume. Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 504. This species, which is very common about Simla in the winter, making its appearance there with R. frontalis about the middle of November, retreats, like this latter bird, during March to higher regions, where it may be found throughout the summer at elevations of from 10,000 to 13,000 feet, amongst other localities in the snow- capped hills that bound Spiti on the south and west, and divide it from the valleys of the Sutlej and the Beas. The only nest we ever got was placed in a cleft of a rock on the path leading up the Humpta Pass immediately above Juggutsook, at an elevation (as nearly as might be guessed with reference to that of Juggutsook and the top of the pass) of only 11,000 feet. It was a triangular-shaped pad, accommodated to the shape of the crevice, some 4 inches each way, composed chiefly of moss, but with some grass and fir-needles intermingled, and with a shallow central depression lined thinly with soft grey fur-hairs, probably of hares : this was on the 16th April. The nest contained one single fresh egg, a very regular and perfect oval. In colour a uniform pale delicate blue, fairly glossy, and measuring 0*83 by 0'62. The mouth of the crevice, which was about 9 inches deep, was partly curtained by delicate drooping herbage, and we should never have noticed it if the two parents had not suddenly darted out of it when we were actually abreast of it. Unfortunately we shot neither, but I have no earthly doubt myself of what they were. I may add that a second egg said to belong to this species, and to have been taken on some of the hills overlooking and north of the Wangtoo Bridge, has since been sent me. It is precisely similar, but measures 0*85 by 0'63. It is just possible that we have made some mistake about the eggs of this species, for Major WaitUaw .Ramsay gives a very different description of them. Writing from Afghanistan he says: " It breeds in May and June. On the 22nd of May I found a nest in a crevice in the face of a precipitous cliff in a deep mountain-gorge. It was composed of small twigs and dried grass, thickly lined with camels' hair. I shot the female as she left the 70 TURDID.E. nest, which contained five fresh eggs of a dull cream-colour, with a broad zone of the same colour, but darker near the thicker end." Colonel J. Biddulph informs us that in Gilgit this species is " a summer visitor. It appears in April and breeds at about 10,000 feet." 059. Notodela leuciira (Hodgs.). The White-tailed Blue Robin. Myiomela leucura (Hodgs.}, Jcrd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 118. Notodela leucura (ZfodV/s.), Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 477. The White-tailed Blue llobin, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, breeds in the central regions of Nepal, amongst brushwood or low jungle, during the months of April and May. The nest is generally placed on some ledge of rock, more or less sheltered by grass or bushes, and is a deep massive cup composed of mosses and moss-roots. Four eggs are said to be laid, and these are figured as moderately broad ovals much pointed towards one end, measuring 0*9 by 0-65 inch, and of a uniform mottled or curdled pinkish-clay colour. Dr. Jerdon tells us that at Darjeeling the Lepchas brought him a nest and eggs, alleged to belong to this bird, exactly resembling those of Niltava sundara. I have never taken the nest myself, but I have little doubt that the Lepchas were correct. A nest of this species, containing two fresh eggs, was taken by Mr. Gammie at Rishap, near Darjeeling, at an elevation of about 4000 feet, on the 1 4th May. It is a large somewhat shallow cup, about 5 inches in external diameter and 2 inches in height, composed externally chiefly of dead leaves and dry grass, but internally of the finest possible moss-roots compactly fitted together. A good deal of green moss is incorporated in the body of the nest, and shows out here and there amongst the dead leaves with which it is almost entirely coated. From Sikhim Mr. Gammie now writes : — " Tw^o nests of the White-tailed Blue Robin, taken in May at 5000 feet elevation, \vere placed in the face of banks, among scrub near large forest. They were both hooded, with lateral entrance, and each contained three set eggs. They were composed of fine roots intermixed with a few leaves, and a few pieces of green moss were stuck here and there on the outside to aid in concealment. Externally they mea- sured 5^ inches wide and the same deep ; the egg-cavity is 2-5 inches wide by 1 deep, with an entrance of 2-2o diameter. " I got two nests of Notodela leucura, both globular, with en- trance at side, but the eggs are identical with those I sent you before. Many birds, I find, which naturally build a covered-in nest (hooded) do not trouble to make the hood part, if the situation is wrell sheltered by a closely overhanging rock, where the hood would be a superfluous part of the nest." Numerous nests of this species sent me from Sikhim show that the nest is always a compact, more or less deep cup, more or less CALLENE. THAMNOBIA. 71 hooded or domed where plants or rocks do not afford sufficient shelter. The chief material of which the nest is always composed are extremely fine black fibrous rootlets, felted closely together ; a good many dead leaves are generally incorporated towards the base of the structure, and fern-leaves (withered or green) and green moss are in many cases more or less profusely woven on to the outer surface of the sides, of course in view to the more complete concealment of the nest. Where, as sometimes happens, the nest is placed in the cleft of a bank, it consists entirely of dead leaves and black rootlets, only a little moss being attached to the outer lip of the cup or the summit of the hood, as the case may be. Mr. Mandelli took three nests at Lebong (elevation 5500 feet) on the 8th and 15th May and the 10th June; each contained three fresh eggs. The eggs first sent me by Mr. Gammie are very regular, mode- rately broad ovals with scarcely any gloss, though the texture of the shell is very fine and satiny. They are of a uniform, very pale salmon-pink, entirely devoid of all regular markings, although, if examined in a very bright light, they appear to be excessively faintly (in fact scarcely perceptibly) freckled all over with the palest possible grey, which is absolutely invisible unless looked very closely into. This is not at all the egg that I should have expected from this species, but it agrees well with Mr. Hodgson's and Dr. Jerdon's accounts. The eggs measure 0*95 by 0'69 inch, and 0-91 also by 0-69 inch. Numerous other eggs of this species agree well with the above description ; but some are rather more glossy, some seem to want entirely the faint grey freckling, and many might be best described as white with the faintest possible cafe-au-lait tinge. In length they vary from 0-86 to 0'95, and in breadth from 0-59 to 0*69 ; but the average of ten eggs is 0*91 by 0*65. 660. Callene frontalis (Blyth). The Blue-fronted Callene. Callene frontalis (Bh/th), Jerd. B. 2nd. i, p. 496 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 340. Mr. Blyth says that Mr. Hodgson figures the nest of the Blue- fronted Callene as domed and like a Wren's, \vith clay-coloured eggs. There is no such figure amongst the many hundreds of original drawings (of which those in the British Museum are mostly copies) lent me by Mr. Hodgson. 661. Thamnobia cambaiensis (Lath.). The Brown-backed Indian Robin. Thamnobia cambaiensis (Lath.), Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 122 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 480. The Brown-backed Indian Robin breeds throughout the plains of Upper India (not, however, I think, ascending the hills to any 72 TUEDID^E. elevation above 2000 feet) from March to August, during which period it has always two and often three broods. If disturbed, especially if the nest he robbed, it generally (but not always) constructs a fresh nest ; otherwise it uses the same nest (only clean- ing out the old and replacing it by new lining) for the whole season, and at times for two or three successive seasons. One pair reared eight broods in one and the same hole in my compound in three seasons. It builds commonly in holes in walls or banks, in niches in temples, under the eaves of huts, &c. ; but it also builds not very unfrequently in thick bushes. In Mr. Nunn's garden at Bichpooree I found two nests between the bayonet-shaped leaves of plants of the Yucca globosa, wedged in against the stems. The nest varies much in shape, size, and materials, according to situation and locality. When placed in holes they are usually merely soft, more or less circular, pads of soft grass, with a shallow central depression lined with horse or even human hair, fine roots or vegetable fibres, feathers, cotton, wool, or anything else soft that comes handy, with very frequently scraps of snakes' skins in- corporated. Sometimes even in holes a regular but shallow cup- shaped nest is built, and this is always the case when bushes and, as a rule, when ledges in buildings or banks are chosen, and then roots and grass loosely but sufficiently firmly interwoven form the body of the nest, which is lined with similar materials to those used when nesting in holes. I have seen very neat nests, very different to the ragged pads which commonly satisfy our Kobin, between 4 or 5 inches in diameter externally and nearly 3 inches in height, with a cavity some 2'5 in diameter and 1*5 in depth. Four is the full complement of eggs, but they often lay only three, and I myself once found five. Mr. "W. Theobald makes the following note on the nidification of this species in the neighbourhood of Find Dadan Khan and Katas in the Salt Eange : — " Lay in the second week of April : eggs four ; shape pointed oval pyriform ; size 0-79 by 0*60 ; colour greenish white, ringed and spotted with pale reddish and a little neutral tint ; nest loose grass and bits of snakes' skins, placed in holes in the sides of nullahs." Colonel Gr. P. L. Marshall says : — " Very common in the Saha- runpoor District. It is familiar in its habits, and breeds commonly in stations. I once found the nest cup-shaped in a bush, two or three times in a tuft of grass or aloe near the ground, but in five cases out of six the nest was on the ground in a hole, or on a ledge of a bank, or in the hole of a wall. "I have taken three fresh eggs on 26th March, „ three „ 4th April, two „ 10th „ „ two „ 16th „ three „ 28th „ „ four ,, 28th May, „ three „ 1st June, TUAHNOB1A. 73 and many others at intermediate times. The breeding-season may be said to extend from March to June. The nest is usually made of grass and lined with horsehair. " I have found nests of this bird in very curious positions. One was built between two bricks in a native brick-kiln in course of preparation. The hen bird was sitting on the nest with the people working within a few feet of her. The nest would have been destroyed in the progress of the kiln long before the eggs would have been hatched. There were three eggs when I found it. An- other nest was on the sill of a blind window in one of the canal chokis without an attempt at concealment of any kind ; and a third was in the hole for the punkah rope to pass through the wall." Professor Valentine Ball writes : — " The Brown-backed Indian Robin is very common in Chota Nagpur. With regard to its nidification I have the following note : 25th April. Found the nest of this bird with three eggs in a hole in a bank by the side of a much-frequented road. Eggs greenish white with olive-brown spots. The nest consisted merely of a few pieces of grass, &c. lining the bottom of the hole/' Mr. A. Anderson notes that this species " builds almost exclu- sively in holes of walls and banks. The nest is composed of grass, fibres, &c., and is generally lined with hair, not unfrequently with the addition of pieces of snakes' skins. It lays generally three and occasionally four eggs of a dirty greenish-white colour, speckled all over with reddish-brown spots, most thickly distributed, how- ever, at the thick end. Some varieties are exceedingly pretty, especially those which have a purplish-red zone at the obtuse end instead of being freckled. " Two pairs of these Robins built close to the Futtehgurh church three years ago : one pair took up their abode inside of a tin watering-pot which had been placed in a slanting direction in a bush ; the other pair took possession of an old piece of cloth that had been thrown over the bough of a tree, and which formed a sort of loop or bag at the bottom, inside of which the nest was built. They both laid the usual complement of eggs, viz. three, but these fell a prey to the voracity of the so-called Blood-sucker (Calotes versicolor)" Major C. T. Bingham writes : — " A common bird both at Alla- habad and at Delhi. It breeds in holes in walls, sometimes making a large shapeless nest of bits of straw, cotton, feathers, &c., and sometimes barely lining the hole chosen with grass-roots, but in- variably, whatever sort of nest it may build, having portions of cast-off snake-skin as part of the lining. It lays from March to the end of June. Four is the usual number of eggs, but I have found six." Colonel A. C. McMaster informs us " that three pairs of these birds built about the roof of my house at Kamptee. One nest was composed of coir-matting stolen from me and lined with the red wool which had dropped from an old carpet daily beaten near the 74 TUEDID^E. spot; there were no snake-skins in the nest (vide Jerdon), but in it were two or three pieces of the brilliant mica so abundant at Kamptee, and these very much resembled scales from snake- skins." Writing from Saugor, but referring to his experience both in that district and in the Delhi Division, Mr. F. E. Blevvitt tells us that this species " breeds in the latter half of April, May, June, July, and part of August. Builds in holes of walls, convenient fissures in rocks, and, what I have only observed here, on dwarf trees and bushes. On a jungle-bush 4| feet high I saw a nest supported by three upright twigs, and shot the male bird as he flew off it. I have kept the bird and the nest. Subsequently I found a second nest on the upper branches of a keekur, near 6 feet high. Other nests were taken from plum and reunj bushes. " The nests, if they can be so called, in holes of walls and in rock-fissures are simply constructed of loose, coarse, and fine grass, with occasionally a few feathers of sorts to form, as it were, an upper layer. Those found in bushes were circular, some 4| inches in diameter, the lower portion of coarse grass and roots well put together, with the egg-cavity cup-shaped, some 3 inches in dia- meter, lined with fine grass, khus, and a few horsehairs. In one nest small pieces of cotton were substituted for the hairs. Four appears to be the regular number of eggs." From Sambhur Mr. E. M. Adam records that "the Indian Robin is very plentiful here, and breeds from March to June. A pair which built in my verandah, in April, had two eggs in the same nest on the 8th May, or about ten days after the first brood left the nest, and later they reared a third brood in the same nest. " The nest is made in holes, in trees, stone or mud walls, the thatch of houses, or in prickly-pear bushes. Sometimes it is very carelessly made, at other times the bird bestows a good deal of labour on it. When carelessly made, a few tags of sheep's wool and some human hair, rounded into a cup-shape, suffice ; but when carefully made it is constructed of fibres, grass, and grass-roots, all firmly matted together, and the egg-cavity is lined with different kinds of hair. The outer diameter of the nest measures 4 inches ; the inner 2| inches, with a depth of 1^ inch. In each of the numerous nests which I have taken there were either one or two pieces of snake's skin or a few pieces of mica, which is rather common about the roads when the Mohurrum tazzeas are being carried about. Two seems to be the normal number of the eggs, but I have sometimes found three ; they are of a pale greenish colour, some with spots, and others with freckles of various shades of reddish brown. One egg I possess has a few very fine spots, while at the thick end there is a lovely zone of lilac and reddish brown." Lieut. H. E. Barnes, writing of Eajputana in general, says that this Robin breeds from March to the middle of July. TEAMSOBJA. 75 Colonel E. A. Butler writes :— " The Brown-backed Indian Eobin breeds in tbe neighbourhood of Deesa in February, March, April, and May. The nest is usually placed in holes of walls, banks, gate-posts, &c. I have taken nests on the following dates : — "1876. March 27th, a nest containing 3 fresh eggs. „ 29th, „ 4 April 3rd, „ 5th, „ 3 „ 4 »* 11 11 11 9th, „ 4 „ ., 20th, „ 3 incubated eggs. May 3rd, „ 2 fresh eggs. 5th, „ 3 " One of the nests taken in April was built in a room of a bunga- low inside one of the pigeon-holes of an office writing-desk which was in constant use. JSome nests are very carelessly put together, consisting of tufts of goat's hair, dry grass, tfcc., and there is generally a piece of snake-skin, lead paper, tinsel paper, or some coloured paper in the lining. " The eggs taken in May were always much smaller than those taken earlier in the breeding-season, which is probably attributable to exhaustion. " This species breeds at Mount Aboo, probably twice during the hot weather, but March is the best month to look for fresh eggs." Mr. J. Beid, writing from Lucknow, says : — " It generally — almost invariably — nests in holes in houses, masonry or mud walls, and old deserted buildings of any kind, occasionally in nullahs and ravines." And he records the finding of nests from March 10th with incubated eggs to July 7th with hard-set eggs. The late Captain Beavan noted that "this bird (the SSuya' of the Bowries) is found in great abundance in the Manbhoom District, but more especially so in the breeding-season ; and I am inclined to think that many migrate thither in. March for that purpose. At the end of March and the beginning of April the jungles swarm with them, and as many as fifty eggs of this species alone have been brought to me in one day. As observed by Mr. Theobald, it shows a great partiality for fragments of cast snake- skins in the construction of its nest, which is in general a loose structure roughly made of grass bents and fibres, and lined with horsehair. It lays from three to four eggs, of a dirty white colour speckled with reddish-brown spots, most thickly massed about the blunt end, in some forming an ill-defined ring." He added, writing from Umballa towards the end of October : — " I have noticed that this species, which is so very abundant here a little later, and which breeds here in numbers in February and March, has almost entirely disappeared and is conspicuous by its absence." I have not myself as yet been able to verify the fact of this 76 TURDID^E. species migrating during the breeding-season. As far as I have observed, where it resides during the winter there it breeds during the summer. In shape these eggs, which are moderately glossy, are commonly somewhat elongated ovals, more or less pointed towards the small end. Considerably elongated varieties are common, far more so than in Copsychus saularis ; the ground-colour is white faintly tinged with either green, pink, pale brown, or even cream-colour, green being the most common. The general character of the markings is a fine close speckling and mottling of different shades of reddish brown, but they vary very much both in their character, boldness, extent, and intensity. In all the markings are somewhat more dense towards the large end, where in many they form a more or less confluent cap. I have specimens before me in which, with a small confluent intensely deep brown cap, the rest of the surface is only thinly speckled with dingy yellowish-brown points ; others are finely and closely speckled, and streakily spotted over the whole surface, so as to show but little of the ground-colour anywhere, and with scarcely a perceptible concentration at the large end; while others again are pretty boldly streaked and spotted, as in the common type of Copsychus saularis ; but these latter are somewhat exceptional forms, the general characteristic of the markings being, as I have already remarked, fine pin's-point specklings closely crowded and anastomosing into dotty streaks. Occasionally pale inky-purple spots underlie the primary markings, but these are only perceptible on a close examination of the egg. As in the case of Copsychus saularis, the eggs of this species appear to me to show no relation to those of the Saxicolince. In length the eggs vary from 0-72 to 0'88, arid in breadth from 0-48to0'67; but the average of fifty-seven eggs measured was 0-79 by 0-59. 662. Thamnobia fulicata (Linn.). The Black-backed Indian Robin. Thamnobia fulicata (Linn.}, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 12J ; Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 479. This and the last, T. cambaiensis, constitute another of those puzzling pairs of Northern and Southern forms which it is very doubtful to me whether we ought to retain as different species. The following notes refer to the Eobins which are found at Ahmednuggur in the Deccan and south of that place. They may be considered typical T. fulicata. From Ahmednuggur in the Deccan the Rev. H. J. Bruce sent me the following note : — " May 25th, 1869. Found a nest of Thamnobia fulicata. It was reported to me in the morning as having two eggs and one chick, but when I went to it in the evening it contained two chicks and only one egg. I secured the egg, which was nearly ready to hatch. THAMKOEIA. 77 The nest was built under a bank in a hilly and uncultivated field. It was very neatly made of fine twigs or roots and lined with a layer of hair. The egg-cavity was about 2£ inches in diameter and \k inch deep." Mr. E. Aitken remarks : — " I have found many nests of this Eobin at Poona, and one, I think, at Khandalla. Poona is about 2000 feet above the sea. " I cannot give the dates very particularly. I took fresh eggs from a nest on 3rd April, 1871, and found another on the 15th of the same month. By that time I noticed that some young ones had left their nests. I believe I have found them building at all times from the beginning of February, or earlier, to at least the beginning of May. " They breed on the bare rocky plains, or in the cantonment among houses. In the former case a hollow in the ground, either wholly or partly covered by a stone, is almost invariably the situ- ation. I believe this hollow is in many cases widened, if not made altogether, by the birds. In the neighbourhood of houses any suitable bole in a wall or roof is chosen. I have seen a nest in a thatch roof. They never build so high as Gopsychus saularis. I have not found a nest that I could not reach from the ground. " The nest, which I must describe from recollection, is not more than 3 or 3 1 inches in diameter, internally neatly made of roots and fibres. I think I found, once at least, a piece of snake's skin in it. It has no very distinct lining. " I have never found more than three, or less than two, eggs. These were very thickly spotted, especially at the larger end, with dull purplish brown on a pale bluish-white ground. I do not think they have two broods in the year. They only breed in the hot season, and have hardly time for two successive nests. If they build twice in the same place, or ever use the nests of other birds, it is only by accident;' Colonel Butler writes :— " Belgaum, 23rd June, 1880. A nest in the hole of a bank about 3 feet from the ground by the roadside, containing two fresh eggs. It appears to have been a second nest, as I found a nest presumably of the same pair of birds in another bank close by, in April, containing three young ones. The nest was composed of fine roots and oakum (or coir), with one or two small pieces of rag round the edge in front. The eggs were pale greenish white, moderately speckled and spotted all over with dark brown and pale and dark yellowish brown, underlaid at the larger end with inky purple or slate-coloured markings, the whole forming a dense cap at the large end." Mr. Benjamin Aitken has the following note : — " The Black Kobin of the Bombay Presidency builds on the ground, as well as in holes in walls, but its nest is often found in haystacks, and I have seen one between the broad leaves of a cactus and another in a lamp hanging under the porch of a bungalow. " I have the following notes of dates of breeding : — 78 TURDID^E. " 15th-31st March. Poona. Several nests with eggs. " 10th April. Khandalla. Two young ones, almost fledged. " 17th „ Poona. Two eggs, new laid. " 8th May. Khandalla. Three eggs ; two much incubated and one addled. "10th „ Poona. Newly fledged birds are common. " 13th ,, „ Pair, building a nest. " 14th „ „ Saw a newly fledged bird. " 16th June. „ Three eggs ; first laid on llth. "•I am positive that Thamnobia has two broods at least in a season ; for 1 have seen a pair that frequented our compound at Poona followed by two young ones within a month of each other. The nest with two eggs recorded on the 17th April, 1873, was con- structed in an extraordinarily short space of time ; for I found it under a clod of earth in a field that had been ploughed up not ten days before. " Though the Black Bobin will build close to where people are passing to and fro, it is very watchful against being observed, and forsakes its nest most readily. The feathers of the young birds grow very fast after they have left the nest. It is no unusual thing, I think, for one of the eggs in a nest to be addled." Mr. H. Wenden has furnished me with the following interesting account of the breeding of this Bobin : — " Begarding the Black-backed Indian Bobin, of which I send you seventeen eggs, taken from eight different nests in June and July, I have made the following notes : " With the exception of one, taken from a crevice in a rock- cutting about 100 miles on the Madras side of Sholapoor, all the nests were taken in Sholapoor itself, which is about 1700 feet above the sea. " The earliest date upon which I observed a nest was on 1st June. It was then nearly complete, and on 4th June the first egg was laid. The great months for these nests are undoubtedly June and July, but I observed one ]ate in August (the 27th, I think). " The birds are in no way particular as to the situation of a nest. Some I have found in railway-cuttings, where several trains passed daily within 8 feet of them ; others in walls bounding rnuch-frequented roads ; one on the top of a wall under the thatch of an inhabited hut • another in a hole in the gatepost at the entrance to my compound, through which people were constantly passing. " The position of the nest is, as a rule, in a hole in a mud wall, a crevice in a stone wall, or in a cutting-side. I have only observed two instances in which this was not the case, when I found one nest on the top of a wall (9 feet high) under the thatch, and another built on the side of a haystack. As a rule, the height from the ground was between 3 and 5 feet. " The external dimensions of the nest vary with the nature of the hole in which it is built; but no matter how large the hole may be, it seems to be the habit of the bird to fill up the whole THAMNOBIA. 79 space level with the top of the nest. The internal dimensions are about 2 1 inches diameter by \\ deep. The outer materials are coarse but soft grasses of sorts, dry stems of iieem-seeds, and here and there a feather. This is generally carelessly and ruggedly put together ; but the lining of very fine roots, grass, hair, wool, and often pieces of onion-peel and snake-skin is neatly woven. " The largest number of eggs I observed in any one nest was three. Two was the smallest number incubated, and one nest had two young ones in it. I only knew one pair of birds breed twice in the same season, and they used the same nest for the second occasion. They lay daily. Both parents share the labour of building the nest, and also of feeding the young ; but I have never seen the male bird sitting on the nest. I have for hours watched a male 4 flirting ' about in front of the hole where the hen was sitting, or perched close by, warbling prettily, and several times he took food to her." Messrs. Davidson and Wenden remark of this bird in the Deccan : — " Abundant, and breeds from April to July." Mr. Gr. Yidal writes from the South Konkan : — " Common everywhere on the bare and rocky hill-sides and about villages. Breeds in March and April, in crevices between the boulders, or rocky hill-sides." Mr. W. T. Blanford tells us : — " I found a curious nest made by this bird, and in a singular position, viz. inside the bamboo of a dhooly in the verandah of Captain Grlasfurd's house at Sironcha. The principal material of which the nest had been composed was a number of short fragments of string; with these were grass, horsehair, and a snake's skin. The nest contained three eggs, as usual." Mr. Iver Macpherson records the following note from Mysore : — " I have found nests of this bird in April, May, and June. The nests are generally placed on the ground, under some stone, tuft of grass, or small bush ; but once Major Mclnroy found the nest in a small cactus-bush, a foot or so from the ground. Last year a pair built their nest in an old elephant's skull lying out in my compound at Mysore. Three is the usual number of eggs laid ; on one occasion I found two slightly incubated." Mr. C. J. "W. Taylor, also writing from the same State, says : — "Plentiful everywhere. Breeding in April and May in the vicinity of villages." And yet a further note from Mysore. Mr. W. Davison says : — " On the 23rd May last year I found a nest of this species, con- taining three partially incubated eggs. The nest was placed under a bush, on the very edge of the road." Lieutenant Burgess, in his notes on the habits of birds in Southern India, tells us of this species that " it breeds during the months of March. April, and May, building its nests in the holes of walls and rocks, as also in hollows under tussocks of grass. I subjoin some notes on the subject : — •' May 9th, 1850. — When passing outside the wall of a town, 80 an Indian Eobin flew off the wall and hovered before me, uttering a sharp hissing cry. Knowing by her manner that she bad a nest near, I searched in the wall and found the nest, composed of rotten grass and straw, and some thread of woollen cloth. The nest con- tained three young ones, quite unfledged ; their skin was of a black-lead colour. "March I9th, 1851. — Found in a hole in the rocks the nest of the Indian Eobin, containing two eggs. " March 27th, 1851. — Found the nest of the Robin, containing two eggs, built at the foot of a little tuft of grass in a hole amongst the roots. " The egg of this bird is of a very pale dusky blue, spotted all over with light brown and a few purplish spots here and there ; length rather more than 0'8 inch by 0*6 in width." Mr. Layard records that in Ceylon he has procured their nests, which are composed of hair, moss, and dry grass, in the months of June and July in Colombo, in December and April in the north. The eggs are from three to five in number. And Colonel Legge says : — " The Black Eobin breeds during the months of March, April, May, and June in the Central, Western, and Southern Provinces of Ceylon, the majority of nests being built at the end of April." Numerous eggs sent me by Mr. H. Wenden from Sholapur closely approach those of the northern form. In shape they are typically somewhat elongated ovals ; the shell is fine and close, and fairly glossy. The ground is white with, in many specimens, a faint greenish or pinkish tinge. The markings, specks, and spots thickly set, sometimes chiefly at the large end (where they are always most numerous, and usually more or less confluent), more usually over the whole surface of the egg, prove, when closely examined, to consist of varying shades of reddish brown and brownish yellow, more or less intermingled with pale lilac or reddish purple. I should add that in some eggs the markings are finer and more speckly, in others they are rather bolder and more blotchy. These eggs are rather larger if anything, more elongated at any rate, if not broader, than those of T. cambaiensis. They vary in length from 0'76 to 0'84 inch, and in breadth from 0-55 to 0'62; but the average of seventeen is 0-82 by 0-59. 663. Copsychus saularis (Linn.). The Magpie-Robin. Copsychus saularis (Linn.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 114 ; Hume, Rouyh Draft N. 8f E. no. 475. The Magpie-Eobin breeds throughout India. Many resort during the nesting-season to the Dhoons and Terais that skirt the Himalayas, and to the lower ranges of these latter, in which they may be found nesting up to an elevation of at least 5000 feet. They lay from the end of March to quite the end of July, but by COPSYCHUS. 81 far the majority of eggs are to be found alike in hills and plains during the latter half of April and May. So far as my experience goes, and I have taken scores, the nests are invariably placed in holes in trees, banks, or walls, or under the eaves of huts. I have never seen or personally heard of a well-attested instance of their breeding in bushes ; but it is still pretty certain, from what Captain Eearan and others have recorded, that they do, at any rate occasionally, nest in such situations. In the plains the nest is generally composed of roots, grass, fibres, and feathers ; but in the hills moss and lichens are largely used. In shape the nest is typically a broad, very shallow, loosely built saucer, some 4 or 5 inches in diameter, and with a central depression about an inch in depth ; but they vary much, according to the shape and size of the cavity in which they are placed. Some are more regularly cup-shaped, while many are mere pads. A few small twigs, or a few dead leaves, may at times be found doing duty as a foundation ; but whether placed there by the bird, or deposited by the wind anterior to the construction of the nest, may be doubtful. Five is unquestionably the full complement of eggs, although once or twice I have taken four partially incubated ones. Captain Unwin says : — " A nest that I found in a hole in a tree about 4 feet from the ground in the Agrore Yalley, on 18th May, 1870, contained four fresh eggs. It was a moderately large saucer, about 4| inches in diameter and nearly 2 inches thick, composed externally of rather coarse grass, and the shallow egg- depression lined with finer grass and grass-roots." Colonel Gr. H. T. Marshall records that this species " breeds freely at low elevations all round Murree." I have found it breeding in the Sutlej Yalley below Kotegurh, and near Solon below Kussowlee. Captain Hutton says : — " Copsychus saularis arrives in the hills up to about 5500 feet in the beginning of April, returning to the Dehra Dhoon early in the autumn. In the Dhoon it breeds in May and June, constructing a shallow nest of fine woody flower- stalks, intermixed with fine roots and the dry tendrils of climbing plants, with a little moss externally, and placed within a hole in some large tree, or in a bank or wall, where it lays five eggs of a pale bluish green, thickly spotted and blotched with purplish brown, and showing an imperfect ring of nearly confluent blotches at the larger end. There is, however, great variety both in the number and size of spots and in intensity of colouring, some being blotched as well as spotted, others being simply and uniformly freckled with rufous brown without any indication of a ring at the larger end, and in these the size is somewhat less. Having obtained five or six of these typical nests, and shot the old birds for exami- nation, there can be no doubt about the correctness of the foregoing remarks ; yet at the same time I am still fully convinced that the nest with white eggs formerly noticed (Journal Asiatic Society Bengal) as having been taken from a hole in a bank was a mere TOL. II. 6 82 TURDIDjE. accidental variety, for the nests are the same as to materials and situation, while the circumstance of the pinky-white eggs appears to me to be the effect of some temporary derangement of the system, precisely as we sometimes detect a white specimen in the nest of the Hill-Mynah (Eulabes intermedia)." I may add that I do not doubt that Captain Hutton was quite right, and that his " carneous cream-coloured " eggs verily belonged to this species. It is well known that eggs of Passerine birds, normally blue or bluish green, occasionally assume this pinky shade. I have several such of Prinia inornata. Mr. Brooks tells us that the Magpie-Eobin is "common at Almorah and near all villages. The nest is formed under eaves of houses, or in holes in trees, but the bird gives a decided preference to a dwelling-house. Like the English Robin it is a most sociable bird, and appears to prefer the proximity of man. " In Kumaon it lays about the middle of May." He added in epist. : — " The egg is a miniature of some of those of the Blackbird or Bing-Ouzel." From Nynee Tal Colonel G-. F. L. Marshall says :— " I found a nest with five eggs at Bheem Tal in a hollow tree, about 6 feet from the ground, on the 9th or 10th June. The hole was lined with roots and grass to form the nest." From Nepal Mr. Hodgson remarks : — " The female usually lays five spotted eggs, bringing up from three to four young ones, and but once a year, unless the first brood has failed or been rifled from her. The nest is carelessly made of grass, but is always placed in a secure and sheltered position, commonly a hole in a wall, some- times the interior of a low thick prickly plant." Dr. Scully, also writing of Nepal, says : — " Its habits and fine song in the breeding-season are well known and have often been described. It breeds in May and June ; half a dozen nests, found in those months, were placed in holes in walls and trees." From Sikhim Mr. Gammie notes that he " took a nest on the 17th June, at an elevation of 2500 feet below Eungbee, which con- tained three fresh eggs. It was in a hole of a tall tree, nearly halfway up, and was little more than a pad of rather coarse roots." Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall, writing from Saharunpoor, says : — " I send the bird and a pair of its eggs. I have found only one nest, and this was on the 23rd April, in a hole in the wall of a building. The nest was made of fine twigs, very neatly shaped, and lined with fibre ; there were five fresh eggs in it." Most of the nests that I have taken in Bareilly, Agra, and Etawah were found in May. Major C. T. Bingham writes : — " Personally, both at Allahabad and at Delhi, I have found nests of this bird in May and June in holes in trees. But at Allahabad a man I had marking down nests for me brought me a loosely-built shallow cup of grass-roots lined with horsehair, containing five eggs of this bird. He said he had found it in a thick bush, and that a female dayal had flown off it." COPSYCHUS. 83 Mr. George Reid tells us that be has found nests of this bird at Lucknow from May 22nd to July 15th. Mr. R. M. Adam records that he " took a nest of this bird at Tyzabad, in Oudb, on the 4th May. The nest contained three eggs. It was situated in a hole of the wall of a mud hut." Mr. P. E. Blewitt, writing from Saugor, remarks : — " On the 29th June I found the nest in the hollow of a large dried limb of a goolur tree (Ficus ylomerata). It was made of coarse and fine grass and roots, placed to about the thickness of an inch at the base of the hollow. As to the lining, there were a few horsehairs. The structure as a whole was circular, with a diameter of 4| inches." Professor Littledale informs me that this Robin breeds in Guzerat, and that between May 30th and June 26th he took eight nests near his own house. Writing of Rajputana in general, Lieut. H. E. Barnes states that this species breeds during April and May. Captain Boys says: — "This very sprightly bird frequents the trees and bushes of the gardens, and, like the English Robin, carries its tail very erect, which gives it a bold appearance. It is very familiar, and has a sweet note. Its food consists of insects, and it builds in the chinks and holes of walls, forming its nest of small dry twigs and grass-roots, and laying five greenish-blue eggs, blotched all over with brown, but mostly at the larger end." Mr. E. Aitken tells me that " in Bombay this bird commonly breeds in holes in the walls and roofs of houses. I recollect many years ago finding a nest under a large tile at the corner of the roof of a house. I looked at it on 30th June, when I found two young ones and an old egg. In Poona they seein to be scarcely so familiar. Last year, after the middle of May, I saw one carrying building-materials up to the middle of a cypress tree. As the trunk could not have contained a hole large enough to build in, they must have been making their nest simply among the dark foliage." Mr. G. Vidal records this note from the South Konkan : — " Very common throughout. Breeds in May and June. One nest 1 found with four eggs in the hole of a tree was lined pro- fusely with the dry leaves of the casuariua tree." Messrs. Davidson and Wenden, writing of the Deccan, say : — " Commonish. Nest taken at ISatara in May." Colonel Butler writes : — " Bel gaum, 13th April, 1879 : 4 eggs about to hatch. The nest, consisting solely of a collection of stems of dried leaves loosely put together, was placed in the hole of a tree about 9 feet from the ground. " Another nest exactly similar in the same neighbourhood on the 24th May, containing 4 fresh eggs. "Another on the 1st June in the same ' station, containing 3 slightly incubated eggs. " Nests are common in this part of the country, and May seems to be the month in \\hich most of the birds build. " Belgaum, 4th April, 1880 : a nest in the hole of a tree about 6* 84 TUKDID^E. 9 feet from the ground, containing 4 fresh eggs. The nest consisted solely of the stems of dry leaves. Another nest, exactly similar, on the 6tb April, about 12 feet from the ground, containing 3 fresh eggs ; probably four would have been laid if the others had been left, as the hen bird was not sitting or near the nest. Another nest on the 23rd April in a hole of one of the masonwork pillars that are substituted for gateposts in this part of the country, containing 4 fresh eggs. 27th April, three more nests in holes of trees, each containing 4 fresh eggs. 7th May, another nest containing 4 fresh eggs. 13th May, 4 fresh eggs. As a rule, the nest is usually built in holes of trees varying in height from 4 feet to 15 feet from the ground. " 17th May, 3 fresh eggs. 27th May, 4 incubated eggs. 28th, 4 fresh eggs. 10th June, two nests, each containing fresh eggs. 12th May, a nest containing four eggs, two of which were quite fresh and the other two much incubated ; the nest was built in a hole from wrhich I had taken four eggs about a month before, and apparently by the same pair of birds." Mr. J. Darling, Jun., informs me that on the 29th March, at Vythery, S. Wynaad, he took a nest at an elevation of about 2300 feet. " The nest was placed in a hole in a black wood tree about 6 feet from the ground. The aperture of the hole was about 6 inches in diameter, and the hole ran downwards for about 8 inches. The nest was at the bottom of the hole. A few twigs served as a foundation, and on these was placed a circular pad of fibres, roots, and moss, 5 inches in diameter and 3 inches in thick- ness, with a shallow central depression lined with finer fibres, in which rested five eggs." Mr. C. J. W. Taylor states that in Mysore, at Manzeerabad, this Robin is common everywhere, breeding in April and May. From Ceylon Mr. Layard tells us that it is seldom seen far away from human habitations, about which it commonly builds, though the nest is often placed in a thick bush or hollow tree. The eggs, four in number, are bright blue thickly spotted with brown at the obtuse end. Colonel Legge writes : — " In the west and south of Ceylon this Robin breeds between the months of February and July, having apparently more than one brood in the season." Writing from Eurreedpore, Eastern Bengal, Mr. J. R. Cripps says: — "Yery common, and a permanent resident; affects the haunts of man ; nests in cavities and holes in trees and holes in buildings, In the Dacca district I once saw a nest in a bunch of the 'Kuch kela' (Musa sapicutum) ; two of the smaller bunches were about four inches apart, and in the cavity thus formed the bird had made its nest and reared three young ; the nest was only seven feet from the ground. Another nest was placed in a hole in a date-tree, and was only three feet from the ground. Although they always build in holes, in every one they form a pad of fine grasses and roots with a tiny depression for the eggs, of which I COPSYCHTTS. 85 have never come across more than four and sometimes only two in a nest ; if the eggs are removed, they lay again in the same nest. I have taken hard-set eggs as early as the 7th April in this district and up to the 15th June." Mr. James Inglis tells us that in Cachar this species is " very common, and breeds during March, April, and May." Mr. Gates, referring to this species in Pegu, says : — " I have found nests with eggs from the 30th April to the 20th May. In Burma they almost invariably select a large hollow bamboo, many of which are generally to be found lying about the verandahs and cucumber-framings of the native houses, and place their nest about two feet inside, nearly up to the first joint. They also build in holes of trees." Mr. Swinhoe very correctly remarks : — " Lieutenant E. C. Beavan says (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 376) that Copsychns saularis ' builds in bushes/ This is remarkable for so genuine a Robin as this bird is. In Amoy I have only noticed its nest in the holes of walls, banks, or houses, oftenest in some corner of the under-roof or beaming of a verandah." This is quite my experience here, and that of nearly every one who has communicated with me on the subject. The eggs are typically oval, neither very broad nor very narrow ; somewhat elongated, pyriform, and almost globular varieties also occur ; they are moderately glossy. The ground-colour varies as much as does the size and shape of the egg. In some it is greenish, in others greenish white ; while in others it is a beautiful pale sea- green, or, again, a delicate pale, only slightly greenish blue. Many of the eggs are perfect miniatures of eggs of Merula simillima, and recall varieties of those of the English Blackbird, which, indeed, are almost the only English eggs with which I am familiar to which their colouring at all approximates. They are all streakily blotched and mottled with different shades of brownish red — some compara- tively thinly, generally somewhat densely, and occasionally so closely as to leave but little of the ground-colour visible. In all cases the markings are most numerous at the large end, where they very commonly form a conspicuous irregular mottled cap. Occasionally, but rarely, small specks and spots take the place of streaky blotches, and the smaller end is almost entirely free from markings. Eaint underlying spots of pale inky purple are traceable in a few spe- cimens. In the extent and bold streaky character of the markings these eggs seem to me to stand apart from those of the Saxicolince, where Jerdon places the genus, and to approximate to those of the Turdince, where Gray locates it. No doubt the eggs show a strong affinity to those of Thamndbia, but this latter also has no business, according to my view, amongst the Saxicolwce. It is noteworthy that some specimens of the eggs pretty closely resemble the peculiar variety of the Nightingale figured by Mr. Hewitson, pi. xxxiii. fig. 2. In length the eggs vary from 0'78 to 0*95, and in breadth from 0-6 to 0-75 ; but the average of forty-three eggs is nearly 0-87 by rather more than 0-66. 86 TUllDIDJE. 664. Cittocincla macrura (Gm.). The Shama. Kittacincla macroura (Gm.}, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 116. Cercotrichas macrourus (Gm.\ Hume, Rough Draft N. fy K no. 476. The Shaina is a permanent resident of the warm and well- watered jungles of the Peninsula of India and of Burma; but my only information in regard to its nest and eggs is from Tenas- serim and Pegu. Well might Jerdon doubt that Philipp's Shama, described as perching on walls and breeding in houses, could be this species *. In the North- Western Provinces it is absolutely unknown, except in the lower outer regions of the Himalayas and the various Terais and Dhoous that skirt their bases. As to its nidification in Teuasserim Mr. Davison writes : — " I have only found two nests of this bird. The first I obtained on the 17th April, on the road to Meeta Myo, about 4000 feet above the sea-level. It was in a hole in an old stump growing on the side of a mountain torrent. It was built of dry leaves and twigs, and the egg-cavity was lined with finer dry twigs. It contained two half-fledged young ones and one addled egg. " The second nest I found at Shymootee, about 7 miles from Tavoy, on the 5th May, 1874 ; it was placed in a hole at the top of an old stump. The materials it was composed of were the same as in the other case, but much more in quantity. The hole went rather deep, and the bird had filled up the cavity to within about 4 inches of the top of the stump, thus making the depth of the nest from top to base of foundation more than 12 inches. The hole in the stump measured only 3'5, the egg-cavity being 3 inches in diameter. The nest contained two partially incubated eggs and one addled one." Major C. T. Bingham writes also from Tenasserim : — " The following is a note about its nidification: — " On the slope of a steep spur of the east watershed range of the Meplay river, in dense bamboo forest, I found, on the 4th April, 1878, a nest of the above bird. A Woodpecker had made a hole in a partially dry wahbo bamboo (Bambusa brandisiana) of immense girth. Of this the Shama had taken advantage, and having stuffed up the hollow from the next knot below to within three inches of the hole with dry bamboo-leaves, had above that made a loose cup-shaped nest of twigs and roots. I was eating my lunch, seated on a rock not far from the bamboo in question, and saw the female, after making two or three short nights and balking herself in the direction of the hole, finally enter it. I approached very cautiously, and stuffing my handkerchief into the entrance-hole, managed to secure eggs and bird. The former were four in number, slightly set, of an oily green colour, much spotted, speckled, and dashed with umber-brown. They measured * But Lieut. H. E. Barnes has explained that Philipp's Shama was Cercomela fusca (Journ. Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soe. ii, p. 56, 1887). — ED. CITTOCINCLA. 87 respectively, 0-9" x O62","0-87" x 0-62", 0-85" x 0-61", and 0-85" x 0-62"." Mr. Gates records the following from Pegu : — " Builds in hollows of trees from 2 to 20 feet from the ground. The nest is a shapeless mass of leaves, sufficient to fill the hole, and lined with fine grass. I have found nests on May 27th and June 3rd with eggs. The number of eggs appears to be four. They are not unlike some of the eggs of C. saularis. Tolerably glossy, ground- colour greenish, and the whole shell is thickly freckled and streaked with rich brown with a tinge of rufous. The eggs vary in length from -89 to «79 and from -64 to -6 in breadth." Mr. J. Darling, Jun., says: — "17th April. Took 3 nests of C. macriira : one nest with 3 hard-set eggs, one with 3 hard-set and 1 rotten egg, and the other with 4 fresh eggs. This last was built in a hole of a tree 4 feet from ground, in open forest, and was composed of a few twigs, lined with a few fern-roots : a very poor nest, with scarcely any depression. 20 miles east of Tavoy." The eggs are moderately broad ovals, a good deal compressed towards the small end and exhibiting a slight pyriforin tendency. The shell is fine and compact and has a slight gloss. The eggs remind one a good deal of some of the Larks' eggs. The ground appears to be a dull greenish-stone colour (but very little of it is visible), and it is everywhere very densely freckled, in some rather streakily, with a rich almost raw-sienna brown, in amongst which dull purplish markings are, when the egg is closely looked into, found to be thickly mingled. The combined effect, looked at from a little distance, is of a dense ruddy purplish-brown mottling. In some eggs the markings are not quite so dense, and more of the ground-colour is visible, then not unfrequently a pale sea- green. Taking the eggs as a body they may be best described as slightly larger, more densely marked, and deeper coloured editions of those of C. saularis. But I have occasionally seen eggs of a somewhat different type in which the ground-colour was only greenish white, and in which the primary markings were a decidedly reddish brown, and the secondary markings pale purple. Occasionally the eggs are very elongated, and either much com- pressed towards the small end or distinctly pyriforin. Taking them as a whole, I should say they have a very fine amount of gloss. The eggs are small, it seems to me, for the size of the bird. The few we have vary from 0'81 to 0'92 in length, and from 0*6 to 0-67 in breadth. 88 TITRDID^E. Subfamily TURDIN^. 667. Merula simillima (Jerd.). The Nilghiri Blackbird. Merula simillima (Jerd.}, Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 525 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 360. Of the Nilghiri Blackbird Mr. H. E. P. Carter says :— " At Conoor, on the Nilghiris, I have found nests of this bird from the 25th of March to the 18th of May, on which latter date a nest was being built. The nest is always in the fork of a tree or shrub, varying in height from 3 to 20 feet from the ground. I found several in coffee-bushes, one on a tree-fern, others on rhododen- dron trees, and one on the Australian acacia. In shape it is hemispherical and open at the top. There is always a foundation of mud, and a superstructure of thin twigs or coarse fibres, and it is lined generally with fine fibres, but sometimes has scarcely any lining. " I have found from one to three eggs. In the case of the single egg, the young bird was well developed, and as it was in a tree 20 feet from the ground, it is not likely that any eggs had been taken out. As I found six nests, each containing three eggs, I think that this must be the usual number ; at the same time I have been told that a greater number are sometimes laid. " This Blackbird builds its nest in a remarkably short time. On one occasion I saw a nest completed in four days. It is just pos- sible that there may have been a portion of a day's work done before I saw it ; but even five days is a very short time for so small a bird to complete a nest which must weigh at least 2J Ibs." The nests of this species, of which I owe a magnificent series to my friend Mr. Carter, are always, apparently, very massive struc- tures, containing an inner skeleton of mud, completely hidden from sight by an exterior coating of moss or lichen, or fine or coarse grass-roots, and an interior lining of fine grass-roots. The bird appears to lay a light foundation of dead leaves, lichen, or fern, and on this to build a more or less deep cup on the wattle- and-dab principle — a few coarse grass-roots twisted together as a skeleton, and then thickly plastered with mud or wet mould. The cup thus made is often about 4J inches in diameter and 2| deep. It is then covered, externally, to the thickness of one or two inches with whatever materials are nearest at hand, grass or other roots, dry slender ferns, soft green moss, or masses of tree-lichen. The interior of the cup is first lined with rather coarse roots, and then finished off with fine ones. No particle of the clay skeleton is visible in the finished nest, which may average about 7 inches in diameter externally, stands about 4 inches high, and has an egg-cavity some 3| inches in diameter by 2 inches deep. In all the nine nests now before me the inner earthen framework is present, but in some it extends scarcely more than \ inch up the sides of the nest, while in others it comes up to within % inch of the upper MERIT LA. 89 margin. Owing to the different materials used in different localities for the external coating of the nest, these vary much in appearance ; but some of them, entirely coated with moss or lichen, are amongst the most beautiful structures that I know. The type of the archi- tecture of the nest, as will be observed, is the same as that of the European Blackbird. Dr. Jerdon tells us that he has " frequently found the nest, made of roots and moss, usually with four eggs, pale blue with dusky brown spots." Mr. W. Davison remarks : — " With the exception of Pratincola bicolor, the nest of this species is the commonest at Ootacamund and its immediate vicinity. During April and the earlier part of May every thick shrub is sure to contain a nest, placed in a fork, generally about 12 or 14 feet from the ground. It is a large and very solid structure, composed internally of bits of stick, dead leaves, roots, and moss, within which is a tolerably thick stratum of clay, and within this again fine grass and moss-roots. I think I must have taken a hundred nests in my time. The eggs are normally four, sometimes five, in number, and very variable both as regards colour and form, but the ground-colour is generally a dingvr bluish green, thickly mottled and freckled with brownish red.'' Miss Cockburn, of Kotagherry, notes that " Blackbirds seldom lay more than four eggs, the ground-colour of which is a light green, with blotches and spots of a light red and brown. They generally build in thick bushes or trees, often on those the branches of which overhang streams of water. I once found a Blackbird's nest built in a bank just in a place a Eobin would have chosen. The nest was quite exposed to view, and I frequently saw one of the birds sitting in the nest, while I rode past. This was quite unlike their general ideas of seclusion. The young brood came to an untimely end. They lay from April to July." Captain Horace Terry, writing of the occurrence of this Black- bird on the Pulney Hills, remarks : — " Very common everywhere on the sholas on the top. They commence breeding in the middle of March, and were still breeding when I left in the middle of June." Mr. Ehodes "W. Morgan, writing from South India, says : — " This bird breeds on the Neilgherries from March to May, build- ing a large nest of moss, twigs, wool, &c., with a clay cup in it, which is neatly lined with bent-grass and roots. The eggs are three in number, irregularly blotched with reddish brown, the blotches being more numerous towards the larger end, on a pale greenish-blue ground. This Blackbird sings most beautifully in the breeding-season ; and they may then be heard at all hours, but especially towards evening, answering one another. Dimensions of an egg 1-25 inch in length by O91 in breadth." The eggs are very similar to many varieties of those of the European Blackbird. In shape they are commonly a broad oval, pointed towards one end; but, as in the case of our English 90 TTJEDID^. favourite, the eggs are sometimes elongated and often perfectly oval, the smaller end being rounded and obtuse. The ground- colour varies somewhat, being sometimes of a beautiful bright blue-green, at others of a dull olive-green, and various intermediate shades occur. They are richly speckled, mottled, and streaked, and at times even boldly blotched, with brighter and duller, deeper and lighter shades of brownish red, not unfrequently underlaid by faint spots and clouds of purplish pink or grey. The markings vary a good deal in extent and frequency, but, in perhaps a majority of the eggs, form a more or less conspicuous and confluent cap at the large end. In some eggs all the markings are very fine and minute, laid on, as it were, with a very fine-pointed brush ; in others they are coarse and streaky, and occasionally bold, blotchy, and well defined. Specimens occur which could scarcely be sepa- rated from varieties of the English Ring-Ouzel's egg. The eggs have usually a slight gloss, and some specimens are highly glossy. As already mentioned, in some specimens secondary markings, small purple clouds and spots, appear to underlie the red-brown blotches. In length the eggs vary from 1*1 to 1*3 inch, and in breadth from 0-82 to 0-93 inch ; but the average of thirty-five eggs mea- sured was 1*17 nearly by 0*86 inch. 668. Merula kinnisi, Blyth. The Ceylon BlacUird. Merula kinnisii, BL, Hume, Cat. no. 360 bis. Colonel Legge, recording the breeding-habits of this species in Ceylon, writes : — " The Blackbird breeds from April until June, building in a niche of a trunk, on a stump, or in a forked branch of a low tree ; its nest is composed of grass, moss, and roots, strengthened with a few twigs, and is somewhat massive in struc- ture, the interior being a deep cup lined with fine roots, most probably underlaid by a foundation of mud, as in the nests of other species. The eggs are four in number, of a pale green ground- colour, blotched evenly all over with faded reddish-brown and light umber, overlying smaller reddish-grey spots. Dimensions 1-05 by 0-82 inch. 44 In the matter of situation, it has, however, a variety of choice, sometimes nesting, according to Mr. Holdsworth, in out-buildings at Nuwara Elliya, and occasionally choosing the site of a rock, as will be seen from the following experience of Mr. Bligh. He writes me : — * I have often found this charming bird's nest ; on one occasion it proved to be a strange structure, composed of seven distinct nests, which were fixed among the roots of a bush which grew out of a perpendicular rock above the " Swallow's Cave " at Dambetenne : it contained three young ones. The situation no doubt proving very safe and suitable, induced perhaps the same pair to build successively on the old nests, all of which still pre- sented a fresh green appearance, from the moss not readily drying in such a moist climate. Usually the nest is very like the English MERFLA. 91 Blackbird's, but smaller, and the same may be said of the eggs, except that they are rather rounder. These birds nest regularly near the Catton bungalow ; and directly this important business is over they retire to the higher jungle, assembling in more or less numerous parties. I have seen as many as forty or fifty at the same time, in what might be termed scattered company ; but this is a rare habit, and only to be accounted for by the abundance of favourite food in a particular locality.' " 669. Merula bourdilloni, Seebohm. Bourdillon's Blackbird. Captain Horace Terry found the nest of this Blackbird on the Pulney Hills. He says : — " I found two nests at Kodikanal in 1883 of what I identified as this bird, and in each case shot one of the parent birds, which I sent to Mr. Hume *. There now seems to be great doubt as to the correctness of this identification, but I send description of nests for what it is worth. The first nest (May 18) was placed in the fork of a tree some fifteen feet from the ground, and was just like the nest of M. simillima. The body of mud, lined with fine grass and the outside with coarse grass and roots wound round it, and covered all over with green moss. A strongly built, rather shallow cup 3'5 inches across and 2 inches deep inside ; 5 inches across and 4 inches deep outside. It con- tained one very slightly incubated egg, just like the egg of M. simillima. On 3rd June I found a similar nest with two fresh eggs, and shot the male bird." 671. Merula nigripileus (Lafr.). The Black-capped Blacklird. Merula nigropileus (Zq/>.), Jerd. B. 2nd. i, p. 523; Hume, Cat. no. 359. Mr. H. Wenden has found many nests of this Blackbird on the Grhats near Khandala. He says : — " 6th July, 1879. Lonauli. * Found nest with three young birds in a small euphorbia bush, 4| feet above ground. " 27th July. Davidson and I found two nests, each with three eggs. One situated in the fork of a horizontal bough about 5 feet from ground, and the other on the point of a pollarded branch 8 feet from ground. " 2nd August. I found another nest with three eggs, 12 feet up in a euphorbia bush. I have found several other nests, some old and others building. This species seems to be breeding very freely about here (Lonauli, from 1800 to 2400 feet above the sea). " On 27th July I shot both male and female from a nest, and Davidson and I identified them. The nests are composed of stout twigs and grass, covered externally with much earth and moss. * These birds are now in the British Museum, and Captain Terry has identi- fied them quite correctly. — ED. 92 TTJRDID^. Internally they measure from 3| to 3| inches diameter by 2 deep, neatly lined with fine grass-stems, roots, &c. ; the lining of one nest consisted entirely of the spines of casuarina." Colonel E. A. Butler writes from Aboo : — " It breeds at Aboo in the rains, commencing nidification towards the end of the hot weather, but I was never fortunate enough to find a nest." Mr. C. J. W. Taylor, writing from Manzeerabad, Mysore, says : — " Common all over the district. Eggs taken on the 25th May." The eggs of this species are, typically, moderately broad, very regular ovals, but short broad, more or less pyriform varieties, and, again, considerably elongated oval ones occur. The eggs are always fairly glossy, and some have a fine gloss. The ground-colour varies from greenish white to a delicate pale sea-green, the mark- ings, usually most dense about one or other end, where they often form a more or less regular cap or zone, are a rich brownish red and pale purple, and consist of specks, spots, blotches, and streaks, becoming sometimes quite confluent at one end of the egg, to which in some eggs they are almost entirely confined, while in others, with the exception of a slight tendency to conglomerate round the large end, they are pretty evenly distributed over the entire surface. The eggs vary from 1-02 to 1-17 in length, and from 0*78 to 0-88 in breadth ; but the average of 15 eggs is 1'08 by O82. 672. Merula albicincta (Eoyle). The White-collared Ouzel. Merula albocincta (Royle), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 526 ; Hume, Cat. no. 362. Colonel G. E. L. Marshall informs us that " near Nairn Tal this Ouzel is only found on the top of Cheena 8000 feet above the sea, and is rather an early breeder. I found the young just fledged in the beginning of June, but was too late for eggs. Neither of the parent birds that were with the young ones were in the casfowea-plumage, both had the neck distinctly ringed." Two eggs of this species which, together with one of the parent birds, were brought from Native Sikhim about the end of June, are regular ovals, a little compressed towards the small end, and slightly glossy ; the ground-colour is greyish white, and the eggs are spotted and speckled all over, more densely towards the broad end, with reddish brown and brownish red, and a number of underlying markings of purplish grey ; they measure 1-23 by 0'87 and 1-22 by 0-85. 673. Merula castanea, Gould. The Grey-headed Ouzel Merula castanea, Gould, Jerd. B. Ind. \, p. 526 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 363. Very little is known of the breeding of the Grey-headed Ouzel. A nest containing five eggs was taken on the 20th April near Kotegurh, and Colonel C. H. T. Marshall took a nest at Murree. MERULA. 93 The Kotegurk nest was placed in a bank, was 6 inches in dia- meter and 4 in height, composed of moss, with a good deal of dead fern in the base of the nest, and only a little earth, and lined with fine grass. The cavity was about 3*5 inches in diameter, and 2'75 inches in depth. From Murree Colonel C. H. T. Marshall writes :— " Two nests in banks, in the beginning of June ; eggs very similar to those of M. boulboul, but some what larger, being 1-25 by 0'8 inch. Captain Cock got two nests in the Sindh Valley, Kashmir. It is peculiar that this species always breeds in banks. All the Meruline birds breed from about 5000 to 7000 feet up. " I believe some people say that ^ferula albocincta and M. castanea, are identical. I therefore send a pair of birds of the latter, shot off the nest in full breeding-plumage, which may elucidate the matter. They must have two hatches in the year, as on the 20th April I got a nest with four eggs just ready to hatch, which must have been laid at the end of March. The nest, too, was at an elevation of nearly 7000 feet." The eggs of this species appear to vary very much. What I take to be the typical egg is a somewhat lengthened, at times more or less pyriform, oval. A pale green ground, with very little gloss, thickly and boldly mottled and freckled all over with brownish red and pinkish purple. In another type nowhere is more than a pin's point of the ground-colour visible, the whole surface being exces- sively minutely freckled and speckled with brownish red, underlaid by faint reddish-purple clouds and stains. In length they vary from 1*1 to 1'JJo inch, and in breadth from 0'75to0'88 inch. Only eight eggs are measured, five from Kote- gurh and three from Sonamurgh taken by Captain Cock. 676. Merola boulbonl (Lath.). The Grey-winyed Ouzel. Merula boulboul (Lath.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 525; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 361. The Grey-winged Ouzel breeds throughout the outer ranges of the Himalayas, at any rate from Darjeeling to Murree, in and about the skirts of forests, from an elevation of say 4000 to 7000 feet. It lays from the end of April to the early part of August, but the great majority lay in May and June. The situation of the nest varies : it is sometimes placed on the ground, in some hollow of a massive root, or in a fallen trunk ; sometimes on a ledge of rock, and sometimes in a fork of some thick tree of moderate size, at no great elevation from the ground. The nests of this species closely resemble those of the Nilghiii Blackbird. There is the same internal wattle-and-dab framework, the same massive external coating of moss and delicate ferns, and the same soft internal lining, in the case of this species most commonly of fine dry grass. The specimens before me are fully 94 TUEDID^E. 7| inches iii external diameter — beautiful masses of moss, lichen, and dry feathery fern, standing something like 5 inches high, with deep egg-cavities, 3| inches across by 2| in depth. As far as I can judge, M. boulboul employs less mud in the construction of its nest than the southern allied species; but their general appearance is very similar, though the Himalayan nests seem to be generally rather the lightest, although the largest. Tour is the normal number of the eggs, but I have taken five. From Nepal Mr. Hodgson notes that he " found a nest on the 6th June at Jaha-powah containing three fresh eggs ; a dull verditer green, much obscured by reddish-brown freckles. The nest measured externally 6 inches in diameter, and 2' 6 inches in height; the cavity was 1-5 inch in diameter and 1'6 inch in depth. The nest was in a wood, on a thick stump of a cut tree about 2 feet high, and completely hidden by the new shoots spring- ing up from the stump. The nest was entirely composed of moss, firm and compact, and lined with hair-like fibres." Mr. Gammie says : — " I took a nest of this species out of a large tree within reach of the ground at an elevation of about 4000 feet on the Government Cinchona plantations, Sikhim. This was on the 20th May, and the nest contained three fresh eggs. The nest was a very beautiful, finely woven cup, composed entirely of fine roots, but with a little green moss and a few dead leaves inter- mingled externally. No mud at all had been used in the construc- tion of the nest. The cavity measured 3*5 inches in diameter and over 2 inches in depth, and was nowhere above an inch in thick- ness. The eggs w ere of the usual type : a delicate sea-green ground richly blotched and streaked with red and brownish red, and with a little pale purple intermingled at the larger end, where also the markings are more dense, in fact almost con- fluent." Later on, he again wrote : — " This Ouzel breeds in the Darjeeling district from May to August, most commonly about the elevation of 5000 feet, near the edges of large forests. It sometimes builds in forks of trees at no great distance from the ground, but its favourite position is, at the height of 20 or 30 feet, right on the summit of a stump of a Ficus-tree, from which the',Bhutias have cut the top, and pollarded for the sake of the leaves for their milch cows. The nest is kept in its place, and concealed, by the up- right shoots springing away from below the stump end, and, usually, the bottom of the nest fits the end of the stem. For better concealment a little loose moss is allowed to hang a short way down the stem. A rather isolated tree is generally chosen, the bird, 1 suspect, objecting to the drip off lofty trees. In build- ing, a neat compact shell is first made of twigs and moss, then a good coating of mud, and finally a thick lining of fibry roots. Externally it measures about 6 inches across by 3'2 in height ; internally the cavity is 3*5 inches in diameter by 2 in depth. The number of eggs is four." Mr. Brooks, writing to me on 29th August, 1868, mentioned MERTTLA. 95 that " before he left, Home sent me two eggs of Merula boulboul. They measure 1*33 by *9 inch and 1'22 by '91 inch ; ground-colour pale greenish, very thickly speckled and mottled all over (almost hiding the ground-colour) with brownish red ; the markings quite confluent and darker on the large end. These two eggs are the richest coloured Thrushes' eggs I have ever seen. These eggs were taken at Binsar, 12 miles from Almorah, on the 8th August. I never found the nest, but Home found several, the earliest in April. Indeed I myself shot a full-sized young one in June. Home told me that the nest was sometimes placed on a rock-side, Eiug-Ouzel-fashion, and sometimes in low trees, and was composed principally of moss and lined with grasses." From Mahasoo, near Simla, it is recorded, I think, by Sir E. C. Buck : " June 30th. Nest on a branch of a pollard holly, 12 feet from the ground, in fork between branch and trunk, constructed externally of moss and lichen, internally lined with strong dry grass and with a layer of mud below, between external and internal layers. Eggs half-set." Colonel C. H. T. Marshall tells us that this bird " breeds all over the Murree Hills, from middle of April till July." Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall writes : — " I have found several nests of this species ranging from 7000 feet above the sea at Naini Tal, to 4000 at Bheem Tal. They were all either wedged into forks of the larger branches of moss-covered oaks, or built against the trunk at a natural swelling, and seldom at any great elevation from the ground; the end of May and June are the chief times of breeding in this part of the country. The birds are excessively wary, except just when the young are hatched, leaving the nest long before it is approached. " Merula boulboul breeds in Kumaon in June; I have found nests at elevations varying from 4000 to 7000 feet. The nest and eggs are of the usual Blackbird type, and are to be found in situa- tions similar to those in which M. vulgaris breeds." In their style of colouring the eggs most recall those of Merula unicolor, and are very different from those of the Xilghiri Black- bird. The ground-colour, where visible, is a pale dingy green, but is at all times thickly streaked, mottled, and clouded with dull brownish red, and in some eggs so closely as to entirely obscure the ground-colour. One egg before me is an almost uniform dull red, here and there mottled slightly paler. In another egg a good deal of the ground-colour shows through, except at the large end, where the markings form a confluent irregular cap. The eggs are slightly glossy and differ little in size from those of the European and Xilghiri Blackbird, but they appear to be less commonly pointed and more commonly obtuse ovals than those of either of these species. In length thev vary from 1*1 to 1*33 inch, and in breadth from 0-83 to 0-92 inch. 96 678. Merula unicolor (Tick.). TicMVs Ouzel. Geocichla unicolor ( Tick.), Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 519 ; Hume, Rouyh Draft N. $ E. no. 356. I have never found a nest of Tickell's Ouzel ; Capt. Hutton says : — " This bird arrives in the hills up to 7000 feet, and probably higher, about the end of March, the first being heard (in the year 1848) on the 26th of that month, at 5000 feet. Every morning and evening it may be heard far and near, pouring forth a short but pleasing song from the very summits of the forest trees. It is a summer visitor only, returning to the plains in early autumn. It breeds in May and June, laying three or four eggs of a dull greenish white-freckled colour, blotched and spotted with rufous, sometimes closely, sometimes widely distributed. " The nest is neatly made of green moss and roots lined with finer roots, and placed usually against the trunk of the tree at a place whence spring one or two twigs ; sometimes it is placed upon the broad surface of a thick horizontal branch or on a projecting knob. The diameter of the eggs is 1*06 by 0'8 inch, varying a little ; shape sometimes ordinary oval, at others more rounded at the smaller end." Dr. Leith Adams tells us that this "is the regular Song-Thrush of the valley of Cashmere, and is heard in every garden and grove during the breeding-season ; its song resembles the Blackbird's ; builds its nest in vineyards and in poplar trees around the villages ; seen on the ranges around the valley, but not on the lesser ranges near the plains of the Punjab." Mr. Brooks tells me that he obtained a nest in a pollard willow at Karnoo near Srinugger (Cashmere) on the 12th June. From Murree, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall reports " several nests in June, made of moss and fern-stalks, lined with root-fibres. Eggs somewhat resembling those of M. boulboul, only smaller, rounder, and more lightly speckled. They are the same size as those of C. cyanus" Colonel Gr. E. L. Marshall writes : — " This is one of the com- monest breeders at Naini Tal ; I found two fresh eggs on the 16th May, and four fresh eggs on the 5th June, and many other nests. The nests are miniatures of the English Blackbirds' both as to structure and position, except that the cup is deeper and more moss is used in the construction. The nests found at Nairn Tal are far smaller than those I have received from Murree as also are the eggs. The birds are very shy, and though I have always succeeded in obtaining the hen bird, 1 have only once seen a cock bird." He gave me also a more extended account * of the nest found on the 16th May which I reproduce : — " I found this nest on the * This note appeared in the ' Eough Draft ' under the head of Geocichla dissimilis, Bl. (no. 358). It must undoubtedly refer to M. unicolor, as since noted by Mr. Hume (S. F. ix, p. 107).— ED. GEOCICHLA. 97 16th May, near Nyuee Tal, on the top of the Aya-pata, at an eleva- tion of about 7500 feet above the level of tbe sea, in a small shrubby tree. The nest was placed in a fork about 7 feet from the ground ; it was made of moss with a few roots intertwined, small, cup- shaped, and only concealed by its likeness to a slight swelling at the fork. Rather a disreputable structure and difficult to take out, as it consisted chiefly of materials placed in the spaces between the three branches, the cavity being lined with moss." The eggs of this species vary much in shape. Some are very round ; others are a rather elongated oval ; but generally there is a tendency to a pyriforin shape, there being a slight compression near the small end. The ground-col oiy is greenish or greyish white, and the whole surface is more or less thickly streaked, or irregularly blotched with dull brownish red. In some cases the markings are comparatively few and far between, the ground-colour greatly predominating, except at the larger end : while in others the markings are so densely crowded, that the ground-colour only shows through here and there, as a pale mottling on a red ground. In all, however, the markings are densest at the large end. The e»gs are a shade longer, but even less glossy than those of Geo- cichla citrina. In some eggs the red is brighter and purpler, and some exhibit a very conspicuous zone round the large end. In some eggs the markings, with the exception of the zone at the large end, are very fine frecklings, almost speckly in their character. In length the eggs vary from 0-92 to 1-17 inch, and in breadth from 0-7 to 0-83 inch ; but the average of twenty eggs is 1*06 by 0-78 inch. 683. Geocichla wardi (Jerd.). The Pied Ground-Thrush. Turdulus wardi (Jerd.}, Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 520. Cichloselys wardii (Jerri.), Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 857. Of the Pied Ground-Thrash Captain Hutton writes to me from Mussoorie as follows : — " This curiously-pied Thrush arrives at Jeripanee, at 5500 feet, from the southward early in April, and is then far from rare, but retires again when the breeding-season is over. It breeds in June and July, making a pretty nest of green mosses and fibres like Geocichla unicolor, placed on the bifurcate branch of a tall tree, and the eggs both in size and colour might easily be mistaken for those of that bird." Of this species Mr. Hodgson notes : — " I procured a female and nest at Jaharpowah on the 15th May. This species breeds in trees, fixing the nest in the fork of large branches ; this present nest is about 6*25 inches in external diameter, and 2'5 in height ; the cavity is 3'5 inches in diameter by less than 2 in depth. It is made of moss and lined with elastic, thin grass-roots, which keep it well in shape ; the eggs are four in number, pale verditer, spotted with sanguine brown." The eggs as figured measure about 1-06 inch in length and 0'76 in width. VOL. II. 98 TURDID^E. Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall sends me from Nynee Tal the follow- ing interesting note : — " On the 22nd May I found a nest of this species at an elevation of about 5000 feet above the sea. The nest, which contained four hard-set eggs, was placed about 5 feet from the ground on a stump of a bough that had been cut off, and between the twigs that had sprouted round it. The bush was in a thicket in one of the khuds close to running water. It was a compact cup-shaped structure, very similar to that of M. unicolor, built of moss and dead leaves and a little mud cemented together, and lined with roots. The egg-cavity was 3 inches broad by 2 inches deep. The marks on the eggs were not unlike in character to those on the eggs of Lanius lahtora." The only egg I have yet seen of this species I also owe to Colonel Marshall. It is a very regular, somewhat elongated oval, only very slightly compressed towards the small end. The shell is line, but glossless. The ground-colour very pale sea-green, blotched, spotted, and streaked, most densely at the large end (where also a number of small pale purple clouds and spots seem to underlie the primary markings), with a moderately bright, somewhat brownish red. This egg measures I'Ol by 0'74 inch. Two eggs subsequently obtained measured 0'99 and 0'95 inch in length by 0'72 and 0'70 inch respectively in breadth. 685. Geocichla eyanonotus (Jard. & S.). The White- throated Ground- Thrush . Geocichla cyanotus (J. fy S.), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 517 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 354. Of the White-throated Ground-Thrush Dr. Jerdon states that " Mr. Ward procured the nest in North Canara, made of roots and grass, placed at no great height from the ground ; and the eggs, three in number, were pale bluish, speckled with brown." Mr. Gr. W. Vidal writes : — " This species is plentiful about Dapuli in the Southern Konkan. It breeds in the gardens about the station in June, July, and August. I have not myself taken the eggs of this species, but Mr. A. Jardine of Dapuli. who knows the birds well, and who at once recognized specimens in my col- lection, has taken a great many nests and has given me several eggs. He writes : ' The nest is made of roots, twigs, and grass, with a good deal of mud. The egg-cavity is about five and a half inches in diameter, and from two to three inches deep. The nest is generally placed in the fork of a tree low down. The highest I ever saw wras about fifteen feet from the ground in a kinjal tree, but they are mostly found in mango trees. When the Thrushes have young they will not let any one go near the nest, but come flying at you, and peck like fun.' The eggs vary greatly in colour and markings, presenting two or three very distinct types." OEOCICHLA. 99 Mr. J. Davidson, when bird-nesting on the Kondabhari Ghat, referring to the events of the 14th July, says : — " I also found a nest containing three nearly full-grown young and one addled egg of G. cyanotis. This Thrush is not common here, and this seems, in this part of the country, about its northern limit, and it is only a migrant arriving in the rains : it is, however, common enough along the ridge running eastward from the Ghats immediately north of Xasik." Mr. J. L. Darling, .Tun., to whom I am indebted for the eggs of this species, has favoured me with the following note in regard to its nidification. He says : — " The first nest that I found of the White-throated Ground-Thrush I took on Kulputty Hill, in the Wynaad (Malabar), at an elevation of about 2800 feet above the sea. It was placed in a small tree, in a fork about 11 feet from the ground, precisely in the same kind of situation as our Xilghiri Blackbird would choose. The nest, too, was very like a Blackbird's — a foundation of leaves and sandy clay, the main body of the nest composed of roots, intermingled with a few twigs and a little grass, and the cavity lined with roots and slender petioles of the nellv-kai. " This nest contained three partly-incubated eggs. The birds were very shy ; I visited the nest four times before I shot the male, and six before I shot the female. Directly I approached the nest the bird noiselessly dropped on to the ground and crept away through the brushwood. When disturbing them I noticed that their call was low and sweet like that of the Blackbird when similarly disturbed. " On the 9th I found a second nest, this time about 500 feet lower, at the foot of the hill. It was built in a loquat tree, in a fork about 22 feet from the ground, and was in every respect similar to the last except that a little moss had been used in its construction. The birds were very brave, defending their nest against one of those thieves of Crow-Pheasants, and it was the noise they made that attracted me to the nest. Again I was struck with the great similarity of their notes to those of the Blackbird when its nest is being robbed. This nest contained four perfectly fresh eggs, of which I took three, and then watched the old birds return to the nest, where they broke the one egg I had left to pieces. They have, however, begun another nest in a jack tree close by. " Their song is never heard except in the early mornings and evenings, and mostly in the latter. They go hopping about under the coffee-trees, and scratching up and turning over the leaves in search of food." Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, savs : — " It breeds in the forests of the western coast in August and September, building in small trees. The nest is composed of grass, leaves, twigs, &c., with the usual clay foundation which is found in almost all Thrushes' nests, and is lined with fine roots and hairs. The eggs are from three to four in number, of a pale greyish-blue colour, 100 TURDID-ffi. thickly speckled with minute reddish-brown spots. The average dimensions are 0-95 inch in length by 0-77 in breadth." The eggs strike one as rather small for the size of the bird. In shape they are moderately broad ovals, a good deal pointed towards one end. The shell is fine and fairly glossy, and some eggs have a really fine gloss. The general character of the egg is very MeruKne. The ground- colour, very little of which in some eggs is visible, is a pale bluish or greenish white, and it is thickly freckled, blotched, and streaked with more or less brownish or purplish red. The markings are usually most dense at the large end, where they often form a bold confluent cap. and at this larger end a few lilac spots are commonly intermingled with the red markings. Some eggs have all the markings fine and very thickly spread over the whole surface. Others have them thick, bold, and blotchy all over the large end half, and only a few small spots scattered over the other half, and between these two types intermediate forms occur. The eggs measure from 0-9 to 1*08 in length, and from 0*71 to 0-79 in breadth, but the average of ten eggs is 0-99 by 0-75. 686. G-eocichla citrina (Lath.). The Orange-headed Ground- Thrush. Geocichla citrina (Lath.},Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 517 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. Sf E. no. 355. The Orange-headed Ground-Thrush breeds in the Himalayas from Murree to Assam, at elevations of from 1500 to 5000 feet, laying from the end of April to nearly the end of June. They build a rather broad, cup-shaped nest of moss, grass, and very fine twigs, or fir-needles, lined with fine moss-roots, and at times a little hair, measuring some 5 inches in diameter, and with a cavity about 35 inches broad and 1*75 deep. The nest is placed in eome fork of a moderate-sized tree, in the case of all that I have seen, at no great height from the ground. They lay three, and often four eggs, and one nest found below Koregurh contained five. Captain Hutton, years ago, recorded the following note in regard to this species : — " Arrives at Mussoorie at an elevation of 5000 feet about the end of May, and returns to the plains in autumn. It breeds in June, placing the nest in the forky branches of lofty trees, such as oak and wild cherry. Externally it is some- times composed of coarse dry grasses, somewhat neatly interwoven on the sides but hanging down in long straggling ends from the bottom. Within this is a layer of green moss, and another of fine dry woody stalks of small plants, and a scanty lining at the bottom of fine roots. The eggs are three to four in number, pale greenish, freckled with rufous; the spots of that colour confluent, and forming a patch at the larger end. These are not rock-lovers at all, but true forest birds, building in trees, and taking their food GEOCICHLA. upon the ground, where they find it in berries and insects among the withered leaves, which they expertly turn over with their beaks, and hence the reason why the beak is almost invariably clothed with mud or other dirt. I have never seen these birds except in woods." According to Mr. Hodgson's notes the Orange-headed Ground- Thrush breeds in Nepal and Sikhim in April and May up to a height of 4000 or 5000 feet. It constructs a broad saucer-shaped nest some 5*5 inches in diameter and 2'25 in depth, externally of green rock-moss, and lines it with the dry leaves of Pinus longifolia. The cavity is about 3 inches in diameter, and about 1-5 in depth. It is placed in some convenient fork in a tree where three or four slender sprays diverge, and it lays three or four eggs. Mr. B,. Thompson, writing from Ktimaon, says : — "I have never found this bird except at 1500 to 2000 feet elevation at most. It arrives in our forests at the beginning of April, when the males begin to utter their sweet yet loud notes, and commence breeding operations." From Murree, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall tells us that this species " builds about the beginning of June in the fork of a low tree about 6 feet up. Lays three eggs, pale greenish white, finely speckled with rufous-brown, forming a patch at the larger end, 1 inch in length, 0-8 in breadth." From Sikhim I received two nests of this species found in July in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling. The one contained two, the* other a single fresh egg. One was placed in a bamboo clump at a height of about 5 feet from the ground, between the stem and a number of radiating twigs springing from the joint. The other on the branches of a large tree at a height of about 7 feet from the ground. A nest sent me by Mr. Mandelli, which was placed in a fork in a bamboo cluster at about five feet from the ground, is a very loose untidy nest, composed exteriorly of dead leaves, bamboo- spnthes, a few twigs and pieces of decayed bamboo, all wound together with vegetable fibre. The whole of the nest is composed of much the same materials, except that interiorly there are more chips of rotten bamboo and more vegetable fibre and very little dead leaf ; there is a mere pretence for a lining, a dozen or so very fine wire-like twigs being wound round at the bottom of the cavity. This Thrush breeds in Burma, and Mr. Gates writes : — " May 22nd. Xest in a shrub in a ravine near Pegu, about four feet from the ground, made of roots and strips of soft bark, the ends of some of the latter hanging down a foot or more. The interior lined with moss and fern-roots. Interior and exterior diameters 4 and 5 inches respectively. Inside depth about 2, and bottom of nest about 1 inch thick. Contained three eggs quite fresh, measuring 1-04, 1, and 1-06 by 0'75, 0-76, and 0'79 respectively. A fourth egg found on the ground near the nest was 1*03 by 0*78. ** Another nest with three eggs was found on the 10th June." 102 TUKDID.E. The eggs are a broad oval, much pointed towards one end, about the size and shape of the European Water-Ouzel's egg. The ground-colour is dull greyish or greenish white, and each has a conspicuous mottled and speckled red-brown cap at the large end. The cap is not sharply defined, and beyond it specklings and minute streaks of the same colour extend more or less over the whole of the rest of the surface of the egg ; in some cases ceasing entirely, in others diminishing in frequency as they approach the smaller end. Some of the eggs of this species have a very fine gloss, and most of them are fairly glossy. In some the markings are brighter and redder, in others duller and browner. Dull purple markings are generally intermingled in the cap, and though this is generally at the larger end 1 have one egg in which it is at the smaller end. In length the eggs vary from 0'82 to I'l inch, and in breadth from 0-7 to 0'82 inch ; but the average of a dozen eggs is 0'99 by 077 inch. 690. Petrophila erythrogaster (Vigors). The Chestnut-bellied Hock-Thrush. Orocetes erythrogastra ( Vig.}, Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 514. Petrophila erythrogaster ( Viy'), Hume, Rough Draft N. 8f E. no. 352. I have only once seen the nest of the Chestnut- bellied Kock- Thrush, and that was at the end of May, above Jatingere, towards the Bubboo Pass from Kangra into Kooloo. It was placed at the root of a tree in a forest, and was a large shallow saucer, composed almost entirely of moss and lined with moss-roots ; a few dead leaves were intermingled at the base of the nest. It measured about 6 inches across, but I ascertained no particulars, for, having gently caught the female on the nest with my hand and lifted her, I found four chicks just out or struggling out of the shells, and so put her back again on the nest, where she sat immovably with her little head on one side, watching me with her bright dark eye, but apparently satisfied that I was up to no mischief. Mr. E. Thompson says that " in Kumaon they lay in June and July, making a circular nest of mosses, twigs, and small roots, some 6 inches in diameter, on the ground, under a rock or stump, or in a hole. They affect northern well- wooded slopes from 6000 feet upwards." At Dhurumsala, Captain Cock obtained a nest on the 20th May containing three fresh eggs, which varied in length from 0*9 to 0-95 inch ; they were all 0*7 inch in breadth. These eggs were very small, judging from the few I have seen and measured ; 1 by | inch is the average size. In Nepal, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, " this species begins to lay during April. It builds a large shallow circular nest on ledges of rocks, composed of grass-stems and moss, and lined with fine roots. One such nest measured exteriorly *> inches in diameter PETKOPHJLA. 103 and 2'2o in height, while the cavity was 3*5 inches in diameter and 1*5 inch in depth. They lay four somewhat buff-coloured eggs ; one measured about 1-1 by 0'75 inch. They breed only once a year." Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall writes : — " This bird is very common at Kami Tal, and I have often watched it feeding its young, but never till this year have I been up early enough in the season to find the nest. On the 29th April I observed a male bird with a large grub in his mouth. I watched him with binoculars, and after a few feints he dived suddenly into the bank overhanging the road, about 70 yards off on the other side of the valley, emerging shortly afterwards empty-beaked. In a few minutes the female appeared, also with a grub in her mouth, but instead of going to the nest she watched me anxiously for a few moments, then notwithstanding the long distance I was away, fear got the better of her and she flew off in the opposite direction. The nest contained four half-fledged young; it was in a sort of cleft in the bank, about seven feet above the road; the bottom of the cleft projected beyond the top of it, or rather the top receded ; the nest was invisible from below. The nest was not large, neatly made of moss and lined with a little fine grass and a few roots. It was just far enough into the cleft to be protected from rain. In the course of the next few days I found three other nests all with the young just fledged. My experience as to the time of breeding accords with Mr. Hodgson's, and making allowance for the later summer in the western Himalayas, it accords with that of Mr. Hume and Captain Cock. 1 think Mr. Thompson must have made a mistake 011 this point, more especially as he gives no details, but confines himself to general remarks." 691 . Petrophila clnclornyncha (Vigors). The Blue-lieaded Rock-Thrush. Orocetes cinclorhynchus (Vig.\ Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 515. Petrophila cinclorhynchus ( Viy '.), Hume, Rough Draft N. 8f JE. no. 353. The Blue-headed Bock-Thrush breeds throughout the Hima- layas from Darjeeling to Murree, at elevations of from 4000 to about 8000 feet. It lays during the last week in April, May, and part of June. The nest is placed at the roots of trees, in holes in banks, and at the base of trees, or in hollows in banks overhung by tufts of grass or weeds. The nest is a rather shallow cup, neatly made of moss, grass, fir-needles, and dead leaves, and lined with fine roots or a little hair, the materials varying according to the taste of the individual bird or perhaps according to locality. It measures externally from 4 to 5 inches in diameter and 2% to 3 inches in height, and has a neat, nearly hemispherical cavity, some 3 inches wide by 1*5 in depth. The eggs are four in number. Writing from Murree, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall says: — ;' Builds in banks under roots or tufts of grass a neat cup-shaped nest. 104 TURDID^E. The eggs are (salmon-coloured, with a few darker red specks and spots. The nests we found were made entirely of dead pine-leaves beautifully woven together. Elevation 6000 feet." Colonel G. E. L. Marshall writes: — "A nest with half-fledged found at Naini Tal on the 3rd June was in a hole at the root of a tree on a grassy slope close to a frequented road, from which it was quite visible. The male bird was sitting. I could not see the lining, as the young birds concealed it ; but the outer part seemed roughly built of moss, and cup-shaped." Mr. W. E. Brooks has recorded the following :— " On the 26th of May I shot a female of this species at Almorah, and close to where she fell was a nest in a hole of an old retaining vail, over- grow 11 with grass. Eor hours the place was watched, but no bird came near the partly-incubated eggs. Her breast ^as bare, as if she had been sitting on eggs. The male I had also shot shortly before the female. The nest was very Thrush-like in form, and was placed in just such a situation as would have been chosen by a B/ing-Ouzel. It was composed of fine twigs, roots, and coarse grass, and lined with finer grass. The eggs were four in number, 0-91 by 0-62 inch, of a pale buff or salmon-colour, finely mottled, principally at the larger end, with very pale reddish brown. Though they are not Thrush-like in colouring, being more like those of a Eedbreast, I cannot believe that they belong to any other bird." I may note that I have one of tne eggs thus found, and that there is no possible doubt that it belongs to this species, of which I have now taken very many. Mr. R. Thompson remarks: — "In June 1865 I found a nest close to my house at Koorpatal, below Nynee Tal, with only one young one. Eor the last two years the same pair have constantly bred in the same place, making a fresh nest each year and bringing up two and three young ones. This year the three young ones remained with the parent birds for a considerable time. Many young ones are taken at Almorah, where the natives prize them for their song. They lay in May and June, building a circular cup- shaped nest some 4*8 inches in diameter, composed externally of mosses and roots, internally of hairs and fine fibres, on the ground, in a hole, either under a stump, a tuft of grass, or a stone. They generally breed at elevations between 3000 and 6000 feet." Captain Cock long ago sent me the following note from Dhurum- sala : — " Nidificates in May and June in the North-west Hima- layas. Nest is composed of moss at the bottom, with layers of coarse grass, fibres and roots, internally of finer grass-fibre; but it is a loosely-put-together affair, and with a little handling soon comes to pieces. It is a saucer-shaped open nest, 4 inches in dia- meter, generally placed on some bank by the side ot a road. Parent bird fearless, sometimes choosing a very much frequented road, but still their nests are well concealed in some little niche of the bank. The parent bird may be caught by the hand when on her eggs. Lays four eggs, salmon-colour or buff (caused by the numerous PETEOPHILA. 105 small spots confluent over them), usually darker towards the larger end." Major "Wardlaw Eamsay says, writing of Afghanistan: — "It was, I think, breeding in June." The eggs appear to vary little in size or shape. They are rather long ovals, very blunt at the small end, and having a slight gloss. In colour and character they recall the eggs of Stoparola and Niltava. Looked at from a distance the general hue of the egg is either a pale brownish pink or a dingy buff, darkest towards the large end. Closely looked into, the general tint proves to result from a pinkish-white ground very closely and minutely freckled and mottled all over (but most densely at the large end) with pale, dingv brownish, salmon-colour, or reddish brown ; the colour, in- deed, is so ill-defined that it is difficult to say what it is. The eggs have a slight gloss. They vary in length from 0-87 to 0-99 inch, and in breadth from 0*68 to 0'79 ; but the average of twenty eggs is a little over 0-92 by 0'72. 693. Petrophila cyana (Linn.). The Western Blue Hock-Thrush. Petrocossyphus cyaneus (Linn.), Jerd. B. 2nd. i, p. 511. Cyanocincla * cyanus (Linn.), Hume, Rough Draft N. 8f E. no. 351. Colonel C. H. T. Marshall, writing from Murree, remarks : — " The eggs of the Blue Rock-Thrush have not, we think, been re- corded before from India. There is a description of them in Sharpe and Dresser's ' Birds of Europe/ We found the nest in a low stone wall at no great elevation ; it contained four eggs, very pale blue, with a few small brown specks on them. The eggs are 1-1 inch in length and 0'75 inch in breadth, and were taken early in June." One of these eggs, sent me by Colonel Marshall, is excessively small for the size of the bird, very much smaller than the egg of M. saxatilis, but there is, I think, no possible doubt of its authen- ticity, and it corresponds fairly with eggs collected in Greece by Dr. Kriiper on the 8th June, J862. The egg is very smooth and has a fine gloss. The ground-colour is an excessively pale, slightly greenish, blue, and it is pretty closely speckled at the large end with very minute brownish-red spots ; a few similar specks are sparsely scattered over the rest of the surface of the egg. It was taken on the 7th June, and measures 1 by 0*73 inch. Two other eggs subsequently taken at Murree measured 1*15 and 1-1 in length by O78 and O75 in breadth. Major Wardlaw Eamsay says, writing of Afghanistan : — "A few * In the Rough Draft, Mr. Hume proposed the generic term Cyanocincla for this species and P. solitaria. These two birds, however, appear to me to be congeneric with PefropJiita cinchrhyn^ho , the type of the genus Fetrophilo —Eo. 106 pairs remained throughout the summer, and doubtless were breed- ing ; but I did not find the nest." 695. Turdus viscivorus, Linn. The Missel-Thrush. Turdus hodgsoni, Lafr., Jerd. B. Intl. i, p. 531 ; Hume, Eough Draft N. $ R no. 368. I, as yet, only know of the Missel-Thrush breeding in the valleys of the Beas and Sutlej, at elevations of from 6000 to 8000 feet. 1 have only taken one nest myself, but have had several sent me, and I find by my notes that the earliest was taken on the 6th April, the latest on the 22nd of June. The nests are large deep cups, very like those of the Blackbird's, always placed, as far as my ex- perience and information goes, in forks of trees, at no great eleva- tion from the ground. The core is composed of clay and grass- stems, founded on a lot of dry leaves, fern, &c. ; externally there is a very thick coating of moss, grass, and lichen, while internally there is a thick lining of soft grass. The nest I obtained above Juggut Sook, in the valley of the Beas, measured in situ 8 inches in diameter and nearly 6 inches in height externally. The cavity was 4 inches in diameter and nearly 3 deep. Major Wardlaw Eamsay says, writing of Afghanistan : — " On the 22nd May I found a nest containing four young birds nearly fledged. The nest was situated in a small deodar, about 4 feet from the ground, and seemed in every respect like that of a Black- bird in England. 1 returned a few days after to the spot, but found the nest gone; it had been taken by a soldier, in whose pos- session I found it afterwards. He kept the young birds for about a fortnight, when they died. I, however, was able to determine the species for certain." The eggs, which I have now repeatedly received from near Kote- gurh and higher up in the valley of the Sutlej, are moderately broad ovals, somewhat obtuse at both ends, and exhibit but little gloss. The ground-colour varies from pale pink to a pale greenish grey, or even very pale green, and they are moderately thickly speckled and spotted (most densely, as a rule, towards the larger end) with primary markings of brownish red and secondary ones of pale pur- Elish pink, which often seem to underlie the surface of the egg. n some cases the brownish-red spots are so deep and intense that they almost look as if they were black, but it is only occasional spots and never the whole body of them that assume this deep tint. In length they vary from 1-17 to 1-26 inch, and in breadth from 0'88 to 0*93 inch ; but the average of twenty eggs is 1 '21 by a little more than 0'9 inch. OHKOC'INCLA. 107 698. Oreocincla dauma (Lath.). The Small-billed Mountain- Thrush. Oreocincla dauma (Lath.), Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 533 ; Hume. Rough Draft y. $ E, no. 371. Captain Cock * took a nest of the Small-billed Mountain-Thrush at Gulraerg in Cashmere on the 6th June, 1871. Colonel C. H. T. Marshall writes that he has received the eggs of this species taken by Captain Cock at Doongagully near Murree ; the nest was found on the 18th of May, 1876, and contained two fresh eggs ; their colouring corresponds exactly with the description already given in * Xests and Eggs.' Length T38 by O94. Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall remarks : — " A nest found on the 29th May, 1875, at Nairn Tal, about 7000 feet above the sea, con- tained three eggs. In shape it was a wide cup, not deep, built of moss rather substantially, and neatly lined with stalks of maiden- hair fern still bearing a few of their leaves and a few bents of grass ; its position was in the fork of a moss-covered rhododendron ; it was about 20 feet from the ground, and beautifully concealed ; the tree overhung a little-frequented road in dense forest. The bird was so excessively shy that I secured it with difficulty. They are rather common at Xaini Tal, and have a pleasant song not un- like that of Geocichla wardl. " The description of the eggs by Mr. Hume exactly answers to those I took/' The eggs are broad ovals, somewhat compressed and pointed towards the small end ; they have a slight gloss, and remind one somewhat of those of the Myiophan&t* group. The ground-colour is a pale greenish white (entirely obscured in some specimens by the markings), very minutely and densely freckled and mottled with pale brownish, or in some cases reddish purple. The mark- ings are indistinct and clouded, and in some eggs form a small ill- detined brighter patch or cap at the large end. Some eggs show the ground pretty distinctly ; others, looked at from a little dis- tance, appear to be a sort of mottled, dull, reddish buff through- out. In length the eggs (only three measured) varied from T2 to 1-26 inch, and in breadth from 0'9 to 0-93 inch. 699. Oreocincla nilghiriensis, Blyth. The Nilghiri Thrush. Oreocincla nilghiriensis, Blyth, Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 534 ; Hume, Cat. no. 372. Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says : — "This handsome Thrush breeds from March to June on the * Mr. Brooks appears, however, to claim the discovery of this nest, see S. F. iii. p. 237, and Mr. Hume's note thereon. — ED. 108 TTJRDID.^. Neilgherries, almost invariably on some low tree, some 6 or 8 feet from the ground. The nest is very like that of Merula simittima, and usually contains three eggs, of a pale greenish-blue colour, minutely speckled with rusty brown. They average in size 1/21 inch in length by 0*82 in breadth. This Thrush may usually be seen seated on the topmost branch of some large sbola-tree late in the evening. It utters every now and then a single clear warbling note, but appears to have no song."' Captain Horace Terry remarks :— " On the 7th June, 1883, I obtained a nest with two fresh eggs and the female bird at Kodi- kanal. Nest placed in fork of tree in a thick shola about 15 feet from the ground, composed of green moss lined with fine roots, with some fern mixed up in the foundation. A large shallow cup, compactly put together, 3- 75 inches across and 1*75 inches deep inside, 6 inches across and 3 inches deep outside. Eggs rather peg-top in shape, and in colour much the same as an ordinary Jay's." 701. Oreocincla mollissima * (Blyth). The Plain-backed Mo untain-Thrush . Oreocincla mollissima (-#/.)> Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 533 ; Hume, Cat. no. 370. The nest of this species is a most lovely one. It is a deep, large, massive cup, composed entirely of beautiful green moss firmly felted together, the cavity thinly lined with extremely fine black fern- and moss-roots. Externally the nest is about 5'5 inches in diameter and 3*3 in height ; the cavity is 3-5 in diameter and 2 in depth. The eggs are elongated ovals, sometimes excessively elongated, generally rather obtuse at both ends, occasionally pyriformed. The shell is fine and close-textured, but seems usually to have but little gloss. The ground-colour is a nearly dead white. The markings, very densely set about the large end, where they are nearly con- fluent and fairly thickly set everywhere else, consist mainly of specks, spots, and moderate-sized and irregular blotches of two shades of red — one more of blood, the other browner or yellower. Intermingled with these are a few specks, spots, and clouds of pale purple. These eggs, brought from Native Sikhira about the end of June, vary in length from 1-27 to 1-42, in breadth from 0-84 to 0-90, the average being 1*35 by 0'88. * The following note is incomplete, and the remainder of the manuscript has apparently been lost. — ED. OREOCINCLA. — ZOOTHERA. 109 703. Oreocincla spiloptera, Blyth. The Spotted-wing Thrush. Oreocincla spiloptera, Blyth, Hume, Cat. no. 872 ter. Colonel Legge, writing from Ceylon, remarks of the breeding of this Thrush : — " In January 1873 I discovered the Spotted-wing Thrush in the low country forests of the Trincomalie District, at an elevation of not more than 300 feet above the sea-level, the bird never having been before recorded from any part of the island but the Central and Southern Province hills. At the same time I found its nest in the fork of a straight sapling about 4 feet from the ground. The structure was very similar to that of the Euro- pean Blackbird, but not so massive ; it was composed of small twigs and lined with grass, and was a deep cup in shape. It con- tained two eggs, which, though I frightened the bird off the tree, were quite fresh, and I therefore am inclined to the belief that, though they were warm, the clutch was as yet incomplete. The eggs were of a bluish-green ground-colour, freckled all over with light and reddish grey, with some lilac-grey specks, and measured 1-19 inches byO'79. The spottings are somewhat confluent at the obtuse end." He subsequently remarked, in his ' History of the Birds of Ceylon ' : — " The breeding-season extends over the first half of the year. The nest is placed in the fork of a sapling a few feet from the ground, or among the roots of a tree on a bank or little emin- ence, and is a loose-looking, though compactly put together struc- ture of small twigs, roots, moss, and grass lined with finer materials of the same, the egg-cavity being a deep cup, tolerably neatly finished off The eggs measure from 1'06 to 1'17 in length by 074 to 077 in breadth." 705. Zoothera marginata, Blyth. The Lesser Brown Thrush. Zoothera marginata, BL, Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 350 bis. Dr. Jerdon tells us that he obtained the egg of the Lesser Brown Thrush, and that it was " like that of Pitta, white, with a few rusty-brown spots." From Sikhim Mr. Grammie writes: — "I took one nest of this Thrush on the last day of May, in a large forest at about 5000 feet elevation. It was placed about 10 feet from the ground on a moss- covered leaning stem of a shrub which overhung a small stream in a densely-shaded dell. The nest had only the stem (which was not thicker than a child's wrist) and a slender dead twig to support it. It was a compact, rather massive cup, made of living moss, thickly lined with black fibrous roots, and without any mud. Externally it measured 5 inches across by 3-5 in height ; internally the dia- meter was 3-25 and the depth 1-9 inches. " The eggs were partially incubated, and three in number." A nest of this species sent me by Mr. Mandelli was found in 110 TURDID.E. Native Sikhim below Yendong on the 29th July, and was placed in the fork of a slender tree at a height of about 8 feet from the ground. The nest is an extremely regular massive cup, composed entirely of green moss felted together very closely, and thickly lined with fine black and brown roots. Its exterior diameter is 5 inches, its height 2-5 ; the cavity is about 3 inches in diameter, and about 1*25 in depth. A single egg of this species sent me by Mr. Gammie is a mode- rately elongated oval, with a pretty compact but almost entirely glossless shell. The ground-colour is a very pale greenish white. It is very richly blotched, splashed, streaked, and spotted with a ferruginous brown, and besides this the whole of the larger end is mottled with pale dull pinky purple. At the large end the mark- ings are nearly confluent ; over the rest of the surface of the egg they are for the most part bold, but thinly set. The egg measures 1-05 by 0-79. An egg of this species, however, obtained by Mr. Mandelli near Darjeeling on the 29th of July is rather of the Blackbird type. The egg is a moderately broad oval, a good deal pointed towards the small end. The shell has only a faint gloss, whereas all the Pittas have very round and very glossy eggs. The ground-colour is a pale greenish white ; about the small end is a dense cap of blotches, clouds, and spots of brownish red intermingled with purple, and small spots, specks, and streaks almost exclusively of the former colour are scattered about the rest of the surface of the egg. The egg measures 1-06 by 0-82. 706. Cochoa purpurea, Hodgs. The Purple Thrush. Cochoa purpurea, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 243 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 607. We have no very certain record of the nidification of the Purple Thrush ; it is no doubt not uncommon in Kumaon, indeed is common about Binsur, and there the late Mr. Home, C.S., took a nest probably of this species. I do not myself feel certain about the matter. Mr. Home was no ornithologist, and but little of an oologist ; but Mr. Brooks was, 1 think, satisfied, and I quote what he wrote to me at the time : — "The egg of Cochoa purpurea in colouring exactly resembles that of Merula boulboul, but is rather smaller, being 1'2 by 0-88. Home thought the bird was the female of Orocetes erythrogaster, but I have the female shot off the nest, and the nest, too, differs in mode of lining from that of M. boulboul. I transcribe Home's note about it : — " ' Nest very solid, of moss, built on a horizontal bough, 10 or 12 feet from the ground, in a small tree in a ravine near the top of Binsur. Interior nearly a true cup lined with white lichens, fine moss, and principally black roots (very fine). The bird sits very COCHOA. Ill close, but only laid one egg in nine days. I sent for the nest thinking there would have been four eggs, one having been in the nest when I found it nine days since, but there were only two. The eggs very nearly resemble those of Merula boulboul, being, however, a little smaller : ground greenish, thickly blotched with brown. They vary very much in proportion of colour.' " The only question is this — Was Home close enough to know the bird again when shot? He was close to it, and at 40 yards the bird could not be mistaken for any other : it is so well marked — the grey-blue head makes such a contrast with the brown body. He sent for the nest and his man shot the bird therefrom ; if he missed the Cochoa he might have contented himself with a female Merula boulboul (although to find a female M. boulboul when wanted would not be easy, for they are nearly as scarce as the Cochoa there), but he brought a Cochoa ; the nest, moreover, was not that of M. boulboul.19 I venture to submit that perhaps he missed the M. boulboul, and then meeting a OocJioa shot it as about the right size of bird *. 707. Cochoa viridis, Hodgs. The Green Thrush. Cochoa viridis, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 243 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 608. Of the nidification of the Green Thrush I possess no very certain information, but what I have certainly tends to corroborate Mr. Home's account of the nidification of the Purple Thrush. A nest said to belong to the present species was sent me from Xative Sikhim, where it was found in June. It was found at an elevation of about 10,000 feet, and was placed on the branch of a large tree at about 8 feet from the ground. It contained three partially incubated eggs, two of which were accidentally broken. The nest was a large Thrush-like nest, but only the lining was sent to me, which consisted of a thick exterior coating of roots, and an interior one of the feathery, grey, beard-like lichen so commonly seen hanging from the branches of trees in the hills. The egg is a very regular, moderately elongated oval ; the shell fine and with a fair amount of gloss. The ground-colour a very pale, somewhat greyish green, every- where thickly, but very finely, freckled and mottled with dull, rather pale brownish and purplish red. The markings are most dense at the large end, where they form an inconspicuous, irre- gular, speckly, or freckled cap. The egg is very Meruline in its character, and measures 1*03 in length by 0*75 in width. Xests of this species found in Native Sikhim in June, at eleva- tions of 9000 to 10,000 feet, are large shallow cups, composed of * There can be little doubt, now that we know the history of these Thrushes better, that the nest really belonged to C. purpurea. — ED. 112 TUEDID^E. fine twigs or roots wound round and round, rather neatly inter- mingled with a few tendrils of creepers and more or less entirely coated externally with moss and selaginella, and in sorae cases with a few dry leaves also incorporated in the lower surface. All contained two or three eggs, and were placed on branches of large trees at heights of fronTlO to 20 feet from the ground. In one, there is a lining at the bottom of the cavity composed of the old man's beard lichen firmly matted together. The nests vary in size from 5 to 7 inches in diameter and 2 to 3 inches in height, accord- ing to the amount and extent of the mossy outer covering ; the cavity may be about 3*5 inches in diameter and 1 to 2 in depth. Subfamily CINCLTN^E. 709. Cinclus asiaticus, Swains. The Brown Dipper. Hydrohata asiatica (Swains,), Jei'd. B. Ind. i, p. 506 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ JE. no. 347. The Brown Dipper, or Water-Ouzel, breeds in all the lower stream-traversed valleys of the Himalayas, from Darjeeling to Cashmir, from almost the level of the plains up to about 6000 feet. I cannot learn that they breed higher than this, though during the summer they may be found at great elevations. Mr. W. T. Blanford correctly remarks : — " This species ranges, in the summer, as high as 12,000 feet at least, and 1 have a speci- men shot at that elevation at Yeomatong in the Lachuug Valley. I saw brown birds which I noted at the time as belonging to this species up to 14,000 feet, and I believe they were correctly identi- fied, but as I secured none, they may have been C. sordida. Towards the end of October, I saw this Dipper in the great Eangit River, not 1000 feet above the sea." This Dipper lays at very different periods, according perhaps to season and elevation. I took a nest in an affluent of the iSutlej above Kotegurh, at an elevation of something over 5000 feet, in the first week of May. I took two nests in Mandi below Drung, at an elevation of perhaps 3000 feet, on the 21st April. Captain Cock took two nests on the 12th and 20th March near Dhurum- sala, at an elevation of about 4000 feet ; but they lay earlier also, as Captain Hutton wrote to me that "on 21st December we found a pair employed in preparing a nest at Eajpore ; they had selected a hole in a rock over which fell a rapid stream serving as a screen. On the 4th of January visited the spot, and found the nest com- pleted, but no eggs laid. On the 12th January again visited it and found one egg only, but did not see its colour. On the 18th again visited the spot and found three eggs, but did not dare to take them out. A few days afterwards sent a man to take the nest, and found that some rascal had carried off the eggs." THAEEHALEUS. 113 The nests that I found in Mandee were large balls of moss, some 7 inches in diameter, wedged into clefts of moss- and fern- covered rocks — the one, half under a little cascade, the other about a foot above the water's edge in the side of a rock standing in the midst of a broad deep stream. Each nest had a circular aperture in front, about 2'5 inches in diameter ; the cavity was about 4 inches in diameter, lined with moss-roots in the one nest, and with these and a few dry leaves in the other. Each contained five eggs. Other nests that I have seen were huge globular masses of interwoven moss, nearly a foot in diameter and fully 8 inches high, something like a gigantic \Vren's nest, with a neatly worked circular aperture on one side and an internal cavity, about 4'5 inches in diameter and 3 inches high, lined with dry leaves and fern and fine moss-roots. I have never known more than five eggs in a nest. Colonel J. Biddulph remarks that this Dipper is " very common" in G-ilgit. " Appears to breed early in March, as full-fledged young were about in the middle of April." The eggs which I have obtained, not only from Mandee, but also from the neighbourhood of Simla, Almora, Dhurumsala, and Mus- soorie, are, as a rule, somewhat elongated ovals and pure white in colour, very similar to, but smaller and more elongated than, the majority of eggs of the common European Dipper. The eggs are very soft and satiny in texture, but have very little real gloss. Most of the eggs are much pointed towards the small end, but pyriform and obtuse-ended varieties occur. The eggs remind one more of those of the Barbets than of those of the true Thrushes. In length they vary from 0*9 to 1*08 inch, and in breadth from 0'65 to 0-79 inch ; but the average of twenty-two eggs measured is a trifle more than 1-0 by O72 inch. Subfamily ACCENTORIN^E. 718. Tharrhaleus strophiatus (Hodgs.). The Rufous-breasted Accentor. Accentor strophiatus, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 287 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 654. The Eufous-breasted Accentor breeds, according to Mr. Hodg- son, from May to August, on the high naked ranges of the Hima- layas, in Sikhim and Nepal. The nest is placed upon the ground, amongst tufts of sunputti grass, and is composed of grass-roots and moss lined with sheep's wool and the hairs of yaks. The nest is a hollow cup ; one measured externally 4*12 in diameter and 2'5 in height ; the cavity was 2-62 in diameter and 1-5 in depth. They lay three or four eggs, regular ovals, pure, pale, spotless sky-blue, measuring about O74 by 0'54. YOL. II. 8 114 PLOCEID^;. 719. Tharrhaleus jerdoni (Brooks). Accentor jerdoni, Brooks, Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 654 bis. Mr. Brooks obtained a nest and eggs of this species on the 6th June at Sonamerg in Cashmere. He says : — " Captain Cock says that Accentor jerdoni is ' common at Sonarnerg in Cashmere. It makes a neat cup nest in the lower boughs of some pine tree in June, and lays four beautiful blue " ' The nest is a deep cup, constructed of grass, pine-needles, and roots, and is placed on the upper surface of one of the lower boughs of the pine. The eggs are rather long ovals and sky-blue.' " Colonel Biddulph remarks : — " Common in the summer at Gilgit at elevations of 10,000 feet and upwards, where it breeds." The eggs are very regular, somewhat elongated ovals, some only slightly pointed towards the lesser end, others a good deal com- pressed there. They are of a rather more elongated form than those of Thar- rhaleus modularis^ but are of similar shape to the figure of Accentor alpinus in Hewitson's work ; the texture is smooth. The egg is without spots and of a pure bluish green, the same tint as is exhibited in the illustration of the Accentor's eggs in the above work. There is no gloss upon the egg. Seven eggs varied from 0*72 to 0*77 inch in length, and from 0-53 to 0-57 in breadth. Family PLOCEIDJE. Subfamily PLOCEIIsUE. 720. Ploceus baya, Blyth. The Baya. Ploceus baya, BL, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 343 (part.); Huine, Rouyh Draft N. $ E. no. 694 (part.). So much has been written about the nidification of the Baya, that I need scarcely add to the existing literature of the subject. 1 will first quote Dr. Jerdon's most admirable account *. Dr. Jerdon says : — " The Baya breeds during the rains, according to locality, from April to September, but I am not aware if they have more than one brood. Its long retort-shaped nest is familiar to * Dr. Jerdon's account really refers to two distinct species, P. baya and P. mcgarhynchus, which were at one time confounded together; but the nesting- habits of these two species do not appear to differ in any respect except perhaps in the situation of the nest, the Burmese bird frequently selecting the eaves of houses, whereas P. baya apparently never does this. — ED. PLOCEUS. 115 all, aiid it is indeed a marvel of skill, as elegant in its form as sub- stantial in its structure, and weatherproof against the downpour of a Malabar or Burmese monsoon. " It is very often suspended from the fronds of some lofty palm tree, either the palmyra, cocoanut, or date, but by no means so universally as Mr. Blyth would imply ; for a babool or other tree will often be selected in preference to a palm growing close by, as I have seen within a few miles from Calcutta on the banks of the canal. Very often a tree overhanging a river or tank, or even a large well, is chosen, especially, as Tickell says, if it have spreading branches and scanty foliage. In India I have never seen the Baya suspend its nest except on trees, but in some parts of Burma, and more particularly in Rangoon, the Bayas usually select the thatch of a bungalow to suspend their nests from, regardless of the inhabitants within. In the cantonment of Kan- goon very many bungalows may be seen with twenty, thirty, or more of these long nests hanging from the end of the thatched roof ; at one house in which I was an inmate a small colony commenced their labours towards the end of April, and in August, when I revisited that station, there were above one hundred nests attached all round the house ! In India, in some localities, they appear to evince a partiality to the neighbourhood of villages and dwellings ; in other places they nidificate in the most retired spots in the jungle, or in a solitary tree in the midst of some large patch of rice cultivation. " The nest is frequently made of grass of different kinds plucked when green, sometimes of strips of plan tain- leaf, and not unfre- quently of strips from the leaves of the date-palm or coacoanut ; and I have observed that nests made of this last material are smaller and less bulky than those made with grass, as if the little architects were quite aware that with such strong fibre a less amount of material was necessary. The nest varies much in the length both of the upper part or support, and the lower tube or entrance ; the support is generally solid from the point whence it is hung for 2 or 3 inches, but varies much both in length and strength. When the structure has advanced to the spot where the birds have determined the egg compartment to be, a strong transverse loop is formed, not in the exact centre but a little at one side. If then taken from the tree and reversed, the nest has the appearance of a basket with its handle, but less so in this than in the next two species, which have seldom any length of support above. Various authors, &c., described this loop or bar as peculiar to the male or setting nest, whereas it exists primarily in all, and is simply the point of separation between the real nest and the tubular entrance, and being used as a perch both by the old birds and the young (when grown sufficiently) requires to be very strong. Up to this time both sexes have worked indiscriminately ; but when this loop is completed, the female takes up her seat on it, leaving the cock bird to fetch more fibre and work from the outside of the nest whilst she works on the inside, drawing in the fibres 8* 116 PLOCEID^E. pushed through by the male, and re-inserting them in their proper place and smoothing all carefully. Considerable time is spent in completing this part of the nest, the egg-chamber being formed on one side of the loop, and the tubular entrance on the other, after which there appears to be an interval of rest. It is at this stage of the work, from the formation of the loop to the time that the egg-compartment is ready, that the lumps of clay are stuck on about which there are so many conflicting theories. The original notion, derived entirely, I believe, from the natives, was that the clay \\SLS used to stick fire-flies on to light up the apartment at night. Layard suggests that the bird uses it to sharpen its bill on ; Burgess that it serves to strengthen the nest. I, of course, quite disbelieve the fire-fly story, and doubt the other two sug- gestions. Prom an observation of several nests, the times at which the clay was placed in the nests, and the position occupied, I am inclined to think that it is used to balance the nest correctly, and to prevent its being blown about by the wind. In one nest recently examined there was about 3 ounces of clay in six different patches. It is generally believed that the unfinished nests are built by the male for his own special behoof, and that the pieces of clay are more commonly found in it than in the complete nests. I did not find this the case at Eangoon, where my opportunities of observing the bird were good, and believe rather that the un- finished nests are either rejected from some imperfect construction, weak support, or other reason, if built early in the breeding-season, or if late that they are simply the efforts of that constructive faculty which appears at this season to have such a powerful effect on this little bird, and which causes some of them to go on building the long tubular entrance long after the hen is seated on her "I have generally found that the Baya lays only two eggs, which are long, cylindrical, and pure white ; but other observers record a larger number. Sundevall states that he found three in one nest ; Layard says from two to four; Burgess six to eight; Tickell six to ten. Llyth thinks that four or five is the most usual number. From my observations I consider two to be the usual number, but have found three occasionally. In those exceptional instances where six or more eggs have been found, I imagine they must have been the produce of more than one bird. The Baya is stated not to use the same nest for two years consecutively, and this I can quite understand without having actually observed" it." I can entirely endorse this excellent account, and I would only add that sometimes in Southern India they construct the nest entirely of coir, these being the handsomest nests made by this species. With Dr. Jerdou I am perfectly convinced that two is the normal number of eggs. I have certainly examined a hundred nests and never found more than three, and only two or three times more than two. The majority of the birds lay, I believe, everywhere in August ; though Dr. Jerdon does not state it explicitly, it is, I believe, a fact that this bird alivays breeds in PLOCEUS. 117 society. I have never found less than ten nests together, and often of course there are more than ten times that number. The same nests are at times used during a second season. I have myself once or twice seen birds busy patching up old nests (the difference in the colour of the fresh grass being conspicuous), whilst others were building new ones on the same tree. Whether the same or a different colony return to do this I cannot say. In very fine nests of the ordinary type the tapering suspensory portion will reach one foot in length. The bulb will be 7 inches in length and about 5| inches in diameter one way and 4 inches the other, while the long tubular entrance that the male often goes on building after the female is sitting reaches in one specimen I have preserved to a length of 11 inches, with a diameter of barely 2 inches ; and how the birds shoot perpendicularly up these with closed wings as easily as they do without running their heads through the top of the bulb with the impetus they have acquired, and without even (apparently) shaking the nest, is marvellous. As a rule these entrance passages do not exceed 6 inches in length. The birds sit very close. One day driving out during the rains at Mynpooree, my eye was caught by a particularly fine nest hanging amongst some twenty others in a keekur tree. I made one of my people climb the tree and bring the nest carefully down, cutting the slender twig from which it was suspended. The nest was laid at the bottom of my waggonette, and on our arrival at home hung from one of the antlers of the many stags' horns that in those days adorned my dining-room. Three days later we became aware of a very unpleasant odour ; it was traced to this nest after some search, and on taking it down I found to my horror a female Baya dead upon two dead half-hatched chicks. There are not many birds that would have thus stuck to their nests and died on their eggs sooner than leave them. The late Mr. Home recorded an interesting note on the breeding of this species which I also quote : — " This morning (July 7th, 1865), as I passed our solitary palm-tree (Phoenix dactyliferci) in the field, I heard a strange twittering overhead, and, looking up, saw such a pretty sight that I shall never forget it. " In this tree hung some thirty or forty of the elegantly-formed nests of woven grass of the Baya bird so well known to all. The heavy storms of May and June had torn away many and damaged others, so as to render then, as one would think, past repair; not so thought the birds, for a party of about sixty had come to set them all in order. " The scene in the tree almost baffles description. Each bird and his mate thought only of their own nest. How they selected it I know not, and I should like much to have seen them arrive. I suppose the sharpest took the best nest, for they varied much in condition. Of some of the nests two thirds remained, whilst others were very nearly all blown away. Some of the birds attempted to steal grass from other nests, but generally got pecked away. 118 PLOCEIJ)^. " As the wind was blowing freshly the nests swung about a good deal, and it was pretty to see a little bird fly up in a great hurry with a long bit of grass in his beak. He would sit outside the nest, holding on by his claws with the grass under him. He would then put the right end into the nest with his beak, and the female inside would pull it through and put it out for him again ; and thus the plaiting of the nest went on. All this was done amidst tremendous chattering, and the birds seemed to think it great fun. When a piece was used up one would give the other a peck, and he or she would fly off for more material, the other sitting quietly till the worker returned. Nests in every stage of building afforded every position for the bird, who seemed at home in all of them. "My llth, 1865.— To-day I noticed that nearly all the nests had been repaired, and the birds were more scattered, either helping themselves to my jowar (Sorghum vulgare) in the field or collecting insects. " July 20th. — -I observed some eight or ten newly-built nests on the ground under the tree, which I believe to have been deliberately cut off from their supports by the thievish Striped Squirrels (Sciurus palmarum) for use by them in their nests. Some of these bad unbroken eggs in them. "August 18th. — Noticed to-day how the birds obtain their grass. The little bird alights at the edge of the high strong sarpat grass (Andropogon euripeta ?) with its head down, and bites through the edge to the exact thickness which it requires. It then goes higher up to the same blade of grass, and having considered the length needed bites through it again. It then seizes it firmly at the lowest notch and flies away. Of course the strip of grass tears off and stops at the notch. It then flies along with the grass streaming behind it. As the edge of the grass is much serrated, the bird has to consider and pass it through the work the right way. This serration renders it so difficult to pull a nest to pieces, and makes the same nest last for years. " In some instances the male continues to build for amusement after the nest is finished, not only elongating the tubular entrance, but also making a kind of false nest. " Before the colony ceased building there were more than seventy nests in the tree." A good deal has been written about the nidification of the Baya, which is more curious than true. One gentleman, for instance, says : — " One bird I observed com- mencing its nest from the bottom, resting it on a twig having plenty of leaves ! ! !" The notes of admiration are mine, and it is not too much, I think, to say that this gentleman ought to have used spectacles. Numbers of notes on the nidification of the Baya have been kindly sent me, some very good and full ones, but I think Dr. Jerdou's and Mr. Home's, which I have quoted, contain nearly all that need be said on the subject. PLOCEUS. 119 I add the following notes, however, as they throw light on some disputed points. Colonel Butler writes : — " The Common Weaver-bird breeds abundantly in the neigh bourhoed of Deesa during the rains, com- mencing to build its elaborate nest, which takes about a month to complete, about the middle of July. There are two nests as a rule for each pair, one with a long tubular entrance for the hen, in which the eggs are laid, the other without this tubular passage and open at the bottom, with a perch of woven grass across the lower edge for the cock bird to sit in. I have constantly found only two or three, often four or five, and once as many as nine, but I am inclined to think that when more than three or four are laid in one nest, more than one hen bird assists in laying. I once found a nest containing eleven fresh eggs. I can offer no solution as to the mud question ; to all appearances it looks most useless and unmeaning." Mr. Benjamin Aitken remarks : — " The first nest I ever took of the Common A^eaver-bird contained four young ones. This was at Satara, in the Deccan. Two, of course, is the almost invariable number of eggs laid." The eggs of this species, like those of all the others of this group with which I am acquainted, are of a pure, dead, glossless white. They vary a good deal in size and shape-, but are typically rather long ovals, a good deal pointed towards the small end. Long ovals pointed at both ends and blunt pyriform varieties are common. The eggs vary in length from 0-72 to 0-9, and from 0'52 to 0'62 in breadth ; but the average of forty eggs is OS2 by 0*59. 721. Plocens megarhynchus, Hume. The Eastern Baya. Ploceus baya, SI., Hume, Cat. no. 694 bis. Ploceus inegarhynchus, Htime, t. c. no. 694 ter. The Eastern Baya breeds from Sikhim down to Tenasserim from April to September. Mr. Gates makes the following general remarks on the nidifi- cation of this Baya in Pegu : — " The breeding-season commences in April, and from ten to fifty pairs of birds nest in company. They either select the eaves of a thatched building, frequently nesting inside the verandah itself, or the pendent branches of a thorny tree. In this latter case they seem to prefer a tree the branches of which grow over the water. The eggs are two or three in number and pure white." Mr. J. B. Cripps, writing from Eastern Bengal, says : — " Ex- cessively common, and a permanent resident, very destructive to the paddy-crops when in the ear. In the cold weather the males drop the yellow crown. Builds in all kinds of trees and at various heights from the ground. It breeds from May to August. I have on several occasions found a second nest commenced from the 120 PLOG'EID^E. bottom of the tube of an old one, the upper nest being useless as the passage is closed up. They lay from two to five eggs, and very often only a single young one is found." The eggs of this species, as might be expected, do not differ in colour and shape from those of P. laya. A large number of eggs from the Sikhim Terai measure from 0*75 to 0*92 in length, and 0-57 to 0-63 in breadth. 722. Ploceus bengalensis (Linn.). The Black-throated Weaver-bird. Ploceus bengalensis (Linn.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 349 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ JE. no. 696. I have never found the nest of the Black-throated Weaver-bird. I have shot the bird in the same localities (e. g. Sindh) as the last, but cannot tell whether it breeds in all of these. Dr. Jerdon says : — "I found it abundant near Purneah, also in Dacca, building in low bushes, in a grassy chur overflown during the rains. The nest was non-pensile, and had either no tubular entrance, or a very short one made of grass and more slightly inter- woven than either of the others. Though a good many pairs were breeding in the neighbourhood, the nests were in no instance close to each other, rarely indeed two in the same bush." Mr. J. E.. Cripps, writing from Eastern Bengal, says : — " 18th June, 1878. — Shot the pair and took the nest with one fresh egg, all of which I sent to the Editor (Str. F.) for identifica- tion. Erom the oviduct of the female another fully formed, but soft, egg was taken. In front of my house was a small river, which, at this time of the year, had several deep pools at intervals along the bed. The public road ran parallel with the river, the bank of which in one place was about 15 feet high and overlooking one of these pools of water. This sloping bank was covered with brushwood-jungle about 4 feet high, and in one of the bushes this nest was placed. Several twigs had been bent down and incorpo- rated with the roof of the nest, which had no lining. It was about 3 feet off the ground. The female flew off the nest and was shot, and the male on coming back from feeding was also shot while sit- ting on the nest. I failed to find any more of their nests ; the one found was the only nest in that clump." Mr. Henry Wenden has sent me the following note : — " On 28th August I found some eight or ten nests of this bird at Bhan- doop, sixteen miles from Bombay, in a space of marshy land (water 6 to 18 inches deep) surrounded by rice-fields. They were built on that kind of grass which looks so like young sugar-cane, the blades of which were bent down and woven into the nest. In one case a nest was supported by only four blades, in another by ten or twelve. The tops of the nest were as globular as the entrance of the several blades of grass would permit of their being. None had pensile supports, and I noticed no entrance-tube of more than PLOCEUS. 2| inches in length. Two nests each contained three eggs, one clutch being fresh and the other well incubated ; another nest had one egg. " As regards material and the way it is woven, the nests are similar to those of P. bay a, nor can I perceive any difference in size, colour, or shape of the eggs unless it is that those of P. ben- r/alensis are slightly more pointed at the smaller end." The eggs are similar to those of the other allied Weaver-birds, and measure from 0*79 to O85 in length by 0'55 to 0*6 in breadth. 723. Plocens manyar (Horsf.). The Striated Weaver-bird. Ploceus manyar (Sorsf\ Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 348 ; Hume, Hough Ih-aft N. $ E. no. 695. The Striated Weaver-bird, which Dr. Jerdon says does not occur in the North-West Provinces, is pretty common in suitable locali- ties throughout the Indian Empire, except perhaps in the southern portion of the Indian Peninsula. It is, however, only where large pieces of water, or rivers whose banks are fringed with reed and rush, occur that it breeds. There are places in the Etawah and Mynpooree Districts, and again in Sindh, arid as these localities as a whole are, where nevertheless, finding suitable rushy, reedy cover, it breeds in great numbers. In one dhand in Upper Sindh I found nearly one hundred old nests in a small bulrush island not 20 yards in diameter. They lay throughout Upper India in August and September. The nests much resemble those of P. baya. They are formed of the same materials and woven in the same manner, but the upper or body portions are more massive and clumsier, and the tubes are shorter. The points of some forty or fifty narrow bulrush-leaves are commonly gathered together and incorporated into the upper portion of the nest to form a point of suspension. The true nest, exclusive of the tubular or entrance-pas- sage, averages about 7| inches in length externally, with a diameter of 5 inches one way by 4 inches the other. The tube is from 2 to 4 inches in length and about 2| inches external diameter. The upper portion of the nest may be about 1J inch thick, but the sides ave- rage about half an inch, and the entrance-passage is scarcely one fourth of an inch thick. What gives the nest a clumsy appearance is that the upper end of the nest terminates squarely instead of tapering more or less to a point, as is almost always the case in those of P. baya : but then the nests of these latter are hung from one point of support, and not, as in this species, from a whole clump or cluster of supports. In outline, seen from one point of view, these nests are like a very short-handled meat-chopper, the tubular entrance standing for the handle. They lay usually two or three eggs, quite as often three as two ; but I myself have never taken more. From Etawah Mr. Brooks writes:—" On the 28th August, ] 869, 122 PLOCEID.E. I found a nest belonging to a pair of these birds. It was built among some high reeds or bulrushes which fringed one of the tanks at the side of the railway at Jheenjuck Jheel. The nest was fixed to two or three of the reeds near their summits, and was shaped like that of P. bay a, but not so long, and as yet there was no lower tubular entrance. A former nest had been built and abandoned, as a colony of black ants had taken possession of it. When I found the second nest the birds were busy building it, and it was nearly finished. As yet no eggs had been laid." Again, " On the 4th September, 1869, I found many nests in different reed-beds of Jheenjuck Jheel. Several pairs had young, but out of one nest I obtained three tolerably fresh eggs, which precisely resemble those of P. bai/a both in size, shape, and colour. Many of the nests found to-day had very long tubular entrances, longer even than the longest I have seen of P. bay a. The body of the nest appears, however, to be generally smaller. Several of the reeds are drawn together, and from this junction the nest hangs." Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall says that tbis species " breeds com- monly in the grass along the banks of the Ganges Canal in the Aligurh, Mynpooree, and Cawnpoor Districts. It is a gregarious breeder, and the nests are found in numbers together, though same what local. Tbe eggs are pure white ; the nest is square- topped, woven into the reeds or grass." Dr. Jerdon states that this species " invariably breeds among high reeds, and usually in places liable to be inundated ; and as the breeding-season is during the rains, the nest is thus unassail- able except from the water. The nest is fixed to two or three reeds not far from their summit, and the upper leaves are occasionally turned down and used in the construction of the nest, which is, in . all cases that I have seen, made of grass only. The nest is non- pensile, that is to say it is fixed directly to the reeds without the upper pensile support that the nest of the last species has ; and in some cases the eggs are laid before any tubular entrance is made, a hole at the side near the top forming the entrance. This, however, is often, but not always, completed daring the incubation of the female ; and in other cases a short tubular entrance is made at first — in a very few prolonged to a foot or more. I have found the eggs in this case, as in the last, to be generally two in number, three in a few, and in one nest I found five." Major C. T. Birigharn remarks : — " Breeds in numbers at Delhi in the long grass on the banks of the Jumna from July to September. In one patch of grass occupying about one hundred square yards I found on the 5th September thirty-one nests of this bird ; some with full-fledged young, some with fresh eggs, and others in course of construction only. Four was the greatest number of young or eggs I found in any one nest, but the majority contained three eggs or young ones. Although there was a tree in the centre of the grass, none of the nests were attached to it, all depending from the tops of the surpat clumps. " One nest I cut down and carefully measured was constructed FLOCEUS. 123 of fine strips of the grass woven into a hollow egg, the long dia- meter of which measured 8 inches and the short 5 inches. From the centre of the hollow was the passage, measuring 18 inches in length by 2 inches in diameter, and hanging downwards ; where this opened into the inside of the nest there was built a little wall of the same material, extending inside from side to side, so as to effectually guard the eggs from being thrown out even in a high wind." Colonel Butler has furnished me with the following note: — "I found any number of nests of the Striated Weaver-bird at Milana, eighteen miles east of Deesa, in August and September, 1876. As a rule, they are fastened to reeds or bushes growing in the water, by the sides of. tanks, open wells, or marshy ground, but at the same time it is not unusual to find them in high surpat grass out in the open country at some distance (a half mile or more) from water. They also often build in long grass overhanging ditches or small streams, and I have occasionally found a colony building in low thorny bushes and trees (mimosa, &c.) overhanging the water. The nests were almost exactly similar to those of P. baya, except that they are slightly smaller, and in some instances the tubular entrance is of immense length. There is one thing very remark- able about this species, and that is a peculiar habit they have of cementing yellow flowers (generally mimosa) to the nest with cow- dung. The lower edge of the cock bird's nest is almost invariably thus decorated. The eggs are, of course, pure white and almost exactly like the eggs of P. baya, but perhaps slightly smaller. The cock bird is wonderfully attentive to the repairs of the nest, and may be seen, even when the young are hatched, flying back- wards and forwards constantly with long strips of grass in his beak to execute repairs. I have not mentioned dates, as the nests were so numerous, but I may add that they commence to lay about the first or second week in August and continue laying all through September. They generally breed in small colonies, but single nests are not uncommon." And again he wrote to me from Sindh : — "The Striated Weaver- bird breeds in Sindh in June, July, August, and probably in September also ; and I have occasionally seen nests of P. baya, P. bengalensis, and P. manyar in the same tree ; however, as a rule, I believe they breed separately. When I visited the E. Narra, Sindh, at the end of July 1878, I had an excellent opportunity of studying their breeding-habits, and I noticed that, although the nests were extremely plentiful all along the banks of the canals, there were seldom more than half a dozen in one group, and, although we travelled over many miles of country and occasionally saw the other two species (P. baya and P. bengalensis), still we never observed them in that district breeding in company with 'P. manyar, although very likely they do. The nests, which are usually built in tussocks of grass, by the side, or growing out of, the water, or in low trees or bushes standing in or growing by the side of the water, are of the usual Weaver-bird type, excepting perhaps 124 PLOCEID.E. that the tubular entrances are shorter than in some of the other species (none of those I saw exceeded about | or 1 foot). "The normal number of eggs, I believe, is two, although we often found more in a nest. I observed nests occasionally in standing crops, attached to the tops of the jowaree stalks." Captain Horace Terry observes : — " Between the fourteenth and fifteenth milestone from Bangalore, on the Madras road, there is a sort of jheel on one side of the road, which serves as a bund to the Oscottah-tank on the other side. Here in the end of August 1882 I found P. manyar breeding in large numbers. The nests are attached to reeds and bulrushes growing invariably where the water was 4 or 5 feet deep. I inspected all the nests I could, but could find no eggs. They were all either new nests or contained young birds. Several P. baya were breeding close by, their nests being attached mostly to babul or cocoanut trees. " I visited the same place in July 1883, and obtained several eggs." Mr. J. E. Cripps tells us that at Furreedpore, in Eastern Bengal, the Striated Weaver-bird is " very common. I cannot say whether this species is a permanent resident or not. At the com- mencement of May I have first noticed the Black-breasted Weaver- bird and this species, frequenting the grassy churs of the district. At the beginning of July the birds of this species commence to build their nests in small colonies, on the long grass clumps and bushes, wherever these latter are standing in water. The nest is quite distinct from that of P. baya, for which it can never be mis- taken. It is a shorter and thicker nest than that of P. baya, built of the same materials, and generally with only an apology of a tube. The eggs are laid in July and August, and are from two to five in each nest. Lastly, Mr. Gates remarks of Pegu in general: — " Commences to breed rather later than P. mec/arhync7ius ; in fact it waits till the elephant- grass, to which its nest is invariably attached, is high and green, which does not take place till the rains are well in." The eggs of this species seem to average slightly smaller than those of P. baya, but in every other respect they are precisely similar — moderately broad ovals, a good deal pointed at one end, and of a perfectly pure, almost entirely glossless, white. The tex- ture is very fine and compact, and the shells, though thin, are firm and strong. In length the eggs vary from O71 to O88, and in breadth from 0-5 to 0-6 ; but the average is about 0-8 by 0'58. 724. Ploceella javanensis (Less.). The Golden Weaver-bird. Ploceus hypoxanthus (Daud.}, Hume, Rough Draft N. & E no. 696 ter. The Golden Weaver-bird breeds abundantly throughout Lower Pegu. PLOCEELLA. 125 Dr. Jerdon only tells us that it is " frequent in swampy ground near the mouth of the Rangoon Biver, where I also found its nest, solitary, in a thick thorny bush very similar to that of P. benyalensis." "Writing from the Pegu Plains in the neighbourhood of Wau, Mr. Gates remarks : — " This species breeds very abundantly in this neighbourhood ; on the 25th of July I took a great number of the nests and found that most of them contained two eggs, but some few of them only one. The greater number of the eggs were much incubated. " The nest is placed about 5 feet from the ground, invariably supported from below, and not hanging as is the case with the nests of other AVeaver-birds. It is securely fastened to several stems and leaves of a large species of grass, or to the branches of some strong weed. In the compound of the bungalow at Kyeik- padien I found no fewer than four nests in a patch of weeds near the entrance. " The nest is cylindrical, about 6 inches high and 4 inches in diameter externally, composed entirely of grasses, woven on the outside in a very clumsy manner, the whole exterior presenting a series of loops and sharp angles. The interior is formed of fine grass, nicely curved to the shape of the nest and perfectly smooth. The flowering ends of these fine grasses are in some nests brought forward so as to form a ring, through which the bird enters the nest. The entrance is at various heights, sometimes in the middle and sometimes quite at the top of the nest. It is about an inch in diameter. " The colour of the eggs is very variable. The ground of some is white, the whole egg sprinkled with minute dots of pale brown. Of some the ground-colour is greenish white, profusely speckled with greenish brown, the specks having a tendency to form a ring round the larger end. Others are pale purplish grey, covered with a profusion of darker specks and spots of the same colour spread evenly over the egg and coalescing in places. Others are of a somewhat olivaceous tint, some without a single mark, while others have a few very indistinct lines and clouded spots at the thick end. In fact, from the examination of a large series, it appears that hardly any two eggs are alike. In one nest the two eggs were as different from each other as two eggs could well be ; but as a rule the eggs out of the same nest bear a close resemblance to each other." The nests and eggs, of which Mr. Oates has sent me a large series, are very correctly described by him ; certainly the eggs are utterly unlike those of any of our other Indian Weaver-birds or Munias, and approximate to those of the House-Sparrow. Not only are they not pure plain dead white, but the shells are very smooth and fine and have a decided though not brilliant gloss. The ground-colour is white, greenish or greyish white, a delicate dove-grey, or pale purplish stone- colour ; and while one or two of the latter colour are quite free from markings, the great majority 126 PLOCEIDJB. are some thinly, some thickly, speckled and finely freckled with pale greyish, greenish, or purplish neutral tint. The markings, except an occasional black hair-line, are, in at least two thirds of the eggs, so minute that, looked at from a dis- tance of a couple of feet, the eggs appear to be of one uniform grey, some darker, some lighter, some with a sepia tinge, some with a slight brown tinge, some with the faintest possible purple shade, some greenish ; but a grey stone-colour is the prevailing tint of a large body of eggs, amongst which perhaps one in twenty or thirty is pure white with only a few brown specks scattered here and there, and a good many, perhaps one in ten, are a very pale grey, which look white amongst the darker varieties, though when placed beside a white egg they are distinctly grey. A certain number of the eggs are distinctly freckled and mottled and spotted when looked into, but these mottlings are very inconspicuous as a rule. Only on about one egg in six or seven, one or at most two black hair-lines of the Bunting type may be traced. In shape the eggs appear to be normally somewhat elongated though very regular ovals, but somewhat broader varieties, slightly pointed or compressed towards one end, occur. In length the eggs vary from 0*68 to 0'78, and in breadth from 0'52 to 0*58 ; but the average is about 0-73 nearly by 0'54. Subfamily VIDUIN.E. 725. Munia malacca (Linn.). The Black-headed Munia. Munia malacca (Linn.'), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 352 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. 8f E. no. G97. The Black-headed Muuia breeds throughout Central and Southern India and Ceylon. Mr. A. G. R. Theobald writes : — " I found the nests near Pothanore, in the Coimbatore District, during the latter half of October. They were placed amongst reeds growing in a small pond ; they were round, with a round hole in one side for an entrance, and were composed of dry reeds and leaves of some flag-leaved grass very like those of the cholum (Sorghum vulgare). The lining was composed of the hair-like filaments from the broom- grass of this country. Seven is, I think, the full complement of eggs ; I never found more in any one nest." Dr. Jerdon states that " the nest is usually placed among reeds in tanks or in the beds of rivers ; occasionally in long grass in the bunds of paddy-fields. It is a rather large, nearly round or oval nest, neatly but loosely made of grass, with the hole at one side, this is general being very artfully concealed by the interlacing of the fibres of grass, so that I have been puzzled for a few moments MUNI A. 127 to discover the entrance, and the eggs, four to six in number, are pure white." Mr. F. E. Blewitt says : — " On the 19th July we were encamped in the open forest country in the immediate neighbourhood of the western side of the hill-ranges (branches of the great Vindhyian group) lying in the extreme eastern section of the Bhundara District. * " In a sugar-cane field not far distant from our camp we found five unfinished, and one all but complete, nest, containing a single egg, of the Black-headed Munia. The parent birds were shot while busily engaged in finishing off the entrance of the nest. " This latter was nearly globular, a mass of coarse grass lined with somewhat finer grass, between 6 and 7 inches in diameter. It was more loosely constructed than those of Estrelda fornwsa, several of which we had found in a similar locality, about a mile distant, two days previously. Both this nest and the other un- finished ones were placed amongst, and attached to the cane-leaves, precisely after the fashion of the Green Amaduvat. " I may note that again in another similar field, about half a mile distant, we found Munia atricctpilla busy constructing its nest, two of which were finished, but none of them contained Colonel Butler writes the following notes on the breeding of this bird near Belgauni : — " Belyaum, 1st August, 1879. — A nest containing six pure white fresh eggs. It consisted of an immense ball of dry grass, coarse exteriorly, fine interiorly and round the entrance, which consisted of a small hole in the centre of the nest upon one side, the whole structure being about the size of a child's bead, and was built in the centre of a sugar-cane field, suspended from the tops of the sugar-cane, and not supported from below as is usually the case with the nest of Munias. The sugar-cane was very tall and dense, and the nest, although a large one, well concealed, and pro- bably it would have escaped notice altogether had I not observed the old birds passing backwards and forwards with grass in their mouths in the act of building. " 21st August, 1879. — Later on in August I found several half- finished nests in sugar-cane, the thickest part of the crop being usually selected, all of which were supported by and fixed in the upper blades of the plant, so that I am inclined to think that the nest found on the 1st August had been blown on one side by the wind, which would account for its being found suspended. " On the 12th September, 1879, I found four or five more nests in the same neighbourhood in a sugar-cane field, within a few yards of each other, containing from five to six eggs each, more or less incubated, with the exception of one which contained a single fresh egg. One nest had been blown down by the wind and was hanging upside down about a foot below where it was originally built, but the old bird had not forsaken it and was sitting upon five eggs about to hatch. The nests were all precisely similar, 128 PLOCEIDA\ differing only from the one already described in being densely lined with a species of fine green flowering grass, many of the flowering stalks of which protruded round the entrance, the ex- terior being composed of coarse broadish blades of dry reeds. They were all built about the same height, near the top of the sugar- cane about 7 feet from the ground, and, as a rule, where the sugar-cane was highest and most dense. " On the 14th September, 1879, I explored fresh sugar-cane fields and found several more nests, some building, some with fresh eggs, and one with two young ones and three eggs about to hatch. Some of them were quite low down, not more than 2 feet from the ground, and in a few instances built in open situations where the sugar-cane was short and thin. " On the 17th of the same month, I spent another morning in sugar-cane fields, finding several more nests, some building, others containing either fresh hard-set eggs or young ones. No nests contained more than six eggs, and many only five, and as a rule the nests were solitary. " 12th September, 1880. — Numerous nests again this year in every sugar-cane field about Belgaum, between the middle of August and middle of September. Eggs six to seven in number. " 17th September, 1880. — Many more nests, containing some fresh, some hard-set eggs, and some young ones. No nests con- tained more than six eggs, and many only five." Captain Horace Terry tells us that on the Pulney hills this species is fairly common. " I found a new nest at Pittur in April, but got no eggs." Colonel Legge writes that this species breeds in Ceylon from May to August. The eggs of this species, which I owe to Messrs. Carter, Theo- bald, Butler, and others, are of the usual Munia type — dull, pure white, somewhat elongated oval eggs ; there is nothing that I can see to distinguish them from those of M. punctulata and M. mala- barica, except perhaps that elongated varieties are more common amongst them. In length the eggs vary from 0*6 to 0'72 inch, and in breadth from 0-44 to 0'5 ; but the average is 0-64 by 0'47 *. * MUNIA ORYZIYORA (Linn.). The Java Sparrow. Padda oryzivora (Linn.\ Hume, Rough Draft N. <$f E. no. 703 bis. This species, the well-known Java Sparrow, a native of that island, but now naturalized in Mauritius, Ceylon, and other places, has naturalized itself also in the neighbourhood of Mac7ras, whence I have had many specimens, killed wild, as well as the eggs sent me by ray friend the late Captain Mitchell. He " found a nest near Madras in August, containing five eggs. It was placed like a Munia's, in a thorny bush, 7 or 8 feet from the ground. The nest was globular and very large, chiefly composed of fine grass, but with a few broad- bladed leaves of millet intertwined. The entrance small, circular, and lateral." The eggs were very regular ovals, pure, glossless white, and varied from 0'7 to O75 inch in length, and were (all the three he sent me) 0'55 in breadth. MUNI A. 129 726. Munia atricapilla (Vieill.). The Chestnut-bellied Munia. Munia rubronigra, Hodys., Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 353. Munia atricapilla ( Vieill.), Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 698. According to Mr. Hodgson, the Chestnut-bellied Munia breeds in the lower valleys and cultivated plains of Nepal in open jungle or brushwood, forming a large globular nest in the midst of bamboos, thick bushes or grass, on or close to the ground, com- posed of dry grass or straw loosely twisted together, and lined with finer rice-straw. It lays from June to August four to six small, oval, pure white eggs. Dr. Jerdon says : — " According to Mr. Frith the nest is ordi- narily placed in a babool tree in Lower Bengal, solitarily, and is composed of a large ball of the tufts of Saccharum spontaneum. I have always found its nest fixed to reeds or long grass, and suspect that Mr. Frith must have been mistaken in the identity of the owner of the nest above noticed, the more so because that is ex- actly the character, both as to materials and site, of the nest of the next species (punctulata) noticed." Since the Rough Draft of this work was published, I have myself taken several nests in the Calcutta Botanical Gardens ; and Mr. J. C. Parker has taken many more in the same place and has furnished me with numerous notes on the nidification of this species. He says : — " I found a nest of the Chestnut-bellied Munia in the Calcutta Botanical Gardens on the 27th of July, 1874. The nest was fixed as described by Dr. Jerdon, to the stems of long grass near the top, and was a very conspicuous object, easily to be seen a long way off. The bird was on the nest, but the eggs were quite fresh, and though there were only five it is quite possible that had I waited more would have been laid." Again he writes : — " On the 13th July, 1875, 1 took a nest with six eggs, and on the 20th August another with five eggs, of Munia atricapilla in the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta. This year the birds could not breed in the long grass, owing to the fact of there being none to build in, a thorough reform in the garden arrangements having been carried out this year. The two nests were placed, one on a species of prickly date-palm, the other on another species of palm about six feet high, an Oreodoxa 1 think. " I could easily have procured the bird in the first nest (as she allowed me to approach within a few inches of the entrance), but I was prevented from doing so by the number and size of the terrible needle-like thorns that protected the nest on every side — a perfect forest of bayonets." Lastly, he says : — " I went over on Monday, the 29th September, 1875, to the Gardens, and I was rewarded by another nest and three eggs of Munia atricapilla. The nest was in a young pine- tree, forming one of the same avenue (leading to the great Banian) TOL. II. 9 130 PLOCEIDJE. as that from which I took the last batch of five eggs. I would not have taken this nest had 1 known there were only three eggs, but as it was placed on the highest fork of the tree, a lad had to get up and bring it down, although the tree was only some 12 feet high." Dr. Scully remarks : — " This Munia is common in the central part of the Nepal Valley from the end of May to October, fre- quenting rice-fields and gardens. A nest taken on the 13th July in the Residency grounds was placed in a thorny hedge ; it was a large globular structure with a trumpet-shaped entrance at one side ; it contained five white eggs, slightly set." Mr. Davison, writing from Mergui on the 21st June, 1875, re- marks : — " In a dense tangled mass of swamp-grass and screw- pine I found, on the 20th June, a nest of the Chestnut-bellied Munia. The nest was most ingeniously woven in with the sur- rounding grass-stems so as to be entirely concealed, and I should certainly not have found it had I not seen the birds (for there were two of them) fly out. " The nest is a ball of coarse swamp-grass and rush, roughly and loosely woven, measuring about 7 inches in diameter. The entrance, which is at one side, measures 2-5 inches in diameter. " Most of the material composing the outer portion of the nest is still green; the egg-cavity is lined with dry grass, which is finer than that on the outside of the nest. " Comparing the nest with one of U. acuticauda, there are many differences to be noted. It is somewhat larger than that of Hodgson's Munia, more globular, composed both externally and internally of coarser material, and notably it wants the projecting neck of fine grass-stems which one almost invariably finds not only in the nest of U. acuticauda but also in that of other species of the genus. " The nest contained two eggs, of course pure white, but more elongated and conspicuously larger than any of the eggs of U. acuticauda that I took the same day. "This is evidently the second nest of the season, there being numbers of young about which evidently have not very long left the nest. " The species appears to be only a seasonal visitant to Mergui, where it goes to breed. "When I worked in Mergui and its vicinity in November, 1 met with none of this species, but in May, on my return from the southernmost portion of the Province, 1 found the bird not uncommon about the swamps and paddy-flats in small parties, usually consisting of a couple of adults and three or four young." Finally, Mr. Gates says, writing from Pegu : — " The nests and eggs of this bird may be found at all times from the ]5th June to the end of September. Six appears to be the maximum number of eggs laid. " The nest is placed in dense elephant-grass, attached to two or three stems at a height of four or five feet from the ground. Pre- TTEOLOXCIIA. 131 ferentially they select very swampy land. The nest is a loose mass of grass, spherical, cylindrical, or heart-shaped. The inside is lined with finer grass, the following ends being brought foruard to the entrance, which is small and difficult to find. The eggs are without gloss, pure white. They measure from 0-54 to 0*69 in length, and from (HI to 0'48 in breadth, the average of sixteen eggs being 0-61 by 0-45." A nest which I took on the 15th August was a large glo- bular structure, about 8 inches long, 6| high, 5 broad, the lower surface flat or nearly so, the upper domed, and with a large oval aperture, some 2J inches high and 1| broad, at one end. The nest was composed entirely of grass, rather sol'dly put together, and had no lining. On the external surface some coarse blades and pieces of flower-steins, with the fluffy seeds attached, had been used, but the greater portion of the nest consisted entirely of moderately fine grass-stems. The chamber was about 5J inches long, nearly 2| inches wide throughout, and nearly 3| high in its highest central portion. The eggs are very regular elongated ovals, pure white and gloss- less, and only vary from O58 to 0-68 inch in length, and from O4 to O47 in breadth. 7'27. TJroloncha acuticanda (Hodgs.). Hodgson's Munia. Munia acuticauda, Hodgs., Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 356 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 702. This species, which we may term Hodgson's Munia, the trivial name applied to it by Dr. Jerdon — the Himalayan Munia — being singularly inappropriate, breeds within our limits throughout the Himalayas east of the Ganges, at all elevations up to 5000 feet, throughout Assam, Cachar, Tipperah, Eastern Burma, and Tenas- serim, in all well-wooded, undulating, or hilly localities. Speaking of this species, J/. atricapitta, and U. punctulata, Mr. Hodgson remarks that " these species are solitary in regard to nidification, but after the breeding-season they are ail gregarious in a greater or less degree. They are exclusively graminivorous, feeding on hard grass-seeds or ceralia, according as one or the other are procurable ; and they fix their large globular nests either among the spiny leaves of the palm trees or the thick interlaced branches of the lesser bamboos, but there is no weaving or sewing employed in the structure of the nest : it is merely a large ball laid against or upon naturally-blended branches of stiff leaves, and having a small round entrance either on the side or at top. The eggs are many, and in M. atricajrilla are of a bluish-white colour. These birds are easily tamed and caged, but they have no song. •' The whole species are migratory, appearing in June and departing in November. Many of them breed in my grounds, and are solitary so far as I have observed. The nest is composed of grass, fibres, or leaves of Pinus longifolia, and is usually con- structed in the midst of clumps of small bamboo or of the dog- 9* 132 PLOCEID^E. rose. The male and female labour at the work with equal assiduity, and share equally the task of rearing the young." Writing from Sikhira, Mr. Grammie says: — "A nest taken out of a small tree some ten feet from the ground in the valley of the Kyang, about 2500 feet above the level of the sea, on the 20th June, contained six hard-set eggs. For so diminutive a bird the nest is enormous ; externally it is fully 5 inches in diameter and 7 inches in height, and even the egg-cavity was nearly 6 inches deep and more than 2 inches in diameter inside, but the actual entrance was of course much smaller. It is entirely composed of grass, the basal portion and the exterior at the back, where it was wedged against the stem of the tree, of very coarse and rough grass, much of it broad-bladed, the upper portion and the whole of the interior of very fine grass." Later, he remarked : — " This Munia lays between the middle of June and the middle of August, at elevations of from 2000 to 4000 feet. It builds from 6 to 20 feet from the ground, in open country, in shrubs and small trees. The nest is globular, entirely made of the grass-panicles from which the seeds have dropped, intermixed with a few bamboo-leaves, and measures externally about 6 inches in height by the same in width, while the cavity is about 3 inches in diameter by the same in depth from lower edge of entrance. The entrance is in the side, close to the top, with a quantity of the grass of which the nest is made projecting over it. The eggs are white, and five or six in number. " This bird is much disliked by the natives, on account of the large quantities of rice it consumes. I have seen a flock of twenty or thirty clinging to a single head of flowering grass, when they appear, from a little distance, more like a swarm of bees than a flock of birds. " My bird-skinner came back from Ohola, but with very little, and nothing of any consequence. About ten days ago (16th November) I saw the young of U. acuticauda only half-fledged. I asked myself how it is that the young of this bird is hatched so much later in the year than all the other birds about here ; and it struck me that the parents had sense enough not to have their young hatched until the rice (on which they chiefly feed) was ripe, so that they could, with the minimum of trouble, feed their brood. In the same way the Hornbill places its nest near or in fruit-trees, and contrives to hatch its young when the fruit of those trees is ripe, with which the male can easily feed the female and young. The time of the most abundant supply of food appears to me to have more influence on the nesting-time than has the season of the year. The same principle, in a kind of way, partly applies to human beings : for instance, in Kent and Sussex, the * hopping-time,' when there is most money about, decides the time for marrying of many of the working-people of those counties." Dr. Jerdon says : — " Its nest is of the usual structure, large, and loosely made of fine grass, and there are generally five or six white eggs. I found it far from rare on the Khasia Hills." UEOLONCHA. 133 Mr. Irwin, \vho took a nest of this species in the Tipperah Hills in June, described it as composed of fine grass-stems placed in a half-open hole in a low bank. It contained tive eggs nearly- hatched. Mr. W. Duvison, writing from Mergui, says : — " This species is either a very irregular breeder or it has several broods during the year. In November it was not only breeding, but there were many fully-fledged young abroad, usually in small parties without any admixture of adults; and now, in June, there are still young to be found that have not long left the nest, and nests are to be found containing eggs, both fresh and hard-set, while other nests are in course of construction. " The species is very plentiful and breeds freely, resorting to gardens or low secondary scrub for the purpose, and never, to my knowledge, to grass or rushes. " Usually the nest is placed at a moderate elevation in some bush — a thorny one, by preference. " On the 20th June I took a nest with five fresh eggs from a small citron-tree. It was rather compactly put together, com- posed on the outside of dead leaves and coarse grass, and thickly lined with fine flowering grass-stems, the ends of which projected beyond the entrance, forming a short neck. " The nest measured about 9*5 inches along its major axis and about 5'5 along its minor axis." The eggs of this species are elongated ovals, pure white and glossless, undistinguishable from those of other nearly allied species. They vary in length from 0-54 to 0-68, and in breadth from O4 to 0'45 ; but the average of forty-three eggs is 0-61 by 0'42. 728. Uroloncha striata (Linn.). The White-backed Munia. Munia striata (Xtim.), Jerd. 1$. Ind. ii, p. 356 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 701. The breeding-season of the White-backed Munia varies appa- rently very much according to locality. In the Nilghiris they appear to lay in July and August. From Tercand a nest was sent me, taken on the 28th September, containing six eggs. Near Eaipoor nests were taken in January, and in Manbhoom in April. 1 have never taken the nest myself, and, though several have been sent me, they are not structures that, as a rule, bear carriage well. A nest secured by Mr. F. R. Blewitt in the neighbourhood of Raipoor on the 2nd January was a very large, loose, partially domed, oval-shaped structure, composed interiorly of very fine grass-stems, exteriorly of coarser grass largely intermingled with dry bamboo-leaves. Exteriorly the nest was about 8 inches in height and 5 inches in diameter. The cavity, the aperture of which was a little on one side and nearly at the top, was nearly 5 inches deep and about 3 inches in diameter. The nest was very 134 PLOCEID^E. loosely and coarsely put together. It was placed on a branch of a karounda (Oarissa carounda) bush, about 5 feet high, growing on the bank of a nullah. Mr. E. Aitken writes : — " I once found a nest of this Munia in Bombay, about 12 feet from the ground, I think, in a small tree. I took no note of it at the time, but I recollect that they had two young ones flying about with them soon after. Perhaps, how- ever, some particulars of a pair that bred in a cage may be useful. The nest was a darkened compartment, which they filled with fine grass which 1 gave them. 1 could not watch their operations too closely, for fear of frightening them; but I took some notes. Pirst, they laid an egg with a soft shell, and broke it ; so I supplied them with chalk and old egg-shells, and they began again. This time I thought the female laid three eggs ; but only two young were forthcoming, and if she had another egg they must have disposed of it themselves. I supplied them with bread and yolk of egg, with which the male assiduously fed the female all the time of incubation and for ten days after the young were hatched. During these ten days I only saw the female twice. After that they shared the duty of feeding their offspring between them. The eggs were undistinguishable from those of M. mala- barica" Miss M. B. Cockburn tells us that "the White- backed Munia is not a resident on the Nilghiris, but accompanies the Amaduvads and Spotted Munias in their migrations, and is generally met with in their company, except in the breeding-season, when they are seen alone and in pairs. They are not numerous and are very shy, never approaching any house. In this respect they are quite unlike the Spotted Munia, whose unceremoniousness endears him to us. " The White-backed Munia's nest resembles that of the Spotted Munia, being a large accumulation of grass with a small opening at one side. Nothing warm is used as a lining. The nests are found in July, and contain six or eight pure white eggs." The late Captain Beavan stated that at Manbhoom " a nest of this species (like that of M. malacca, and as described by Dr. Jerdon), containing only three eggs, was brought to me on the 3rd April." Dr. Jerdon himself tells us : — " In Malabar it is a familiar bird, being constantly seen on the roadside, about houses, and in stable- yards, and it builds in gardens and orchards, solitarily, making a large loosely-construded nest of grass, and laying four or five white eggs during the rains." Mr. J. Darling, Jun., remarks : — " This bird breeds very com- monly up in the Wynaad. Builds a nest of grass, put together in a ball-shape, with a hole in the side ; it builds in all sorts of situa- tions, but is especially fond of building in the parasitic plants on * gooseberry-trees.' They lay from four to eight eggs. I have found nests from April to June, and also in November and December." UROLONCHA. 135 Mr. Yidal, writing of the S. Konkan, says : — " Common every- where in gardens and jungles. I have found numbers of old nests used as roosting-places, but have never succeeded in getting any eggs." In Ceylon, according to Colonel Legge, these Munias appear to be constantly nesting. The eggs which 1 have from Tercand in Southern India, Raipoor, and other places are precisely similar in appearance to many eggs of Uroloncha punctulata, U. malabarica, &c. They are regular, somewhat elongated, little ovals, very pure white and perfectly devoid of gloss. They vary in length from 0-55 to 0'65, and in breadth from 0-42 to O47 ; but the average of ten eggs is 0-61 by 0*44. 730. Uroloncha fumigata (Walden). The Andaman White-backed Munici. Amadina fumigata, Wald., Hume, Cat. no. 701 ter. Of this Andaman race, Mr. Davison says : — " They must breed very early, or rather, perhaps I should say, late ; for when I arrived at the Andamans in December the young had left the nests. Several old nests that I found were large globular struc- tures made of grass, with the entrance placed at one side and drawn out into a short neck — in fact, very similar to those of S. amandava."" 731. Uroloncha leucogastra (Bl.). The White-bellied Amadina leucogastra {Blyth\ Hume, Cat. no. 701 bis. Mr. Davison writes from Tenasserim : — " On the 25th of April last I took a nest of this species in dense forest between Malawoon and Bankasoon, and about six miles from the nearest open ground. " The nest was a globular structure about 7 inches long by about 6 wide at the broadest part, and was composed of dry grass and bamboo-leaves, and lined with finer grass-steins and a few fibres, and placed in the fork of a sapling about seven feet from the ground. Ic contained a single white egg, similar to that of U. acuticauda" Some eggs subsequently obtained are somewhat elongated ovals, at times very markedly so. Generally they are rather regular ovals, but some of the broader types are slightly compressed towards the small end. The shell is very fine, and apparently fragile, but pretty strong all the same. It is entirely devoid of gloss ; the colour is snow-white. Five eggs measured from O'O to 0-69 in length, and from 0-42 to 0-46 in breadth. 136 PLOCEIUjE. 732. Uroloncha pectoralis (Jerd.). The Rufous-bellied Munia. Munia pectoralis (Jerd.}, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 355 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 700. I know nothing of the nidification of this species, but Miss Cockburn says they are summer visitants to the slopes of the Nilghiris about Kotagherry. She adds: — ''These little birds build in July, and, like all of this species, construct a large nest. Many of them build in the eaves of a coffee-storehouse, which was thatched, attaching their nests to the thatch so far in as almost to be hid. They lay six or eight pure white eggs." She has sent me a specimen of the bird ; so that it is certain that she has not wrongly identified the species. Miss Cockburn afterwards kindly sent me the following addi- tional note, with a nest : — " The nest of this bird was found at a coffee estate, about 8000 feet of elevation. " The situation chosen was a large tree in front of the coffee godown, on a hill-side. The nest was built on one of the large outer branches, slightly concealed among the leaves, at the height of about twenty feet. The shape was perfectly round, about 7 or 8 inches in diameter. It had been commenced with long dried roots, to which was added the long leaves of a reed which grows near water. These leaves are from 3 to 4 inches long and 1 inch broad. A large quantity of fine, soft, downy grass-seed ears were accumulated, forming a completely round nest, with a small hole at one side ; no lining. The number of eggs, 8 or 10. Only one brood is reared here, during the two or three months these birds remain here." Mr. F. W. Bourclillon writes of this bird in the Travancore Hills : — " Another common species, residing on the hills all the year round. It is gregarious in habit, and feeds on grass and other small seeds. The nest is a large loose construction of fine creeping-grass, with perhaps a few feathers interwoven, deposited in a hollow stump, and contains six to eight white eggs laid about June or July." The eggs that Miss Cockburn has kindly sent (which are smaller than those of either of the other species) are regular, moderately broad ovals, entirely glossless and snow-white, and vary in length from 0-61 to 0-63, "and in breadth from 0'42 to 0-46; but they average 0-62 by 0-44. 734. Uroloncha malabarica (Linn.). The White-throated Munia. Munia malabarica (Linn.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 357 ; Hume, Rouc/h DraftN.fyZ.no. 703. The White-throated Munia, like the Spotted one, breeds pretty well all over India, but the present species affects the more arid UBOLONCHA. 137 tracts, the latter the well- wooded and watered ones. I know of no month in which in one place or another its eggs may not be found. I have taken them myself in January, February, March, and April, and again in July, August, and September. Mr. Theobald obtained them also in May, October, and December ; Mr. K. M. Adam in November. They have certainly two broods, probably more ; the great majority of nests will everywhere, I think, be found from January to March and from July to September. Normally, in fact nine times out of ten, they place their nests in low, thick, thorny bushes, at heights of from 1 foot to 5 feet from the ground ; but I have found them in the most out-of-the- way situations — once in a hole in a wall, once in an old thatch, several times in a haycock in my own ground, and once in amongst some dry bushes stuck up as supports for, and almost covered with, sweat peas. Typically the nest is large and globular, loosely put together of fine and coarse grass, the latter predominating on the outside, the former on the inside, and \vith more or less of fine vegetable down as a lining. But they are sometimes only partially covered over, sometimes quite open above, and all kinds of odds and ends are not uufrequently pressed into the service. I quote a few old notes of nests made on the spot at the time of finding them : — " Took a nest near Etawah on the 22nd January, 1867. It was composed entirely of the flower-stems of the chireyan-ki-chunne (Ayrostis sp.), mixed here and there with a few tiny pieces of cotton, a small flock or two of wool, one little piece of red cloth, and a few very small pieces of coarse cotton fabric. It was placed in a small bush of the jherberi (Zizyplius nummularia) about 6 inches from the ground. It was open, broadly saucer-like, some few of the elastic grass-stems of the sides overhanging the cavity of the nest. It contained four pure white eggs." "A nest containing eight eggs, taken on the 26th January, 1867, was a complete sphere of soft grass with only a hole in the side. It was pretty thickly lined with cotton wool, and contained one or two small coloured rags. It was in a heens bush (Capparis apliylla), with other nests, about 6 feet from the ground." "January 28th. — In a ber tree, about 10 feet from the ground, the nest loosely made of the flowering-stalks of delicate grasses, with a good deal of cotton and one greenish rag incorporated ; only one egg." I have never taken more than eight eggs in any nest, and I have never myself had any reason to believe that more than one pair were concerned in the construction or equipment of any nest I ever met with ; but it will be seen that two pairs do sometimes combine to build and fill a single nest. Mr. W. Theobald makes the following note of this bird's breeding in the neighbourhood of Find Dadan Khan and Katas in the Salt Range : — " Lay in the months of May, August, September, October, and December. Eggs twelve and thirteen ( = twenty- five) in number, ovato-pyriform, measuring from O59 to O6-1 in 138 PLOCEIDvE. length and from 0*44 to 0*5 in breadth ; colour pure white. Two pairs of birds frequently, if not usually, are employed in the con- struction of one nest, in which the two hens consecutively lay, so the same nest has sometimes twenty-five eggs in it in different stages of incubation. Nest often clumsy and hastily made, but usually a neat domed structure of fine grass with one opening ; sometimes prolonged into a short deflected neck partially closed by the elasticity of the long spikes of grass forming it ; sometimes the nest is a simple platform of grass, open at each end, but the grass-ends curved over to meet at the top ; usually placed in thorny bushes, often very conspicuously and close to roads. It is much to be doubted if the eggs found occasionally in October and December are hatched." Mr. Brooks tells me he has often taken eggs at Mirzapoor in December, and I have found young birds often in the commence- ment of January, so that I see no reason to doubt the hatching of the December eggs. Sometimes they will even share a nest with another species. Colonel G. F. L. Marshall remarks of this Munia : — " I have taken eggs hard-set in the first week in February in the Allahabad District. I have found them breeding in the eaves of a verandah, the nest being formed of the usual materials — fine grass-stems in seed, but used only to line the hole in the roof. Out of one nest similarly situated, but made of grass and feathers mixed, I took seven eggs of this bird and four of Passer indicus. The nest in this case was probably built by the Sparrow." Major C. T. Bingham remarks: — "Breeds both at Allahabad and at Delhi from February to September. Eggs white, from four to eight in number ; nest of grass, sometimes domed, sometimes a mere pad." Mr. R. M. Adam, under date November 15th, 1867, writes from Baraich : — " On the 25rh October I found a half-built nest of Munia malabarica ; two days after, on visiting it again, I found it finished. November 3rd, I found three eggs ; on the 9th one bird was hatched and four eggs in the nest : one was hard-set which I left, the other three I took and cleaned, and found in them just the germs of life. On the 10th the egg T left was hatched. On the 12th I found the birds had deserted the nest. It was built in a saro-tree (Oupressus sempervirens) in the public gardens, about 5 feet from the ground, and was composed of several kinds of green and dry grasses, some of the heads of which were downy, and these with some soft feathers formed the lining of the nest. The grasses were matted without much skill into a shape like a Florence flask without neck, and supported by the branches and twigs of the tree. There was only one opening, which measured 2 inches in diameter. In length the nest measured 6 inches, in width 5| inches, and in circumference, round thickest portion, 14 inches." As for the size of the nests, this varies very greatly. I have seen some fully 2 feet in circumference. T7EOLONCHA. 139 Colonel Sykes tells us that " these birds live in small families. I have frequently found them in possession of the deserted nests of the Common Weaver-bird ; but their own nest is a hollow ball, made of a delicate Agrostis, with a lateral hole for the entrance of the birds. I took a nest in the fork of a branch of the Mimosa arabica; it contained ten oblong minute white eggs. The cry of the bird is ' cheet, cheet, cheet,' uttered simultaneously by flocks in flight.'' Long ago, after a shooting excursion we had made together, Mr. F. R. Blewitt wrote me the following account of a nest of this species that he found in the Delhi District : — " You may remember, the first morning we went out together, just after you had shot the Buzzard, having a large nest on a reunj tree searched ; it was then empty, but the other day, happening to pass that way, I found three eggs of the ' eternal ' Aquila faluescens in it. As my man ascended the tree to fetch the eggs, I saw a pair of the small Mania malabarica hopping about from branch to branch, near to the nest, in great anxiety, chirping loudly all the while. Taking the binoculars to watch the birds and their, as it appeared to me, strange movements more closely, I saw one of them suddenly enter and disappear in a small hole in the under part of the large nest ; the other immediately followed the first, then both came forth and commenced hovering about the man, who had by this time reached the ne.st. Not knowing what the hole could be there for, I directed the man to inspect it, when to my astonishment it turned out to be a nest in a nest. The Munias evidently had selected that of the Eagle to make their own in to secure warmth from their mighty companion. From the position of the under nest, the Munias at any time when in it could not have been more than 2 inches separated from the sitting Eagle." Tears later he favoured me with the following general account of the nidification of this species, founded on his experience in the Delhi, Jhansi, and Saugor Divisions : — " Breeds in August and September. The nest is a large loosely-constructed fabric of fine grass, at least on the outside. The lining is of soft flowering grass, and very neatly laid on in the interior of the nest. The nests are almost always found supported in the branches of low jungle bushes, sometimes about the middle of the bush, at others near the top. The nest is of various shapes, and its intended form appeared to me to be previously regulated according to situation. AVhen it could be done with convenience as well as safety, the nest assumed an almost globular shape, with an entrance-hole at one side ; at other times it was open at the top, with the sides, or rather the grass of the sides, curving over. Again, some of the nests were of the shape of a hemisphere, with a hollow for the eggs ; but of whatever shape the material of each nest was precisely the same — fine grass outside, and the lining of the flowers of grass. " It is very difficult to state the regular number of eggs of a pair. I have found as many as fifteen in one nest, and every one of 140 them quite fresh, at least on blowing them they appeared to be so. No doubt the eggs were of some two or three pairs. But I believe six is about the regular number of one pair. In the assistant's bungalow at Bubeena, a Weaver-bird's nest was hung up at one end of the verandah. Some short time after a pair of Munias took possession of it, and, though the people were constantly passing within a foot or two under it, the female laid six eggs. Unfor- tunately, one night the peon on watch with his lathi accidentally struck the nest and capsized it, eggs and all." Erom Poona, Mr. E. Aitken writes : — " I have seen countless nests of this bird, but it is difficult to give any accurate account of its nidification, owing to the confused way in which it manages its domestic affairs. Sometimes two pairs seem to unite in partnership, or, again, solitary females will go on laying any number of barren eggs, as fast as the lizards can eat them up ! So my information must be a little vague. " In Poona they breed in the cold season ; they commonly build all over the rocky plains, but many also in gardens in the can- tonment. The nest is usually about 6 feet from the ground, and varies from a large hollow ball of fine grass, with a hole at one side, to a flat nest with some of the grass bent over in an arch. The material is almost always plain grass, and there is no lining. In one case, which I took to be a real bond-Jtde attempt to bring up a single family, I counted with my finger six eggs ; but I cannot remember any other trustworthy case in which there were so many eggs belonging to one pair. " I believe they frequently use their own and each other's old nests. Jerdon does not mention that they employ their old nests to sleep in. I have driven a whole flock out of one after dusk." Colonel Butler makes the following remark : — " I have seen numerous instances in the neighbourhood of Belgaum of nests built in the stick nests of Neophron ginyinianus and Aquila vindhiana, similar to the instance mentioned in the ' Hough Draft of Nests and Eggs,' p. 453. In fact this appears to be one of the favourite sites selected. " This Munia breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa most plenti- fully I fancy during the rains ; but I have taken nests in almost every month in the year. I have seen as many as fifteen eggs in one nest, and numbers varying from nine to twelve are common. On the 28th September, 1876, I found a nest containing fourteen eggs, of which seven were much incubated, two slightly so, and five quite fresh. Only one pair of birds appeared to be in possession of the nest." Mr. G. Vidal, writing of this Munia in the S. Konkan, says : — "Scarce. I found a nest on the 28th January, 1879, in hill-side jungle in a her (Zizyphus jujuba) tree. The nest, a round globe, was made externally of very dirty coarse grass, with a very small opening at the top on one side. The nest inside was also shabby, but the lining was of finer grass, and for ornament there were a few Green Paroquet's feathers. Two old birds were sitting on UBOLONCHA. 141 four eggs. I got one bird, and while I was waiting for the other to return, a lizard got into the nest, and within five minutes suc- ceeded in destroying thrje of the eggs, breaking two and making away with a third." In the Deccan, according to the testimony of Messrs. Davidson and Wenden, this species is " very common, and breeds at all seasons." In Ceylon this species breeds from December to March. The eggs are pure white, spotless, and devoid of gloss ; typically rather broad and perfect ovals, not unfrequently more or less pointed towards the small end. Compared with those of M. malac-a, U. punctulata^ U. pectoralis, and U. striata, the eggs of the present species are slightly smaller and decidedly rounder. In length they vary from O55 to 0-68, and in breadth from 0'45 to 0-5 ; but the average of fifty eggs is 0-6 by 0-47. 735. Uroloncha punctulata (Linn.). The Spotted Munia. Munia undulata (Lath.}, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 354. Munia punctulata (Linn.}, Hume, Rouyh Draft N. fy E. no. 699. The Spotted Munia breeds throughout India and Burma, alike in the plains and in the hills, up to elevations of from 4000 to 5000 feet, but as a rule only in well-wooded and watered tracts. In the more arid portions of the North- Western Provinces, the Punjab, Rajpootana, and Siud, it is but rarely, and in many localities never, seen. I have invariably found the nests in July and August, both in the plains and in the Himalayas, but in the Nilghiris the breeding- season seems to last in one part or other of these hills from Feb- ruary to September. The nests are, as a rule, placed at heights of from 5 to 7 feet, and very rarely above 12 feet, from the ground, in thick thorny bushes or trees. In the plains the various species of acacias, in the hills the barberries, are much resorted to as nesting-sites. Occasionally the nest is placed in very unexpected situations in and about houses, as amongst the creepers trained against the verandah trellis, in a large straw scarecrow placed in a garden close to the house, in an old thatched roof, &c. The nest is globular, very large indeed for the size of the bird, an oblate spheroid as a rule, from 8 to fully 10 inches in diameter, and 6 to 7 inches in height. The nest is usually wedged in be- tween some convenient fork, and not uncommonly rests upon a sort of foundation of the same materials as those of which it is itself composed, viz., rather coarse, often broad-bladed grass, used green, rice and barley straw, leaves of bajera and jowar, and the like. The entrance is on one side, circular, about 2 inches in diameter, and neatly lined throughout, together with the whole interior of the cavity, which may average 5 inches in diameter, with fine grass-stems, the beards of wheat (our Indian bearded wheat), and barley, or rarely fine wire-like roots. 142 PLOCEIDJE. The number of the eggs laid varies much. Seven I consider to be the normal number, but I have found only four hard -set, and some of my correspondents have taken ten eggs in a single nest. From Hoshungabad Mr. Nunn writes : — " Nest and seven eggs secured on llth August ; the former was made on the branches of a low thorn-bush, some 6 feet high, well sheltered by the leaves. This low thorn-bush was growing with others at the base of a rocky hill far from water. " The nest was a large loose ball of grass as big as a man's head, with a circular lateral aperture about as big as his mouth. Eggs slightly set," Mr. F. R. Blewitt thus graphically and accurately describes a very curious nest which he kindly sent me : — " A nest of this species, which I obtained in the neighbourhood of Haipoor, was remarkable as being more compact and massive than those of this species usually are. It was a very irregularly-shaped nest, some- thing in outline like a gouty foot done up in bandages, the toe pointing downwards, and the aperture where the leg would join on ; exteriorly it was composed of coarse broad-leaved grass ; interiorlv of fine grass and flowering grass-stems. The walls were fully an inch thick and very compact. The cavity, measured from the aperture to the bottom, was 6 inches deep, and something less than 3 inches in diameter ; exteriorly the nest was some 9 inches measured from heel to toe, and 6 inches from the heel to the mouth of the aperture, and some 4-5 in breadth. The whole exterior portion was composed of green grass, but the fine lining was dry/' Mr. Wait, writing from Conoor, says : — " This little bird breeds with us any time between February and September, but the majority lay duriug April and May. They make a large, oval, globular nest, some 9 inches high and 7 or 8 inches in breadth ; it is loosely constructed of dry grass, usually the finer sorts, and lined with the same. The entrance, which is on one side, is small. The nests are placed in low trees and shrubs, commonly in such as are well furnished with thorns. They lay from five to eight oval dead-white eggs." To my friend Miss Margaret Cockburn I am indebted for the following charming account of the nidification of this species : — " The Spotted Munia is migratory with us, and only appears on the Nilghiris during June and the four following mouths. " They return regularly to their old haunts, even to the same bushes in which they built the previous season. " Several pairs of these birds build in the trellis around our windows, so near the ground that I have often put my finger into the nest and felt the eggs. " I am perfectly sure that each pair takes possession of the same trellis in which it built in previous years, and that should the old nest remain where they left it they commence another alongside of it ; should, however, the old abode be removed, they will build again in the exact site which it occupied. UROLONCHA. 1 43 " The great majority migrate, as already rnentiond, to the low country during the cold season, and return when the small grains, millets, and the like (cultivated so abundantly by the hill-tribes), are just beginning to come into ear. I have, however, observed one or two of these birds among flocks of Amaduvats during the month of December. " I have watched with great interest the punctual return year after year of these pretty, friendly little birds, and have very care- fully noted their behaviour and habits. In selecting a place to build on they sit on a twig, and raising themselves as high as possible, flap their wings over their backs to ascertain that no small branches are likely to obstruct the progress of their building, thus appearing to be fully aware that their nest will occupy a good deal of space. When perfectly satisfied as to the convenience of the spot, the female remains there while the male flies to a short distance, alights on the ground, and breaking off a piece of fine long grass flies back with it to the female, and continues to bring her at least one piece every minute, while she carries on the building-process alone. "They begin early and build for an hour or so, then leave it till evening and work late, keeping up an incessant cry of * Kitty, Kitty, Kitty.' " The nest is composed entirely of grass ; the entrance is at one side, a small round hole, so small that two fingers can hardly be inserted. They build in July and August, and lay from six to ten white eggs, so beautifully translucent that the yolk is clearly seen through the shell. When the young are fully fledged they accom- pany their parents to the grain -fields, but continue to return to their nests every evening for a long time after they have left them entirely during the day. " How they all manage to get in is wonderful ; the nest appears perfectly full, and they seem to be restless and uncomfortable for some minutes after entering. In the morning they fly out one by one ; those that go first wait for the others on some bush close by ; when all are out away they fly in a flock, and are not visible near their nest during the rest of the day. At one time I counted no less than fourteen nests of these birds in the trellis of our verandah and windows ; besides these there were others in the garden on orange-trees and scarlet geraniums, which latter here often grow to the height of 6 and 8 feet. Katives frequently go to the nests of these birds during the night, and suddenly shutting up the hole carry off the nest with all its contents, which sometimes amount to twelve birds, parents and young included. "I have known instances of the House-Sparrow taking pos- session of the Spotted Manias' nests. They wait till the latter have finished building, and then (being much bolder birds) drive the poor Munias away, and, adding to the warmth of the nest by a number of feathers, appropriate it to their own use. On one occasion a pair of these Munias had taken a fancy to the trellis at my window. WThen their nest was completed, an imper- 144 PLOCEID^. tineut cock-Sparrow seemed determined to take possession of it ; but I was equally determined he should not. After a good deal of trouble, the poor owners were again the proprietors of their lawful abode. They appeared to be quite aware that I was taking their parfc in the arbitration business, and would sit patiently on a fuchsia-bush close by till the case was decided. Sometimes one of their own species would approach their building, but at these times I considered them quite able to fight their own battles and merely looked on. They required no assistance ; but would sit close to their nest, cracking their mandibles to show how decidedly dis- pleased they were. This proceeding used often to have the effect of inducing their unwelcome visitor to take his departure ; but if he did not think of going soon, they would fly at him and use their bills to such purpose as to make him glad to be off. " Yet, notwithstanding that these little birds are so tenacious of their rights when invaded by one of their own species, they are easily intimidated by any strange and unexpected object. A few articles of furniture being placed under the trellis, which contained several of their nests, so completely frightened the parents away at one time that they left their helpless brood without food, and would not return even when the objects of offence were removed. Of course the young, receiving no nourishment all day, became fainter and fainter in their cries for food, and at last died." Writing from Sooramungalum, in Salem, Mr. A. G. R. Theobald remarks : — " In this district the breeding-season is August. They construct a large round nest (some 25 inches in circumference, with a small circular hole on one side as an entrance) of the broad leaves of cholum (ff. sorghum), rice- and barley-straw, and in some very thorny bush or tree, commonly selecting the valum (Acacia, sp.). The nest is lined with barley-beards. I have always found seven eggs ; never more. " The pair generally lay .1 thick foundation (as we may well call it) of cholum-leaves between the forks of a convenient branch, and then they commence building the proper nest, which is of an immense size compared to the bird, which is about 5| inches in length. It takes them some days before the nest is properly completed. The pair are always seen to fly out of the nest (during the time of incubation) when disturbed, but I cannot say for a certainty whether they both sit on the eggs or not; I think they do, as the number of the eggs is too great for a single bird to cover. I very seldom found a bad egg amongst the ones that contained young ones. I usually found only a single pair building on a tree, but occasionally several build in the same." Dr. Jerdon remarks that u it builds in thorny bushes, chiefly about fields, and makes a large nest of very fine grass, or not un- frequently of the flowering-tufts of some SaccJiarum, which I have often seen it conveying to its nest ; and I have always found the nest solitary, contrary to Mr. Layard's observations, who states that he has seen thirty or forty nests in one tree, and that in one instance he found one structure containing several nests. The STICTOSPIZA. 145 eggs, of course, are pure fleshy white, usually four to six iu number. At Thayetmyo 1 found it building in a hole in the thatch of my bungalow." Mr. Holdsworth tells us : — " I have seen many nests at Orissa and near Colombo, and have often watched the bird biting off the grass-stems and taking them to the nest, which has been generally a large structure, sometimes placed near the end of a branch, but more commonly in a thick bush." Colonel E. A. Butler writes: — "I found the Spotted Muuia breeding at Mount Aboo in September 1875. " A pair were building at the top of a palm tree, about 30 or 40 feet from the ground, on the 23rd instant ; and 1 found another nest on the 28th instant, the eggs of which had, how- ever, unfortunately been destroyed (probably by rats, as portions of the shell remained at the bottom of the nest)." Writing from the plains of Pegu, Mr. Eugene Gates says : — "This species builds generally in July and August, but a few nests are to be found throughout the year. It is common all along the Irrawaddy valley, and nests chiefly in thorny bushes, almost always within reach of the hand." The eggs of this species, and I have a vast series from different parts of the country, are typically elongated ovals, more or less pointed towards the small end ; and although single eggs might be picked out to correspond, when a large series of the eggs of this bird and U. malabarica are compared, the more elongated character of the former is very marked. They are, when fresh, before blowing, a delicate pinky white, the shells, as in the case of so many pure white eggs, being partially translucent ; when emptied of their contents the shells are like little balls of snow, pure, dead, spotless and glossless white, occasionally, as is the case always with similar eggs, more or less discoloured if incubation has been at all prolonged. They vary in length from 0*59 to 0'75, and in width from 0'44 to 0-52; but the average of fifty eggs is 0-65 nearly by 0-46. 737. Stictospiza formosa (Lath.). The Green Munia. Estrelda formosa (Lath.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 361 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. Sf E. no. 705. The Green Munia is common enough in many parts of the Central Provinces, but I only know of its nesting in the wilder eastern districts of these. In the Kaipoor District it breeds, I believe, from October to the middle of January, and probably again in the early part of the rains in sugarcane-fields, or perhaps amongst the dense jungle- grass that fringes in most localities the banks of streams and rivers. Mr. F. B. Blewitt writes : — " For years have I tried to secure the eggs of S. formosa, but without success. When at Saugor, in the month of May, in a sugarcane-field, a favourite resort of this VOL. n. 10 146 PLOCEID^E. Waxbill, my meii discovered two nests — one complete, aiid the other all but finished — built on, and firmly attached to, the stalk- ends of two or three of the upper leaves. They were somewhat oblong in shape, and very neatly and compactly made. The inte- rior lining was of fine grass, the exterior of coarse grass and long strips of only sugarcane- leaves, well interwoven with the coarse grass. The men told me that the birds had deserted the nests ; but, on inspection, I had reason to discredit their statement. " Two years ago, in January, my men shot on the banks of a stream here, in high grass, a young bird that had but just left the nest. Every search was made all along the bank of the nuddee for nests, but unsuccessfully. It would thus appear that S. formosa breeds twice a year." Later, however, Mr. Blewitt did succeed in getting the eggs. He says : — " On the 17th July we were encamped in the open forest country in the immediate vicinity of the western flanks of the hill-ranges of the extreme eastern section of the Bhundara District. " In a sugarcane-field of about two acres in extent, on the bank of a broad hill-torrent, I found four unfinished and three complete nests, each containing five eggs, of S. formosa. " The nests, one and all, were some five feet from the ground, in the upper portion of the sugarcane, the stalk forming a side- support opposite the entrance. The framework of the nest is first strongly and neatly secured by lacings of coarse grass between two of the cane-leaves, one above and the other below ; but as the building proceeds, three if not four, additional leaves are caught on to the sides of the nest and firmly interlaced in the exterior material. The inner portion or lining is completed last. When finished, the nests are large globular structures, made exteriorly of coarse grass and strips of the cane-leaf itself, the inner cavity being thickly lined with very fine grass, all somewhat compactly put together. "The entrance-hole, which is prolonged into a short neck, is invariably in the centre, opposite the sides supported by the cane- stalk, and is well-concealed by projecting grass-fibres. " Eive is apparently the normal number of the eggs, and both sexes are equally employed in building the nest and incubating the eggs. One male was shot busily at work at the short neck of the nest, the female the while sitting on the eggs. Evidently a new nest is prepared each successive season, and I think they always breed in society, several nests being found in close proximity." The eggs, as might be expected, are snow-white and entirely devoid of gloss. In shape they are somewhat elongated ovals, some few of them slightly compressed towards one end. In length they vary from O61 to 07, and in width from 045 to 0-48 ; but the average of fourteen is a little more than 0-66 by nearly 0-47. SPOB^EGINTHUS. 147 738. Sporaeginthus amandava (Linn.). The Indian Red Munia. Estrelda amandava (Linn.), Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 359 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 704. The Indian Eed Munia breeds pretty well all over the Indian Empire (except in the Punjab), in suitable localities. In the bare portions of the Xorth-West Provinces and Eajpootana I have never known it as more than a passing visitor ; but wherever the country is well-watered, and either well-wooded or abounding in high grass — in Meerut and the districts of the Doab northwards, in many places in Oudb and Eohilkund, Saugor, Chanda, Eaipoor in the Central Provinces, in the more fertile portion of Sindh, in all our Dhoons and Terais — I know of its nesting. In all these localities it breeds, I believe, twice a year— once from Xovember to February, and the second time from June to August ; but in the Nilghiris, which it ascends to an elevation of 6000 feet, the breeding-season seems to last from May to December. In the Himalayas I have never heard of its breeding at elevations exceeding 2000 to 3000 feet. All the nests that I have myself found were oblate spheroids, loosely but not untidily built with fine grass, and lined with fine seed-down, the entrance circular and at one side, perhaps lg inch in diameter. Externally the nests vary in diameter from 5 to 7 inches, and in height from 4 to 7 inches. One nest of this species sent me from the neighbourhood of Saugor was of a deep, clumsy purse-shape, almost egg-shaped ; it had been laid in a fork of a bush sideways, the aperture being at one end ; it was very loosely and raggedly put together with fine terns of grass, and thickly and warmly lined with grass-seed down. The cavity was about 4 inches deep and about 2 inches in diameter, and narrow at the* mouth. Externally the nest was 5-5 and 4'75 inches in diameter and 6 in length. I have invariably found the nest in thick dwarf bushes, very close to the ground, at most at a height of three feet. Six is, I believe, the full complement of eggs ; but seven and even eight may occasionally be found. Mr. F. E. Blewitt says : — " The Indian Amaduvat breeds freely in the Eaipoor and Sumbulpoor Districts. The 8th December is the earliest, and the 25th February the latest, date on which we have there taken the eggs. Wild plum (Z. nummularia) bushes growing promiscuously in the grass- jungles near to, or on the borders of, the banks of the many large and small streams intersecting the open forest country are preferentially selected for nesting. Occasionally an old nest, well concealed in the interior of the bush, has been discovered on a plain distant from water. " The nest, for better concealment and protection, is generally constructed about the centre of the bush, from a foot to three feet from the ground. Only on one occasion, when stalking Cheetul on 10* 148 PLOCEID^E. the banlt of a stream, did I find a nest, at the base of a small plum-bush, with the under portions resting on the ground. So well concealed was it that, but for the sudden flight of the female on my near approach, I should never have detected it. The nest contained six tiny creatures a day or two old. " The nest, in dimensions and shape, much resembles that of U. malabarica, though more neatly and compactly made; the opening is invariably at the side. Coarse and fine grass con- stitute the material of the fabric. On some nests I have found spiders' web in places firmly attached to the exterior. And here I may note a curious fact. The male bird often persistently con- tinues to bring and add materials to the nest during the process of incubation. The return of the bird with grass in his beak has many a time betrayed the situation of a nest, with the female and full complement of eggs more or less incubated, which, but for this singular habit, would never have been discovered. The largest number of eggs taken in one nest was eight; but six would appear to be the normal number. The Red Munia, according to my experience, breeds but once a year, building a fresh nest each time. The eggs are laid daily; but the full period of incubation I have not ascertained. Both parents share in the building of the nest, as well as in hatching and feeding of the young." Colonel Butler writes :— " On the 27th September, 1880, 1 found a nest at Belgaum containing seven tiny, fresh, white eggs. It was placed in the centre of a low bush, in a nullah overgrown with long grass, and consisted of a good-sized ball of dry grass, coarse exteriorly, fine interiorly, lined with a few large white feathers ; in fact, the cock bird brought one of these feathers to the nest just before I took it. A few heads of fine flowering grass protruded from the entrance, which was rather large for the size of the nest, and on one side. The cock and hen seemed to take it turn about to sit on the eggs, and were not at all shy, returning several times to the nest before I had walked ten yards from it. Eventually I snared them both at the nest, capturing the cock bird first and the hen a few minutes afterwards. Two more eggs were taken by one of my nest-seekers the same day, from another nest." He adds : — " Mr. Davidson sent me three eggs taken at Dhulia, Khandesh, 10th October, 1880, and others at Pirnpalnir, Khaudesh, 21st January, 1881." "Writing from Kotagherry, Miss Cockburn says : — " These birds build large round nests, consisting entirely of fine long grass, and lined with a few feathers ; the entrance is at one side. They appear fond of placing their nests at the roots of small bushes, and sometimes among the branches, but very low down. They lay six very small white eggs, which, without exception, are the most diminutive I have ever found in any bird's nest here. They build their nest in November and December." I never happened to find feathers in any nest; and Mr. SPOB^GINTHUS. 149 Davison, too, says : — " The Amaduvat breeds with us on the Nilghiris from August to November. The nest is a large globular structure of grass, with the entrance to one side and near the top. For the size of the bird this nest is exceedingly large, being quite as large as a man's head. It is composed of fine grass and of nothing else, never being lined with feathers, as that of U. punc- tidata very often is. The eggs, five in number, are pure white." Prom Conoor, Mr. Wait remarks that " here they breed from 3Iay to September. The nest carefully domed, just like that of U. punctulata, but smaller. It is composed of fine grass, and lined with the same. The eggs usually about five in number." Dr. Jerdon states that " the nest is large, made of grass, and placed in a thick bush, or occasionally in long grass or reeds, and the eggs, six to eight in number, are very small, round, and white." Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says : — " It breeds on the Nilghiris in August and September, building a large domed nest of grass, with the entrance in the side. Several females seem to lay in the same nest ; for I have found as many as fourteen eggs in a nest, and have 'seen five birds fly out." The eggs of this species are, like those of the whole family, pure white and glossless when blown, more or less pinky white when first found, owing to the partial translucency of the shell. In shape they are oval, and though very broad often a good deal pointed towards one end, and sometimes towards both. In size they are considerably smaller than those of any of the Munias except U. acuticauda, and they are shorter than these even. In length they vary from 0'52 to 0-62, and in breadth from O4 to 0-46 ; but the average of fifty-six eggs is 0-55 by 0'43. 739. Sporaeginthus flavidiventris (Wall.). The Burmese Red Munia. Estrelda flavidiventris, Wall., Hume, Cat. no. 704 bis. Mr. Gates, writing from Pegu, informs us that this species " commences to make its nest about loth October. I have taken the eggs on the 2nd November, and subsequently in the same month. The nest is placed near the ground in soft luxuriant grass. It is a spherical mass of grass, about 6 inches outside dia- meter, with an opening at the side. The majority of the structures are lined with feathers, but a few nests are without them. " Six is the maximum number of eggs ; four only are frequently found. They are pure white, with little or no gloss. They measure from 0-53 to 0-59 in length, and from O42 to 0-46 in breadth ; the average of ten eggs is 0'55 by 0'44." The eggs are of the usual type, as a rule extremely regular, moderately broad ovals, with occasional abnormal shapes, pure white, and glossless. 150 FRINGILLIDJE. Family FRINGILLIDJE. Subfamily COCCOTHRAUSTIN.E. 741. Pycnorhamphus icteroides (Vigors). The Black-and-Yellow Grosbeak. Hesperiphona icterioides ( Viy.}, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 384. Pycnorhamphus icterioides ( Viy.}, Hume, Rough Draft N. $E. no.725. Common as is the Black -and-T ell ow Grosbeak in the pine woods a few miles north of Simla, I have never succeeded in obtaining an egg there, though I have had barely fledged birds repeatedly brought me. They breed in all the pine forests of the Himalayas south of the first snowy ranges and west of the Ganges, at elevations of from 6500 to 9000 feet. Many people have found their nests with young, but, so far as I know. Captain Cock is the only person who has taken their eggs. This gentleman told me that he " found this bird breeding in the station of Murree and also in Cashmere. May and June is the usual time. My first nest, containing three eggs, was taken on the 28th May, at 8000 feet elevation, upon a sapling lime. I climbed up and found three eggs in the nest, which was con- structed of a few twigs and grass, and lined with stalks of maiden-hair fern and fine roots. I shot the female as she left her nest. "Nests subsequently found seemed to have more moss about their external structure than this one ; but though I found nests and young ones, I never again succeeded in getting the eggs." From. Murree, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall writes : — We were unlucky with this bird's nest, as the first one we found was a new one, and the climber stupidly destroyed it ; the next one had young ones. They breed very high up in the Himalayan spruce- fir. Captain Cock got three eggs last year in Cashmere. They are white, beautifully marked with broad longitudinal dashes of light and deep rufous brown at larger end. They are 1-05 long and 0-8 broad. These birds breed at high elevations, never under 7000 feet." He subsequently wrote : — " Captain C. E. Cock sent me six eggs of this species which he found high up in the spruce-firs on the Murree and Abbotabad road near Doongagully. The eggs were taken on the following dates : — " 2 fresh eggs, May 31st. " 2 „ June 6th. " 2 „ June 8th. " The lengths vary from 0'9 to 1-07, but there is no appreciable PYERHULA. 151 difference in the breadth, which is 0'77 to 0-81. The two most stumpy ones have the clouded zone round the smaller end, and on another egg the markings so graphically described by Mr. Hume do not form a zone, but entirely cover the large end." Major Wardlaw Ramsay says, writing of Afghanistan : — " I shot a male specimen, one of a pair, on the Peiwar range at about 9000 feet . . . The pah- was evidently breeding." Mr. Brooks thus describes the eggs : — " Texture smooth and similar to that of the English Hawfinch's egg. In shape the egg is broad and rapidly diminishes towards the small end. There is a slight gloss on the egg. Ground-colour pale greenish grey, with a very few blackish-brown spots over the whole surface, and at the larger end, and very near the end, is a zone of lines and spots of the same dark umber-brown, intermixed with some dark grey- coloured lines and spots of a Bunting-like character. Some eggs of the English Hawfinch in character strongly resemble the eggs of this kind, both in ground-colour and mode of marking." The egg is at present one of the very rarest in our collections, so I add also my own description. The eggs of this species, to judge from the specimen I possess, given me by Mr. Brooks and taken by Captain Cock, are a very pale greenish grey or greyish white tinged with green, with nume- rous blackish-brown tangled lines, some thick and bold, some very fine, twisted about and intertwined in a small zone immediately about the large end, all more or less underlaid by faint inky-purple clouds. Besides this zone a very few blackish spots and one or two streaks appear on other portions of the egg's surface, but these are very few and far between. The egg measures 1*03 by 0*8 inch. Subfamily FRINGILLIN^E. 745. Pyrrhula aurantiaca, Gould. The Orange Bullfinch. Pyrrhula aurantiaca, Gould, Jercl S. 2nd. ii, p. 390 ; Hume, Rough 'Draft N. $ E. no. 732. I know nothing personally of the nidification of the Orange Bullfinch. Captain Cock says : — " I shot this bird in the Sonamerg Valley (Cashmere) in June. They were then in pairs and evidently just about to breed. I did not succeed in taking their nests owing to my time being so limited, and the following year, when I wished to enter Cashmere to continue my observations from the end of June, where I had left off, to the end of August, I could not go because I could not get a pass, there being none available. Had I been a loafer or anything else than a British officer, no one would have gainsayed my going." 152 753. Pyrrhospiza punicea, Hodgs. The Red-lreasted Rose-Finch. Pyrrhospiza punicea, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 406 j Hume, Cat. no. 747. The late Dr. Stoliczka remarked that this Pinch " comes only occasionally in winter to Koteghur and Simla, but is more common eastwards ; in summer it is found in Spiti and Ladak on eleva- tions of 13,000 to 17,000 feet, searching after food at the camping- grounds. I found the nest, made of coarse grass, in Rupshu, near the Thsomoriri (lake) on the ground, in a little bush of the Tibetan furze ; eggs dirty white or greenish, with some dark brown spots/' 754. Propasser thura (Bp. & Schl.). The White-browed Rose-Finch. Propasser thura (Bp.}, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 401 ; Hume, Cat. no. 740. Mr. Mandelli sent me a nest of this species, taken on the 1st August in the Dolaka district of Nepal, at an elevation of about 12,000 feet. It was placed on a thorny bush at a height of about 6 feet from the ground, and contained three fresh eggs. The nest is an extremely regular and compact cup 4 inches in diameter and 2 in height exteriorly ; it is mainly composed of fine grass-stems, but very little of this is seen, as it is completely coated outside with brown moss and very fine black moss and fern-roots, and it is warmly lined with white hair, the fur of some animal ; the cavity measures 2 inches in diameter, and a little over 1 in depth. A single egg sent me by Mr. Mandelli very much recalls the eggs of Carpodacus severtzovi, but is smaller and greener. In shape the egg is a very regular, rather elongated oval. It has only a very faint gloss. The ground-colour is a uniform pale bluish green, and about the large end it has a very few minute specks of a very fine hair-like character, and three tiny rings about the size of a pin's head. These are the only markings, and they are black or nearly so. Two eggs, also found on the 1st August, have the ground- colour of a dull greenish blue ; the one egg has a few good-sized spots and some specks of brownish grey scattered round the broad end, the other has five or six tiny specks of the same colour on different parts of the egg. A third egg, brought from Native Sikhim along with one of the parent birds, has a clearer ground- colour, and the markings consist only of a few almost invisible specks of the palest reddish brown, confined to the broad end of the egg. They measure 0-91 by 0-68 inch, 0-86 by 0-64, and 0-85 by 0-61. PROPASSER. CARPODACUS. 153 755. Propasser pulcherrinms, Moore. The Beautiful Rose- Finch. Propasser pulcherrimus, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 402 ; Hume, Rouyh Draft N. 8f E. no. 743. All that we know of the nidification of the Beautiful Bose-Finch is that Mr. Hodgson figures a beautiful, deep, cup-shaped nest as belonging to it, placed amongst a clump of close-growing twigs, and composed of fern-leaves and grass. He gives the exterior dimensions as diameter 3 inches, height 4*75; the interior as diameter 2 inches, depth 2-12. He neither describes nor figures the ears:, nor is the date on \vhich the nest was obtained noted. OO " 761. Carpodacus erythrinus (Pall.). The Common Rose-Finch. Carpodacus erythrinus (Pa//.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 398 ; Hume, Cat. no. 738. Colonel John Biddulph writes regarding the breeding of this Finch in Grilgit : — " Several nests were found, all situated within a foot of the ground, either in low bushes or among the stems of coarse grass about 2 feet high in scrub-jungle. The nest is a neat cup-shaped structure of grass, lined with the finer roots and stems only, except in one instance, in which a good deal of hair is mixed with the lining ; the interior is from 2 to 2| inches wide and 1 J deep. The eggs are blue, of a purer and slightly deeper shade than those of Troclialopteron lineatum, with chocolate spots sparingly scattered over them, chiefly towards the large end. In one out of a dozen the spots are almost entirely wanting ; in some they are paler, almost of a sienna tint, in others nearly black, while on a few there are also one or two pale purplish spots and fine reddish scrawls at the larger end : and in these the spots are almost confined to the larger end in an ill-defined zone or cap. "Nests were taken at 10,000 feet elevation on July 16th, 17th, 20th, 21st, 29th, and 30th, all with eggs mostly fresh." Major Wardlaw Eamsay says, writing of "Afghanistan : — " A male shot at Shalofyan, in the Kurum valley, was apparently breed- ing ; for the testes were much enlarged." The eggs of this species vary in shape from regular to broad ovals, but all are a good deal pointed towards the small end ; the shell is very thin and smooth, but there is very little gloss on them. The ground-colour is a pale clear blue, the markings few and almost wholly confined to the broad end : in three of my specimens there are a few good-sized spots, a number of specks, and a few hair-like lines of deep blackish brown and black ; on another egg the markings are of a deep purplish brown, some of the larger spots being surrounded by an indistinct halo, and there are besides some underlying markings of pale inky purple, which, together with the primary markings, form a ring round the large end ; another egg, again, has only a few indistinct specks and spots 154 FRINGILLIDJE. of pale reddish brown round the large end. These five eggs vary in length from O77 to 0-85. and in breadth from 0-59 to 0-61. The eggs were procured in Gilgit, high up the Sind valley. 762. Carpodacus severtzovi, Sharpe. Severtzoff's Rose-FincJi. Carpodacus rubicilla (Gilld.\ Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 397; Hume, Rough Draft N. 8f E. no. 737. Dr. Stoliczka gave me a warm lining of a nest, composed chiefly of goat's hair with a little fine vegetable fibre intermingled, and with it a note recorded at the time, stating that this, with the four eggs which it contained, had been found at Ankhang, a camping- ground in the province of Rupshu in West Thibet, at an elevation of 14,000 to 15,000 feet below the Parang Pass, on the 7th July, 1865. He was not quite sure what species the eggs belonged to, but he knew it was one of the Rose-Finches, and that he had pre- served one of the parents. Now, the only one of the Rose-Finches whose nest he refers to in his ornithological observations on the Sutlej Valley, published in the Journal Asiatic Society, 1868, p. 60, is that of a species which he identified at the time as Pyrrliospiza punicea. He says : — " I found the nest made of coarse grass in Rupshu, near the Tsomourie Lake, on the ground in a little bush of Thibetan furze : eggs greenish, with some dark brown spots." There can be no doubt that this nest is the one he gave me, but looking to Yon Pelzeln's remarks on Stoliczka's birds (Ibis, 1868, p. 318), it would appear that the birds that betook for Pyrrhospiza punicea were really Carpodacus severtzovi, the specimens of which came from this very Ankhang below the Parang Pass, where the original note, still in the nest, says that it was found, and " one of the parents stuffed." I think, therefore, there can be no reasonable doubt as to the authenticity of the nest or eggs. The nest was doubtlessly made entirely of coarse grass and warmly lined with the lining now in my possession. The eggs are mode- rately elongated ovals, rather pointed towards one end. The shell is smooth and fine, but has only a very slight gloss. The eggs are a pale greenish blue, with a few good-sized spots and many tiny specks of black or blackish brown, confined entirely to the broader half of the eggs. The eggs vary from 0'96 to 1-0 in length, and from 0-67 to 0-7 in breadth. 768. Callacanthis burtoni (Gould). The Red-lrowed Finch. Callacanthis burtoni (Gould), Jerd. JB. Ind. ii, p. 407 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. # E. no. 748. Of the nidification of the Red-browed Finch I know nothing myself. The late Captain Cock remarked : — " I observed this bird building in pine-trees at Sonamerg (Cashmere) in June, but ACAXTHIS. — METOPONIA. 155 alas ! I had io leave ere the eggs were laid. It makes rather a large nest of moss, lined with roots and .stalks of fern, placed on the fork of one of the smaller boughs in a pine in dark forest situations." 770. Acanthis brevirostris (Gould). The Eastern Twite. Linaria brevirostris (Gould), Hume, Cat. no. 751 bis. An egg of this species, found in Native Sikhim on the 7th July, is a regular oval, slightly compressed towards the small end. The ground-colour is a spotless white with a faint bluish tinge, and the egg is mottled and spotted all over, most densely towards the broad end, where the spots have a tendency to form a zone, with reddish- brown and underlying markings of a paler shade. The egg measures 0'72 by 0*55. 771. Metoponia pusilla (Pall.). The Gold-fronted Finch. Metoponia pusilla (Pall.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 410; Hume, Rough Draft N. £ E. no. 751. Dr. Stoliczka tells us that " the Gold-fronted Pinch comes only in winter to the lesser ranges of the North-west Himalayas. It breeds east of Chini, at elevations of 10,000 feet and above, as likewise in Spiti, Lahul, and Ladakh. I found old nests made of thin twigs, laid out with grass and wool, on shrubs or low trees of Juniperus excelsa" Colonel John Biddulph writes from Gilgit :— " On July 28th I had a nest brought me which my shikari had been watching several day<. He shot one of the pair of old birds about the nest, which turned out to be the male of M. pusilla. The nest contained three eggs, perfectly fresh (and the number was apparently not complete), in colour a dull stone-white, with small red-brown spots dotted about the larger end. The nest was about 20 feet from the ground, in a cedar-taree(Jt»ntp€rtif excelsa), neatly made of grass-fibres, and lined thickly with sheep's wool, and matted on the outside with soft bits of decayed wood so as to look like bark of a tree." Major Wturdlaw Eamsay says, writing of Afghanistan : — "Plen- tiful in the Hariab district, and remained in flocks until the early part of June, when they commenced to breed. I found a nest on the Peiwar range, which was placed near the extremity of a deodar branch about 4 feet from the ground ? it was composed of dried weeds and strips of bark, and lined with feathers and goat's hair. Only one egg was in the nest, of a delicate bluish white, speckled at the thicker end with minute reddish- brown spots." An egg of this species, procured in Gilgit, is a regular oval, slightly pointed towards the lesser end ; the shell is very thin and fine, but lias almost no gloss. The ground-colour is a delicate bluish white, and the markings, which are gathered in a zone round the 156 FRINGILLIDJE. large end, consist of a few blackish spots and a number of specks and streaks of reddish brown. The egg measures 0'65 by 0-49. 772. Hypacanthis spinoides (Vigors). The Himalayan Greenfinch. Chrysomitris spinoides ( F^/7.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 409. Hypacanthis spinoides ( Viy.}, Hume, Rough Draft N. 8f E. no. 750. The so-called Indian Siskin is not a Siskin at all, neither in note nor in shape of bill, and is certainly not a Chrysomitris. The note is very like that of a Greenfinch, but structurally our bird is not a Chloris ; and it seems to me that either one must unite the whole of the true Finches under one genus, Frinyilla, or one must sepa- rate the present species as a distinct genus and adopt, as I have done, Cabanis's name, Hypacanihis. Although this bird breeds very freely in all well-wooded hills in the interior of the Himalayas, at elevations of from 4000 to 7000 feet, I seem to be the only person who has taken the nest in recent times. The following is a note that I recorded at a time when I had recently taken several nests : — " Lays in July and August, at least in the neighbourhood of Simla, where alone I have found its nest. The latter is placed in very various situations, and always so well concealed that, except by watching the birds early in the morning when both parents are generally feeding in the neighbourhood of the nest, it is almost impossible to discover it. I have found the nest (August 18th) with three young ones, some 30 feet from the ground, nearly at the top of an evergreen oak, and I have found it in a deodar bush not 3 feet from the ground on the lowest bough, about 6 inches from the main stem. Once I found it against the trunk of an aged deodar, nearly buried in a huge clump of moss, much of which the birds had attached to the sides of the nest. Usually the nests are seated flat on some bough or wide-spreading fork, and, as far as my experience goes, this bird prefers the deodar to any other tree. The nest is a most beautiful structure, cup-shaped, woven of the finest grass-roots, with a good deal of hair interwoven in the inte- rior and with much moss blended with the exterior. It is a very solid and compact little structure. The cavity, which is generally truly circular, varies from 2 to 2'5 inches in diameter and from !•! to 1*4 in depth. Exteriorly the diameter of the real nest does not exceed 4-5, and often falls short of this : but the nest is at times so blended with moss in situ that it is difficult to say where the nest ends, and you may have to tear away a patch 9 inches square to get it. The eggs are usually three in number, and when fresh are a delicate, slightly greenish white, with an irregular ring of minute blackish-brown spots round the large end, and occasionally a very few similar specks on the body of the egg. The shell is GTMNOEHIS. 157 exquisitely fine and delicate, aud the yolk shows through quite plainly. It is this that gives a certain greenish tinge to the unblown egg, for when blown the shell is a veiy delicate pale bh'ish white. In shape they are moderately broad ovals, consider- ably pointed at one end." Mr. Hodgson's notes inform us that our Indian Siskin breeds in the central hilly region of Nepal from April to July. Its nest is built in open forests or groves, between three or four slender branches, and is compact and cup-shaped, composed of moss and moss-roots, and closely lined with the latter. One nest, of which he gives the dimensions, measured externally 3*5 in diameter and 2 inches in height, internally 2-1 in diameter and 1*1 in depth. The eggs, he says, are three or four in number ; the one he figures is a very regular broad oval, measuring 0-75 by 0-59, a uniform pale green, unspotted : all / have ever found were spotted. Above I have given the description that I wrote when I took the eggs ; below I subjoin an exact description of them as they now appear in my collection. They have slightly changed colour. The eggs are oval, slightly pointed towards the small end ; the shell is delicate and glossless ; the ground-colour is a very delicate pale sea-green, and the only markings are a number of black specks, almost without exception contained within a broad zone at the large end. One egg, besides these black specks, has intermingled with them very faint reddish-purple specks. I have never seen the egg of the European Siskin, but the figure of it in Mr. Hewitson's 3rd edition does not appear to me to resemble very closely those of our bird. In size they vary from 0-66 to O75 in length, and from 0-51 to 0-55 in breadth ; but 0-69 by 0-52 is, I think, an average dimension. 775. Gymnorhis flavicollis (Frankl.). The Yellow-throated Sparrow. Passer flavicollis (FrankL), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 368. Gymnoris flavicollis (Frankl.} , Hume, Rough Draft N. 8f E. no. 711. The Yellow-throated Sparrow breeds pretty well throughout India, except in the extreme south, and again in Orissa and Bengal proper. From Behar to Sindh, and from Dehra Dhoon at any rate to Bangalore, it may be found nesting, I believe ; but the bird is unfortunately so common that few of my correspondents have thought it worth while mentioning it. In the Himalayas west of the Beas it occurs up to elevations of 4000 or 5000 feet. In the plains it breeds in April and May ; in the hills about Murree, according to Colonel C. H. T. Marshall, in July. I have taken scores of nests of this species ; all were, without exception, placed in holes in trees. Old mango-trees, for instance, are very often chosen, and in these the nests may be found at 30 feet from the ground, though usually they are at heights of 158 from 12 to 20 feet ; sometimes some old stub is patronized, and then the nest may not be a couple of feet from the ground. On one occasion I found a nest in a hole in a stem of an old heens bush (Capparis apJiylla), which stem was barely 5 inches in diameter. The nest is generally only a little bundle of dry grass, thickly lined with feathers. If in a mangrove-grove much frequented by the Common Green Paroquets, the feathers of these latter are sure to be those chiefly used. Sometimes, however, a more or less cup-shaped nest is formed, fine strips of bark and tow being added to the grass ; and, again, at times it is a regular pad of hair, tow, and wool, with a few feathers, all closely interwoven, and with only a little central hollow. I never found more than four eggs, often only three fully incu- bated ones, but more may occur. Mr. R. M. Adam writes to me that he " found a nest of this bird in a mango-tree in Oudh on the 4th May ; it contained only one fresh egg." Dr. Jerdon says :— " It breeds in holes in trees, and in some parts of the country in the roofs of houses, in the hollow bamboos of the roofs, and occasionally in pots hung out for the purpose. The eggs are three or four, greenish white, much streaked and blotched with purplish brown. Writing of Eajpootana in general, Lieut. H. E. Barnes tells us that " the Yellow-throated Sparrow breeds during April and May in holes in trees." Major C. T. Bingham remarks : — " This Sparrow breeds at Allahabad in March and April, and at Delhi in June. Although it cannot strictly be said to breed in colonies, still I have found more than a dozen nests in one immense peepul tree. It builds in holes in decayed branches of trees, lining the interior with a little straw and feathers. The usual number of eggs is, I think, three. I have only once found four, and a few times two hard-set ones." Colonel E. A. Butler writes : — " The Yellow-throated Sparrow is very common at Mount Aboo, and breeds there in April. I have taken many nests and found them usually in holes of trees at no great height from the ground. On the 14th April this year I took a nest from a hole in the branch of a mango-tree about 6 feet from the ground, containing four fresh eggs. The nest was com- posed externally of dry grass, and internally of fowl's feathers and cow's hair." And he adds the following note from Sind : — " Hydralad, Sind, 15th April, 1878. A nest built in a hole of one of the inud walls of my verandah, about 12 feet from the ground, contain- ing four much-incubated eggs. Another nest on the 1st May, near the same spot and in a similar situation, contained three hard-set eggs, and another on the same date inside the top of an old lamp- post. " The hole by which the bird entered was in the bulb at the top PASSEE. 159 of the post upon which the lamp rests, and was so small that the hen bird had some difficulty in passing in and out. The heat during the day inside of the post must have been almost unendur- able, which would account for the old bird seldom being found on the nest. I may add that the lamp was lit regularly every evening and burnt all night. Subsequently I found several other lamp-posts in camp occupied by a pair of these Sparrows. " On the 3rd May I took three incubated eggs from a nest in a hole of a mud- wall ; and on revisiting the nest on the 10th May I found it contained three more fresh eggs." Mr. J. Davidson, writing on the birds of Western Khandesh, says : — "It is the commonest bird in the Satpuras, breeding in the hot weather. Out of at least a dozen nests of which 1 have notes, in only one case was there more than two eggs." And this gentleman and Mr. Wenden further remark : — " Hare, but Davidson found it breeding in the Sholapoor Districts in April." The eggs are dull and glossless, moderately elongated ovals, sometimes pointed towards the little end, sometimes blunt and pyriform. Considering how nearly equal in size the two birds are, it is surprising to find that the eggs of this species average in weight little more than half those of P. domesticiis. The ground- colour, where any of it is visible, is greenish white. The eggs are very thickly streaked, smudged, and blotched all over with dingy brown, usually more nearly a mixture of sepia and chocolate-brown than any other shade I can think of. In some eggs the markings are entirely confluent all over, so as to leave no particle of the ground-colour visible, and in all the eggs I have seen they were so thick as to leave but little of this visible. The very dark dingy appearance of these eggs is their chief characteristic. The eggs vary less in size than those of the House- and Tree- Sparrows, and are considerably smaller than either. In length they vary from 0-66 to 078, and in breadth from 0-52 to 0'56 ; but the average of thirty-four eggs is 074 by 0'55 nearly. 776. Passer domesticus (Linn.). The House-Sparrow. Passer indicus (J.Sf &), Jerd, B. 2nd. ii, p. 362 ; Hume, Roujh Draft N. $ E. no. 706. It was with extreme hesitation that I followed " my betters " in assigning a distinct specific title to our Indian House-Sparrow in the former edition of this work. Between ourselves I don't believe in its distinctness. I have some "truly rural" French and English Sparrows — none of your London or Newcastle, black- country, or manufacturing districts street Arabs, but real, unso- phisticated rosy peasants that match some of our Indian birds fairly. But what is in a name ? Call him domesticus or indicus, it doesn't alter his depraved nature, does not make him one whit less *>• FEINGILLID^E. detestable — only there is a certain lucus a non lucendo sarcasm in- volved in the Linnean name that aggravates. If domesticity consists in sitting upon the punkah-ropes all day, chit, chit, chit, cluttering ceaselessly when a fellow wants to work, banging down in angry conflict with another wretch on to the table, upsetting the ink, and playing old Harry with everything, strewing one's drawing-room daily with straw, feathers, rags, and every conceivable kind of rubbish in insane attempts to build a nest where no nest can be — if I say these and fifty similar atrocities constitute domesticity, heaven defend" us from this greatly-lauded virtue, and let us cease to preach to our sons the merits of domestic wives ! Conceive a wife evincing similar tendencies ! Why, there isn't a jury in the country who would not return a verdict of " sarve her right," even if the unhappy husband should have wrung her neck before the golden honeymoon had run out. Now, everybody does or ought to know all about the nidification of Sparrows, and all I mean to say is that their nests are shapeless bundles of straw, grass, rags, wool, or anything else they can lay their bills or feet on, thickly lined with feathers, stuffed into any holes or crevices about huts, houses, walls, old wells, &c. that they can find, and even, though rarely, into the centre of some thick bush. They lay five or six eggs, sometimes even more, and have two or more broods during the year. As to season this varies somewhat, but from February to May are mostly the months " when sparrows build." If you require further particulars, " circumspice ! " My one regret has ever been that the whole race had not before my time met, under Providence, that appropriate doom so graphically depicted in Mr. Yarrell's charming woodcut. Mr. Benjamin Aitken writes : — " I am sorry to read what you have written about the Sparrow, for I like Passer domesticus, and willingly overlook its disorderly habits in admiration of its intelli- gence, courage, patience, and care for its young. As a pet, too, it has no superior, and only one or two equals, among the feathered tribes. The noise that you so much object to is not the poor bird's fault. With such voice as he has does the cock Sparrow devote many a weary hour to cheer his mate on her nest, exhibit- ing a patience and devotion that is equalled only by the * wakeful Nightingale ' ; and if it be but « tunete melody ' he pours forth, it sounds far sweeter, I have no doubt, to Mrs. Sparrow than all the hurried snatches of song with which the Bulbul, Thrush, Black- bird, Robin, and Lark put off their uncomplaining mistresses. " With regard to the breeding-season of the Common Sparrow, I have certainly found as many, perhaps more, nests in July and December than ' from February to May.' I have records of their nests in January, March, April, May, July, September, October, and December. " However extraordinary the place pitched upon for a Sparrow's nest may be, it is, one would say, invariably in a recess of some kind ; but I have seen a large handsome nest between a pair of deer's horns fixed up on the wall of a fashionable drawing-room, PASSEE. 161 where, wheti completed, it was considered a curious ornaiueut. Till then, however, the drawing-room was perpetually like a stable, from the quantities of straw deposited on the carpet. The wonder is that the nest was ever built on its site at all, for there was no deer's head with the horns, and it did not seem possible that the nest could have come there except by being constructed on some foundation, and then, when complete and compact, being placed between the horns. " A favourite place for Sparrows to build in Bombay is in the globe-shaped hollow at the top of the iron posts of the street lamps, exactly under the glass shade. The hollow is commodious enough, and the neck or mouth is narrow, so the place is admirably adapted for the Sparrow's purpose, but must be like a furnace during the heat of the day. Besides, a man goes up twice every day to clean and attend to the lamp, and remains for a minute or two bustling and fumbling about within 4 inches of the nest. Then, again, the gas is blazing all night with a glare that would astonish any bird more susceptible than Passer domesticus." The eggs exactly resemble those of our English House-Sparrow, but possibly average smaller. They are typically somewhat elongated ovals and but little pointed, but, as in all other species, varieties occur, and broad oval eggs, pointed and pyriform ones, are seen. The ground-colour is either greenish, greyish, or yel- lowish white, or sometimes a pale stone-colour. The markings are most commonly close frecklings, fine stria3, or smudgy streaks ; but in a certain number of eggs the markings are spots, specks, and blotches pretty sharply defined. The colour of the markings varies — sometimes sepia-, sometimes olive-, sometimes yellowish, and sometimes purplish brown ; whichever shade it be, it is generally dull and dingy; and besides these primary markings many eggs exhibit pale inky-purple clouds and spots, which seem to underlie the brown markings. I have one egg which I took near Jodhpoor — a uniform pale fawn or stone-colour, with, for its only markings, a long, fine, intricately jagged black line near the big end, such as one often sees on the eggs of the Tellow- animer. As a rule the eggs have very little gloss, but here and there one somewhat more glossy may be met with. In, I think, about half the eggs there is a more or less marked tendency to form a blotchy, mottled, ill-defined cap at the large end, and in some this is very conspicuous. In some birds whose eggs as a body vary excessively, you at any rate find all the eggs of each clutch of the same type. This, however, is not at all the case with Sparrows ; on the contrary almost every clutch contains at least two types — a very light and a very dark one. The eggs vary very much in size, in length from 0'6 to 0-88, and in breadth from 0'58 to O65 ; the average, however, of fifty- seven eggs is O81 by 0-6 *. * I have omitted numerous notes that are scattered throughout 'Stray Feathers' regarding the nidification of the House-Sparrow, as Mr. Hume and Mr. B. Aitken appear to have said all that is necessary on the subject. — ED. VOL. II. 11 162 FlllNGILLIDJE. 777. Passer pyrrhonotus, Blyth. The Eufous-laclced Sparrow. Passer pyrrhonotus, Bl., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 365 ; Hume, Cat. no. 709. Mr. Scrope Doig writes to me : — " I send three eggs of Passer pyrrhonotus taken on 24th April, 1881 ; nest a loose straggling kind of structure of grass and feathers, generally situated close to water in acacia trees : normal number of eggs three. The three herewith sent represent the different types I hare taken up to the present. The birds are just beginning to build, and are very far from being rare." He elsewhere remarks: — "25th August. While beating some tamarisk bushes in the middle of a swamp for A. stentoreus, I shot a bird I did not recognize, and which I had noticed fly past me two or three times towards some small acacia trees growing in the water. On going to these trees I found three nests exactly similar to nests of P. domesticus, only rather smaller, placed in the top- most branches, and about 12 feet over water-line. All the nests had young ones more or less fully fledged." The eggs vary a great deal in markings, as do those of all the Sparrows ; but they are regular Sparrows' eggs, all the varieties of which could be exactly matched by eggs of the Common Sparrow, except, indeed, as regards size, for they are markedly smaller. There are three very marked types and a dozen intermediate sub- types ; one has a clear greenish-white ground, and is profusely blotched in a zone round the large end with brownish olive, blotches of the same colour being sparsely scattered over the rest of the surface of the egg ; the second has a creamy-fawn coloured ground, densely but finely freckled all over with sepia-grey ; the third has a greyish-white ground, very little of which is visible, and then chiefly on the smaller half of the egg, densely mottled and striated with blackish brown, which all about the larger end of the egg forms a confluent mottled cap. Three eggs measure from O68 to 0*7 in length, and from 0*5 to 0-51 in breadth. 779. Passer montanus (Linn.). The Tree-Sparrow. Passer montanus (Linn.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 366: Hume. Row/h Draft N. $ E. no. 710. I know little of the nidification of this, the Tree-Sparrow of European writers, except in British Sikhim, where it appears at elevations of from 3000 to 7000 feet during the summer, and where it breeds about all human habitations during the spring and summer, making a nest precisely similar to that of the Cinnamon Tree-Sparrow, and laying from four to six eggs. I have ascertained that these Sparrows rear at least two broods during the summer. In Burma the bird breeds we know, and throughout the Himalayas east of Nepal ; but though it occurs as far west as Chini in the Sutlej Valley, I have not heard of its breeding west of Nepal. PASSER. 163 Mr. G-ammie says: — "This species breeds freely about our houses in Sikhim. There are always nests about the eaves of the houses. The nest I send you was taken on the 18th May in my house at Mongphoo; elevation 3500 feet. It contained five partially-incubated eggs, four of which I send." Again, writing on the 24th July, he remarks : — " I see Passer montanus now building for at least their second brood. For the first brood they began early in March. The old ones are still feeding their young, which are flying about quite as well as their parents." The nest is a huge warm cup, at least huge for the size of the eggs, exteriorly 6 inches by 4*5, and nearly 2 inches in height, with a cavity 3 inches by 3'5 and 1'5 deep. Interiorly it is very closely and smoothly and softly lined with feathers. Bound this is a quantity of tow or similar soft vegetable fibre, while ex- teriorly the nest is composed of more or less coarse grass-blades and stems. Dr. Scully writes : — " This is the Common Sparrow of the Nepal Valley, a permanent resident all over the central level parts ; it is also common in winter in the Chitlang and Markhu Valleys. In the great valley its breeding-season lasts from March to the end of July, and it rears certainly two, and often three broods. I obtained nestlings on the 16th April, and eggs as late as the middle of July." Lieut. H. E. Barnes records the following note from Afghanistan : — " The Tree-Sparrow is a resident, and occurs, especially in the cold weather, in great numbers ; but as the weather gets warmer it is not noticed so often, retiring probably further into the hills to breed. I have only succeeded in obtaining a single egg, and this was taken from a hole in a tree. The egg does not differ much from that of Passer domesticus." Writing of this species from Pegu, Mr. Gates remarks : — " This bird is commoner than P. indicus in the valley of the Sittang Kiver. In Eangoon it appears to be the only House-Sparrow. Its nest and eggs are not distinguishable from those of P. indicus, and it breeds in the same sites." I cannot quite agree with this. The eggs vary as all Sparrows' eggs do, but as a body they more nearly resemble those of G.flavi- collis than of P. indicus. The ground-colour is white, greyish, or brownish white. Some are speckled and spotted, some blotched, smeared, and streaked, some sparingly but the majority densely, with varying shades of brown and greyish lilac, the markings being generally densest and darkest in a zone or cap towards the large end. Typically the markings are, I think, blurred, smeared, and indistinct, leaving little of the ground-colour visible, but occasion- ally the spots are brighter coloured, sharply denned, and com- paratively few in number. The eggs before me vary from 0'67 to 0-82 in length, and from 0'48 to 0-58 in breadth, but their average is 0-73 by 0-54. 11* 164 FEINGILLIDjE. 780. Passer cinnamomeus (Gould). The Cinnamon Tree- Sparrow. Passer cinnamomeus (Gould), Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 365; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 708. The Cinnamon Tree-Sparrow breeds throughout the Himalayas from Murree to Nepal, at elevations of from 4000 to 6000 or even 7000 feet. Further east it occurs, though as a straggler, but I have no record of its breeding there. It lays in May or June, making typically a large loose nest, composed of dry grass and plentifully lined with feathers, in some convenient hole in a decaying tree or branch at no great elevation from the ground. Occasionally it builds under the eaves of houses, in the walls of sheds, and, as Colonel Marshall tells us (I have never myself seen this), in deserted Swallows' nests. In the same way the Common Tree-Sparrow, normally, I should suppose, a tree nester, has in parts of Europe, as well as in the Eastern Himalayas and Burma, become more or less of a House-Sparrow in its nidification. As a rule the nests are ragged and shapeless externally (more or less filling up the entire hole in which they are placed), with a rather deep, central, circular cavity. Four is the usual number of eggs, but I have often found five, and once as many as six. This bird breeds in great numbers about Kotegurh, but rarely more than one pair is found in one tree or about the same house. A hundred nests may be found within a radius of a quarter of a mile, but they do not cluster together into Sparrow-towns as the Willow-Sparrows do. Sir E. C. Buck, C.S., writes :— " On the 15th June at Shah, between Saraon and Groura, I found a nest of the Cinnamon Tree- Sparrow containing four fresh eggs. The nest was a broad loose cup of dry grass, lined with feathers, some 6 inches in diameter externahy. It was placed in a hole in a thick branch about 12 feet from the ground." From Dhurmsala Captain Cock remarks : — " This is a common bird here ; usually breeds at an elevation of from 4000 to 5000 feet. It always breeds in hollow trees, especially in the rhodo- dendron, and makes a large nest of grass lined with feathers after the usual Sparrow fashion. It lays four eggs, smaller than those of Passer domesticus. It breeds in May and June. The nest is usually at a low elevation from the ground, say between 4 and 10 feet." From Murree we hear from Colonel C. H. T. Marshall that the Cinnamon Tree-Sparrow " lays in deserted Swallows' nests and about houses. At Dhurmsala this Sparrow always builds in trees out in the forests." Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall remarks : — " Breeds at Nairn Tal at 7000 feet above the sea, most commonly in the eaves of verandahs and outhouses. I have taken fresh eggs in the middle of May. PASSER. — MOOTIFRITSTGILLA. 165 It is a domestic bird in its habits there, and is quite common in the station, while out in the woods I have not noticed it." In shape the eggs are typically very perfect, moderately-elongated ovals, scarcely compressed or pointed at either end. They vary a good deal in appearance ; many closely resemble common varieties of those of the House-Sparrow, having the ground-colour white, greyish, or greenish white, more or less thickly speckled, spotted, streaked, or blotched with various shades of brown, chiefly sepia- brown. In this type of egg the markings are generally densest at the large end, where they are often more or less confluent, and even form a broad, irregular, mottled cap. Others again closely resemble the eggs of P. flavicollis, and are so densely streaked and smeared all over with sepia-brown as to leave little of the ground- colour visible. A third type has the ground-colour a faintly brownish grey, and exhibits a well-marked zone of dark sepia- brown about the large end, and only a few specks, spots, and streaks of the same colour scattered over the rest of the surface of the egg. In size they do not vary much, viz., only from 0*72 to 0-8 in length, and from 0-55 to 0-65 in breadth; but the average of twenty-eight eggs is 0*76 by 0*57. It will be seen, therefore, that, as Captain Cock remarks, they average considerably smaller than those of the House-Sparrow. 781. Passer flaveolus, Blyth. The Pegu House-Sparrow. Passer flaveolus, Bl., Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 708 bis. Writing from Thayetmyo, Mr. Gates remarks : — " The Pegu House-Sparrow is nearly as common as P. domesticus. It is, how- ever, more of a Bush-Sparrow, generally building its nest in trees ; one pair indeed built a nest in my house, but as soon as it was finished the birds left the place." He subsequently remarked that he found a nest of this Sparrow in the roof of the verandah of the "Wanetkone bungalow, in Southern Pegu, in March with young birds. 785. Montifringilla adamsi, Moore. Adams's Mountain- Finch. Montifringilla adamsi, Moore, Hume, Rough Draft N. 8f E. no. 752 ter. Dr. Adams tells us that he found his Mountain-Finch " common on the bare and barren mountains of Ladakh and Little Thibet, and feeding on the seeds of the few plants found in these desolate and dreary-looking mountains. Its cry is like that of a Lark, and its habits on the ground are very similar. The nest is composed of grass, and generally placed in the long dykes, built by the Tartars over their dead, so frequently to be seen in that country." 166 FRINGILLID^. Subfamily EMBERIZIN^E. 790. Emberiza fucata, Pall. The Grey-headed Bunting. Emberiza fucata, Pall., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 375. Citrinella fucata (Pall.), Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 719. The Grey-headed Bunting breeds throughout the valleys of the Sutlej and Beas, and the hills westwards of this to Hazara, at elevations of from 6000 to 8000 feet. It lays from the middle of May to the middle of July, so far as I yet know, and very possibly both earlier and later. The nest is usually placed on the ground, at the root of some little dense tuft of grass or stunted bush, or under some large stone well concealed by the surrounding herbage ; but I have had one nest brought to me said to have been found in a bush nearly a cubit from the ground. The nest is saucer-shaped, or, perhaps I should rather say, shallow cup-shaped, composed almost entirely of dry grass, and lined with very fine grass-stems and a little hair. It is perhaps a neater and certainly a denser and heavier nest than that of E. stracheyi, but both are much the same size and very similar in other respects. Four seems to be the regular complement of eggs. Sir E. C. Buck writes :— " On the 25th June, 1869, I found a nest of the Grey-headed Bunting above Kotegurh. It was placed under a small furzy bush on the ground, and was constructed of dry grass, coarse and loose outside, fine and tolerably close inside. The exterior diameter was 4 inches, the interior diameter 2| inches, and the depth If inch. It contained three fresh eggs." It has been remarked that " this species, which is one of the most curious of its genus, is distinguished from all the others by the length of the tertiaries, which cover the primaries throughout nearly their whole length, and by the claw of the hind toe being a little longer and less curved than ordinary, which latter circum- stance, recalling to our minds the Larks, Pipits, Wagtails, and other birds which mostly frequent the ground, leads me to suppose that this Bunting differs in its mode of life from all the other members of the genus, which, as is well known, give the preference to trees. Pallas indeed says that it inhabits the islets and meadows of Dauria" Now the eggs of this species are by no means of the ordinary Bunting type. The only Bunting's egg of which I have seen a figure which they at all resemble is that given by Bree of the egg of the Black-headed Bunting (Euspiza melanocephala}. Like the eggs of Melophus melanicterus, there is something of a Pipit and Lark-like character about them. In shape they are long- regular ovals, somewhat pointed towards the small end. The ground-colour is a very pale greenish grey or white tinged with greenish grey, and they are speckled and freckled pretty well all over, but far more densely at the large end, where there is an EMBEEIZA. 167 irregular mottled cap or zone, with dull, rather pale, somewhat reddish or purplish brown. They have little or no gloss, and in shape are more elongated and oval than those of E. stracheyi. In length the eggs vary from 076 to 0-9] , and in breadth from 0-57 to 0-62. 793. Emberiza stewarti, Blyth. The White-capped Bunting. Emberiza stewarti, BL, Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 374. Citrinella stewarti (SI.}, Hume, Rough Draft N. 8f E. no. 718. I have never found a nest of the White-capped Bunting, though I have had its eggs sent me from both Busahir and Kooloo, and I know that it also breeds in Cashmere and in the hills about Murree. From this latter locality Colonel Marshall records that " the nest is roughly made of roots and fibres, situated in a low bush near the ground. The eggs, four in number, are dusky white, spotted and blotched with different shades of black and grey. Size O8 by 0*6. Breeds in the latter end of June, from 5000 to 7000 feet up.'* Dr. Stoliczka tells us that this species " is very common about Chini and farther to the east (in the valley of the Sutlej), making a nest of coarse grass near the ground in low bushes. I found young birds about the middle of June." Captain Cock says : — " Of the White-capped Bunting I have found nests and eggs on the hills between Cashmere and Murree, arid also in the station of Murree itself. " It breeds in June and July, and the nest is always placed, according to my experience, by the side of some road or path, on the upper bank, upon the ground, and tolerably well concealed by overhanging grass. It is a rather deep cup, and usually contains three eggs of a greyish colour, with vinous blotches and clots, chiefly at the larger end." Major Wardlaw Ramsay says, writing of Afghanistan : — " This Bunting began to breed towards the end of April ; and during the months of May and June I found great numbers of their nests. They were almost all situated under roots on sloping banks or hillsides, and were composed entirely of dried grass. The eggs were generally four in number, but I have found five. They vary exceedingly, both in size and colour, in different nests — some sittings being pale blue thickly spotted with purplish brown, and with a few irregular Bunting-like blotches and dashes. In another nest the eggs were much larger, and coloured greyish white, profusely spotted and speckled with red-brown, and with the usual blotches deep purplish brown. . . . One pair built their nest within a few yards of my tent, which was on the outer edge of our camp at Byan Kheyl, in the Hariab valley." The ground-colour of the eggs is white, mottled and clouded all over with pale purple-grey or slaty-grey, for the purple tinge in some eggs is hardly perceptible. Above the grey or purple 168 FEINGILLIDJE. markings are a few small, very dark brown, irregularly-shaped spots. Some of them are slightly inclined to be of a short, streaky, or Bunting character; but the majority are ordinary spots. The eggs vary in shape a great deal : some are short, broad, regular ovals ; others elongated, and a good deal pointed towards the small end. The shell is fine, but there is only a mere trace of gloss. In length the eggs vary from 0-72 to 0-8, and in breadth from 0-57 to 0-61 ; but the average of ten eggs is 0-78 by 0-59. 794. Emfoeriza stracheyi, Moore. Tlie Eastern Meadow- Bunting. Embariza cia, Linn., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 371. Citrinella cia (Linn.}, Hume, Rough Draft N. # E. no. 813 (713). Our Meadow-Bunting breeds throughout the Himalayas west of the Ganges, at elevations of from 4000 to 9000 feet. Eastward of the Granges I have no note of its occurrence, except as a very exceptional straggler in the lower valleys in the cold season. The breeding-season lasts from April to August, but the great majority lay in May and June. The nest is always on the ground, commonly wedged in under some large stone, or inserted between the blocks of the rough stone walls with which the hillsides are terraced, but occasionally placed at the base of some dense tuft of grass or shrubby bush. The nest is generally a shallow, loose, but pretty perfect cup, from 3 to 4 inches in diameter, externally composed of grass- stems, and lined with finer stems of the same and a few horse- or other animals' hairs or moss-roots. A nest of this species obtained near Kotegurh was a moderate-sized pad of grass, about 5 inches long by about 4 broad, and perhaps 2 inches in thickness. To- wards one end of this was a beautiful little saucer-like cavity, perfectly circular, about 2 inches in diameter and 0'75 in depth, lined first with very fine grass-stems and then again, at the bottom of the cavity, with fine white hairs, but of what animal I am uncertain : they are much too fine for horsehair. Four is, I think, the normal number of the eggs ; but I have repeatedly found only three more or less incubated, and occasionally five. This species is very common about Simla, and its eggs are almost as plentiful as those of Troclialopterum lineatum. Sir E. C. Buck writes : — " At Daren, near Soraon (in the valley of the Sutlej), I found a nest of the Meadow-Bunting on the 16th June. The nest was constructed of straw and dry grass, lined internally with fibres and animal hairs. It measured externally about 4-5 in diameter and 3-5 in height, and the cavity was about 2 inches in diameter and nearly the same in depth. It contained EMBERIZA. 169 when taken three fresh eggs, but when first found (on the 14th) there was only one. The nest was on the ground, wedged in under a large boulder." Captain Beavan recorded : — " A nest was brought to me at Fagoodak bungalow on 4th August, 1866, containing two eggs, which have much of the colour of those of Fringilla ccelebs, with markings as in E. citnnella — that is, they are of a pale pinkish- blue-green, with blotches and streaks of claret -colour. They measure '81 by *62. The nest is fairly made of grass, lined with hair, and was, I believe, found in a low thick bush." At Murree Colonel C. H. T. Marshall tells us that he " found several nests in the middle of June in low bushes or banks." Major Wardlaw Ramsay says, writing of Afghanistan : — " I found it breeding on the 19th June at the foot of the Peiwar Kotul, at about 8000 feet." Colonel John Biddulph tells us that this species is " extremely common all the winter " at Gilgit, " but goes higher about the beginning of April, and breeds at about 8000 feet. I took two nests (second brood, no doubt) in the first week of August. Both were on the ground, under a stone. One had only one egg in it, the other three. " I also took a nest with three fresh eggs in it on 1st June, at 9000 feet, and took two nests, each with three eggs quite fresh, on 23rd and 24th June." The eggs of this species are typically moderately elongated ovals, perfect and regular in their shape ; they have little or no gloss, and the ground is a very pale greenish white or grey or brownish stone-colour. Their markings consist of the most delicate and intricate tracery of fine dark brown (in some places almost black) lines drawn over faint and pale inky-purple streaks or marbling. Here and there a black or dark-brown spot, like a fly caught in a spider's web, is seen amidst the tangle of lines that so specially characterize the eggs of this species and others of the Bunting family. These lines, I may remark, are commonly mostly confined to the large end of the egg, where they form in some a tangled cap and in others a broad, irregular, but conspicuous zone. I do not think that Dr. Bree's figure of the Meadow-Bunting's egg conveys at all a good idea of the eggs of the Indian E. stracheyi ; the lines are much too few in number, and too coarse and thick. Hewitson's figure of the Tellow-ammer's egg much more closely resembles our eggs ; but even in this the lines are neither suffi- ciently numerous nor fine. Anything more elaborate or intricate than the labyrinth-like pattern of hair-lines exhibited by some of the eggs before me can scarcely be conceived. These very fine lines, and the manner in which they are disposed about the larger halt' of the egg, remind one forcibly of the very similar lines met with in the eggs of the little Prinia inornata. In size the eggs most closely approach those of the Cirl Bunting, and out of a very large series only one is as large as that figured by Dr. Bree. The eggs of our bird vary in length from 0-72 to 0-92, and in 170 breadth from 0-58 to 0-68 ; the average of fifty eggs is 0-83 nearly by 0-63*. 799. Emberiza melanocephala, Scop. The BlacJc-headed Bunting. Euspiza melanocephala ( Gm.), Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 378. Euspiza simillirna, Bl., Hume, Rough Draft N. $• E. no. 721. I do not at all myself believe that this species breeds within our limits; but it is 'still worth while drawing attention to what Burgess says. He mentions that " the patel, or head-man, of the town of Jintee, near the Kiver Bheema, in the Deccan, assured me that these birds, or some of them, remain to breed in the thick babool-copses that clothe the banks of the river near that town ; but I did not observe the nests or eggs. I believe that the greater part migrate much about the same time as the Eose-coloured Pastor " t. 802. Emberiza striolata (Licht.). The Striolated Bunting. Fringillaria striolata (Licht.}, Hume, Rough Draft N. Sf E. no. 716 bis; id. Cat. no. 720 bis. The Striolated Bunting is a permanent resident of, and breeds * Emberiza buchanani, Blyth, has not yet been found breeding within strict Indian limits ; but Lieut. H. E. Barnes makes the following note regarding its habits in Afghanistan :—" Is very common, appearing in the plains about March ; but they retire to the hills in May, when / believe they breed, although I have been unable to verify the fact. But the testes of the males and ovaries of the females are much enlarged at this season. I found an empty nest at the foot of a stunted bush, which I believe to belong to this species. " This was on the Khojak." t Of the nearly allied E. Zuteola, Sparrm., Mr. F. E. Blewitt records having seen a pair in the neighbourhood of Jhansi on the 25th August, 1868. These, however, may very probably have only just arrived. This Bunting certainly breeds in Afghanistan. Major Wardlaw Eamsay says: — "I cannot find any account of the nidification of this Bunting, which breeds so plentifully in the Hariab valley. The first nest found was on the 19th June, and I was somewhat surprised that neither nest nor eggs were at all like those of other Buntings. The nest in question was built in a small bush about 2| feet from the ground , it was cup-shaped, and composed of dried grass, stalks of plants, shreds of juniper-bark, and lined with a few goafs-hairs. It contained four eggs, of a pale bluish-white colour, finely spotted with purplish stone-colour, the spots becoming larger at the thicker end. The eggs not having arrived from India, I cannot give their exact dimensions." And Dr. Scully, years ago, recorded the following note on the breeding of E. luteola in Turkestan : — " At least half-a-dozen nests of this species were seen in May and June. The nest is usually placed either in small bushes about a couple of feet above the ground, or touching the ground at the edges of corn- fields and sheltered over by a small shrub. The nest is round, from 4-f> to 5'5 inches in diameter, the side-wall about 1 inch thick, the bottom 1'5. Externally it is made of coarse fibres, leaves, and twigs loosely put together; but the egg-cavity is lined with fine fibres wound round and round, the eggs commonly lying on a bottom-lining of horsehair." EMBERIZA. 171 in, all the bare stony hills of Rajpootana and Northern and Western Punjab. It is found, but rarely, in the hills dividing Sindh and Khelat, and very likely breeds there also. I myself have only taken the eggs near Ajmere, on the slopes of the Aravalli ; and I can add nothing to my account of their nidification written on the spot, which has been already published and which I reproduce here : — " The breeding-season appears to be November and December. The natives say that they also lay early in July, at the commence- ment of the rains ; but as to this I can say nothing. The very first birds that I shot on the 2nd November, the day after I arrived here, proved on dissection to be breeding ; and out of the oviduct of a female shot on the 3rd I took a nearly perfect, though colour- less, egg. For several days we hunted without success, finding many nests that I believed to belong to this species, and seeing everywhere females about, straws in mouth, but meeting with no eggs. At last, on the 12th November, I myself accidentally stumbled upon two nests. I was walking slowly and (if it must be confessed) footsore and somewhat despondent amongst the loose blocks and rocky shingles of the southern flanks of the Taragurh Hill, when a female suddenly sprang up and darted off from within 2 inches of my foot. I looked down, and there, on the sloping hillside, half-overhung by a moderate-sized block of greyish quartz, was a little nest from which the bird had risen, and which I had been within an ace of stepping on. Close at hand were two or three small tufts of yellow withered grass, but these were several inches distant from the nest. This latter (which, laid on the hillside, was some 3 or 4 inches thick 011 the valley side and barely three-fourths of an inch towards the hill) was composed at the base and everywhere externally of small thorny acacia-twigs and very coarse roots of grass. This, however, was a mere foundation and casing, 011 and in which the true nest was constructed of fine grass-stems somewhat loosely put together, the bottom being lined with soft white feathers. The egg-cavity was circular and cup- shaped, about 2-25 in diameter and 1*25 in depth, and contained two tiny yellow-gaped, dusky bluish, fluffy chicks apparently just hatched, and one (as it proved) rotten egg. " Scarcely twenty yards further, on a slightly sloping slab of stone, partly overhung by a huge block, between two tufts of dry grass springing from the line of junction of the slab and block, I found a second precisely similar nest, containing two fresh eggs, round which both parents flitted closely all the time I was occupied in examining and securing the eggs and nest, exhibiting no apparent signs of fear. " The three eggs thus obtained were regular, moderately broad ovals, slightly compressed towards one end, but somewhat obtuse at both. The shells were very delicate, and had a slight gloss. The ground-colour differed somewhat in all three : in one it was pale greenish-, in another pale bluish-, and in the third faintly brownish-, white. All were spotted, speckled, and minutely but 172 FEINGILLID^E. not very densely freckled with brown; a sort of reddish olive- brown in two, rather more of umber in the third. Small clouds, blotches, and streaks of the same colour and of a pale purple were intermingled with the finer markings. In two of the eggs the markings were far most numerous towards the large end, where in one they are partially confluent ; on the third they are pretty evenly distributed over the whole surface, being, however, rather denser in a broad irregular zone round the middle of the egg. " These eggs remind one no little of those of Emberiza eleyans figured by E/adde (Reisen im Siiden von Ost-Sibirien, Taf. v.), but are not nearly so broad. They are not very unlike the egg of E. pusilla as figured by Bree, but they are narrower and more oval. " On the 16th, near the base of Taragurh Hill, I found another nest, precisely similar to that already described, containing two fresh eggs. These were of the same general type as those already described, but were much more strongly marked. They were richly freckled and mottled with a fine umber-brown on a pale greenish-white ground, the markings being in both most dense at the large end (where there was a conspicuous confluent zone), and almost wanting at the smaller end. The purple spots, well marked on the first three eggs, were entirely wanting in these. As usual, we captured the female bird without the slightest difficulty. '* These five eggs (all I have as yet obtained) have varied from 0-75 to 0-8 in length, and from 0-55 to 0-58 in breadth. " The nests from which these eggs were taken were all at an elevation of about 2000 feet above the sea-level ; but we found others later (empty or containing young ones) from 1500 to 2600 feet. Early on the morning of the 19th November I climbed up the Mudar Shah Range (on the opposite side of the Ajmere Plain to the Taragurh Hill), which is very nearly, if not quite, 2600 feet high. On the highest pinnacle of the long knife-like ridge a tiny square temple is perched, at one season of the year a place much resorted to by pilgrims. Inside the temple the whole upper portion of the domed roof is thickly encrusted with what I may term, confluent nests of our Common Swift (Cypselus affinis) — a mass of feathers, straw, wool, and the like, cemented together with inspissated saliva. All over the exterior of the temple are little arched recesses sunk about 8 inches in the masonry; and in one of these, about 5 feet above the plinth, one of my people discovered a female E. striolata sitting on her nest. Going to the spot, I stood with my eyes within two feet of the bird. She, however, never moved, but sat calmly eyeing me with her bright dark eye. She looked so nice and sleek and cosy that I hesitated to disturb her; but the eggs of this species were almost, if not entirely, unknown in European collections, and I thought it only right to secure all I could : so I emptied a cap-box into my pocket and lined it with some soft rags torn to shreds, and then put my hand out gently to the nest. Away flitted the old bird, disclosing, alas ! three fluffy nestlings. I drew back my hand, and that very instant the female MELOPHUS. 173 returned and had the chicks under her. They were very young, and the morning air on this lone pinnacle very cold, and hence her extraordinary tameness. " The nest was built on the flat bottom of the niche, was per- fectly circular, with an external diameter at bottom of about 5,i inches and an internal at top of about 2|. The lower portion \va* composed of fine twigs, the upper portion and the lining of the cavity, so far as the young ones allowed this to be seen, of fine grass-stems. Altogether the nest was about 2| inches high, and very neat and symmetrical. " Judging from my present experience, I should say that three was the full number of eggs usually laid." 803. Melophus inelanicterus (Gm.). The Crested Bkick Bunting. Melophus melanicterus (Crw.), Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 381 : Hume, Rvuyh Draft N. $ E. no. 724. The Crested Black Bunting breeds only sparingly in the plains of India. At Mount Aboo, the loftiest of the Aravallis, it breeds up to an elevation of 4500 feet. Throughout the Himalayas, from Nepal to Murree. it breeds at all elevations from 2000 to 5000 or 6000 feet, and it also nests occasionally in the various Dhoons, Terais, and Bhabhurs that skirt the bases of these mountains. In the Himalayas the breeding-season extends from April to June. In the plains and on Mount Aboo June, July, and August appear to be the months in which it lays. The nest is placed in holes in banks or walls, on the ground under some overhanging clod or rock, or concealed in some thick tuft of grass, and very exceptionally (I have only seen one such) in a low thick bush within a few inches of the ground. The nests vary a good deal : they are often very slight, loosely put together, shallow saucers, composed entirely of fine grass-roots, without any lining ; at other times they are neat compact cups, made with grass or grass and moss, and lined with fine grass, fern- and moss-roots, vegetable fibres, or even horsehair. I have seen loose straggling saucers, 6 inches in diameter, with a cavity barely an inch in depth ; and I have by me to this day neat cups, little more than 4 inches in external diameter, and with a deep circular cavity little more than 2 inches across and nearly as deep as wide. They lay three to four eggs, quite as commonly the latter as the former number ; but I have never seen or heard of more being found. Writing from Jhansi, Mr. F. E/. Blewitt tells us that this species " breeds only in July and August. I think my experience is, how- ever, confined to two nests : one was found at the base of a small plum-bush, near to a wall ; the other in a hole in a wall. The nests are exact counterparts of each other ; on the outside they are made of very coarse grass and roots. The egg-cavity, cup-shaped, has 174 FRINGILLID^E. first an intermediate coat of fine khus, over which, again, is a complete lining of horsehair. The outer diameter is about 4*8, inner 2-6, and depth of cavity 1/4. The nests are compact, espe- cially the inner part of the structure, and neatly made. " I have only seen this bird at Bubeena and Talbehut, and in pairs. On one occasion I saw five or six together on the Talbehut fort wall. Their favourite resort is old buildings and walls, to which the birds confine themselves, seldom going far away from them. The male has a peculiarly soft, melodious note, repeated at intervals. " The birds feed on the ground at all times of the day, and their food appeared to consist of small grass-seeds. " Three appears to be the regular number of eggs. They are of a dull whitish grey, with a sprinkling of light-brown spots." Dr. Gr. King furnishes the following account of its nidification on Mount Aboo : — " It breeds here, I should say, in the rains. Two nests observed by me were found (1) 18th July and (2) 1st August. " The first was situated in a niche in the face of a large stone on the banks of a rocky stream near the Graomukh, Aboo, at an ele- vation of about 4500 feet. The niche was concealed by a tuft of grass. The height of the nest above ground was 3 feet. The second nest, found on the 1st August, was situated in a dense patch of wild balsams which cover a smooth slope near a very rocky place behind and above Major Impey's house. Elevation about 4200 feet. The nest was capitally hidden, quite on the ground, and wedged in between the stems of some wild balsams. " Both nests were precisely similar in shape, subhemispherical, slightly flattened and enlarged below ; the egg-cavity deep. The nests, in texture, were rather loose ; but the egg-cavity closely and compactly lined. The material consisted entirely of one kind of fine dry grass. The side-walls of one nest were about 0*75 thick, the bottom 1*5 thick. "The egg-cavity was 1*75 deep and 2 inches wide. " The first nest contained three eggs, which were taken, preserved, and sent to you. No. 2 contained three young, evidently just hatched. On returning to look at the nest on the 3rd August, I found the young gone and the nest pulled to pieces. " During the months from April to the middle of August I hardly ever observed this bird in any other than rocky places. It was then very common at Aboo. " On revisiting Aboo (22nd September to 5th October) I found this species in moult, not nearly so common as it was in the hot weather and rains, and not so much confined to rocks. "It is a vivacious, rather bold little bird, with a pretty little simple note. I think it must often build in deep chinks in the rocks, as, though I searched repeatedly for its nest, I found only two ; my shikaree found a third." Writing from Mount Aboo, Colonel Butler says : — " The Crested Black Bunting is very common at Mount Aboo. It remains on the MELOPHUS. 175 hill the whole of the year, and breeds in June and July. A nest which I found on the 22nd June was placed on the ground on the side of a sloping bank by the road-side. It was cornposed externally of coarse dry grass and stalks, and internally of horsehair and thin fibres of cocoanut. " I found another nest last year, on the 20th July, with three fresh egg.s in it. It was situated in a small hollow, behind a tuft of short grass, on a sloping bank by the side of a road. I have seen several nests in similar situations since I have been at Mount Aboo." Mr. H. Weuden writes from the Bombay District : — " This species is breeding freely from about 400 to 1800 feet above the sea. " I have observed at least a dozen pairs at different points along the Bhore Ghat incline, i. e. between Kurjut and Louauli, but have only found five nests. " One on 3rd July, with three youug. " Others on 9th, 12th, 29th July, and 1st August, each with three All of them in clefts or on ledges of rock within 5 to 10 feet from and from 2 to 15 feet above the rails. One nest was quite exposed to view, but the others were concealed behind grass or maidenhair ferns. " I have nothing to add to the descriptions of nests given in ' Rough Draft of Kests and Eggs/ unless I note that I have observed none of the ' shallow-saucer ' type. " Two clutches of eggs have the ' pale greenish ' ground with purple markings, and one clutch has the ' pale pinky brown ' ground and reddish-brown markings. " The bird lays one egg daily. Both birds assist in building ; and while the hen is sitting the cock remains very near the nest and sounds his pretty note frequently. " I was unfortunate in losing one lot of three eggs. Some animal destroyed them. " When the ' Rough Draft of Nests and Eggs ' was issued, you do not seem to have had record of this species breeding so far south." From Murree Colonel C. H. T. Marshall tells us that this species " breeds here in June in banks ; nest made of grass. Eggs white, thickly mottled with brown." Captain Hutton remarks : — " On the 6th June I took a nest of this bird from the Dhoon, where it builds on the ground, placing the nest on banks and hedgerows, or beneath the ledge of some bold rock at the side of a ravine. It is chiefly composed of moss loosely put together, with a few fragments of dead leaves without any interweaving, and is lined with very fine roots and black fibres of ferns resembling horsehair. On the 14th of the same month I procured another, similarly constructed. The one contained four and the other three eggs, of a dull stone-grey colour, tinged and spotted with dull purplish brown, and chiefly so at the larger end." 176 PEINGILLIDJE. In Kumaon Mr. Brooks found this species laying in the middle of May. He says : — " This bird is common in the open country. The nest is placed in the broken terrace- walls, at the foot of a small bush or tuft of grass. I found one in a small bank about 3 feet high. The nest was placed about 2 feet from the ground, at the roots of a scrubby bush. It was composed of roots, fibres, and grass, and lined with hair. There were four eggs ; another nest had three only. The ground-colour was a dull white, with a shade of green, thickly speckled and spotted with reddish brown and purplish grey. The egg is not lined like a Bunting's. I shot the old birds in each instance. The song of the male is a mono- tonous one of two or three notes only, constantly repeated. The dark-chestnut plumage is not assumed till the second year, and young males breed in their first plumage, which exactly resembles that of the female." Mr. Hodgson has the following note on the nidification of the Crested Black Bunting : — "April I5th, Jalia Powah. — Wild uplands of level and partial cultivation. Found a nest in a cultivated field, laid amongst clods like a Lark's nest ; is small and shallow7, but still of decided shape and firm make, composed of hard thin grass, fibres, and hairs ; circular, the cavity 2*5 in diameter and 0'6 deep. Three eggs, bluish ground like milk and water, spotted with dark reddish brown, chiefly at the large end." The notes add that this species generally make their nests on the ground under the shelter of some clod or tuft of grass. The bird scratches a small depression, and then twists together a small, fiat, circular nest of roots and grass. From Sikhim Mr. Gammie remarks : — " With us the Crested Black-and- Chestnut Bunting breeds in May ; it breeds at low elevations from 2000 to 4000 feet ; it chooses open and cleared land, and builds its nest on the ground, often under the shelter of fallen trunks of trees or in banks by the sides of roads. The nest is cup-shaped but shallow as a rule, composed of dry grass and lined with a few root-fibres. One I measured had an external diameter of 4 inches and was 2 inches high. The cavity was 2| inches across by a little over an inch in depth. They lay four to five eggs ; at any rate I have never found more." The eggs of this species vary a good deal in shape, but typically are rather broad ovals somewhat obtuse at the small end ; speci- mens, however, often occur very pointed at this end. The ground- colour is a pale greenish white in some, and pinkish or brownish white in others ; and they are thickly speckled and spotted, and in some more or less freckled and mottled, with red, purple, and reddish or purplish brown, the markings of any one egg being usually unicolorous. They are always most dense at the large end, where in the majority of eggs they form a more or less con- spicuous but ill-defined and irregularly mottled cap ; they have little or no gloss. The markings entirely want the bold jagged line character so characteristic of the eggs of many Buntings. In CHELIDON 177 some eggs the markings are so closely set as to leave scarcely any of the ground-colour visible, and to give the whole egg a reddish- brown or dingy brown mottled appearance, while in a few the small end of the egg is almost entirely devoid of markings. In length these eggs vary from O68 to O86, and in breadth from 0-6 to O76; but the average of twenty-two eggs is 0-79 by 0-63 nearly. Family HIRUNDINID^E. 804. Chelidon urbica (Linn.). The Martin. Chelidon urbica (Linn.}, Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 166; Hume, Cat. no. 92. Major M. F. Coussniaker writes from Bangalore regarding this Martin : — " I took the nest of this bird on May 1, in the Shemo- gah Districts, Mysore. The spot selected by this colony was a large overhanging rock in the bed of the River Tunga, about three miles from Sheinogah; they appear to have bred in the same place for many years, as the under surface of the rock was covered with old nests. The nests I got were so broken that I could take no reliable measurements, but I shah1 endeavour to get some more specimens next year. The eggs were mostly hard-set, and the number varied from two to four in each nest. They were pinky white before being blown, and measured '7 X '5. " I believe that this species has not been found breeding in India before. Had I known this at the time I would have made greater exertions to get a perfect nest, but the rock is very difficult to get at owing to its shape and position." The eggs are moderately broad ovals, a good deal pointed and compressed towards the small end ; in some cases decidedly pyri- form. The shell is fine and compact, but with no perceptible gloss, and of course pure white, without any markings. Two eggs measured O75 in length by 0'53 and 0*55 in breadth. 805. Chelidon kashmirensis, G-ould. The Kashmir Martin. Chelidon cashmiriensis, Goidd, Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 167; Hume, Rough Draft N. £ E. no. 93. This Martin breeds only in the interior of the Himalayas. It lays, as far as I know, only in April and May, but is said to have a second brood during the rains. Long ago Sir E. C. Buck wrote to me that " there is a large colony of these birds about 1| to 2 miles from the Muttyana Dak Bungalow on the old road to JNarkunda ; their nests cover the roof of hollo\vs in the rock about 15 to 20 feet from, the ground. Nest of nmd, shallow, cup-shaped, with YOL. II. 12 178 largish aperture, very close, one above the other iii many instances Young birds appeared fledged in June when I passed. Birds fre- quented breeding-places at dusk in great numbers. The hollows are almost overhanging the old road." 809. Cotile sinensis (J. E. Gray). The Indian Sand-Martin. Cotile sinensis (Gray), Jerd. B. 2nd. i, p. 164 ; Hume, Rouyh Draft N. # E. no. 89. " The Indian Sand-Martin breeds in holes in sandy banks of rivers from November to February in some parts of the country, and during April and May in others, and again at both periods in others. Mr. Blyth remarks (Journal As. Soc. xvi, p. 119): — "I have found both newly-laid eggs and young ready to fly in the begin- ning of December (at Calcutta), and also at the end of February. The nest-holes vary in depth from 1 J foot to considerably more, according as the banks are more or less hard ; and the nest itself is composed of dry grass, with occasionally a few feathers in the lining ; the eggs are pure white, like those of C. riparia" Colonel G. F. L. Marshall, writing from Saharunpoor, says that this species " builds in the first half of April in a hole about 4 feet into a bank, lining the end of the hole with grass and a few feathers, and lays five pure white eggs." I myself have taken the eggs in May on the Jhelum, and on the Jumna in the Etawah District in February and April, but I have never found more than four eggs. Major C. T. Bingham writes : — " At Allahabad and at Delhi I have found nests of this little Sand-Martin in eight months out of the twelve, viz. in January, February, March, April, and May (one nest at Allahabad on the 3rd May, containing two very hard- set eggs and two young ones), and again in October, November, and December. They lay in holes excavated by themselves in the sandy banks of rivers, and nullahs, these being from 1 to 3 feet deep and 2 inches in diameter, ending in a nest-chamber slightly larger than the tunnel, lined with straw or grass-roots, with a layer of soft feathers on which the eggs, ordinarily four or five in number, lie." From the Sambhur Lake, Mr. R. M. Adam tells us :— " The little Bank-Martin is very common about this. I obtained a nest on the loth April with two very hard-set eggs. The nest was found in a hole in a bank, and was a compactly-built cup-shaped structure : outer diameter 4 inches ; egg-receptacle a little over 2 inches. The nest was made of grass and fibres well rounded together ; the outer portion of the nest was of a coarser quality than the lining, but made of the same material; depth of egg- cavity | inch. " In Oudh I took a nest of this bird on the 23rd April. The nest was composed of coarse grass loosely put together, and had a lining of biggish feathers. Its diameter measured 3| inches." COTILE. 179 Dr. Scully says, writing from Nepal : — " The bird is usually found over wet fields and marshy ground, and along the course of streams. It has its holes and breeds in the banks of rivers and in the sides of the alluvial cliffs so common in the valley of Nepal." The late Captain Cock sent me the following note many years ago : — " I first found this Martin breeding in colonies in high saud-banks at Nowshera during the month of February ; the place selected was the bank of the river Cabul, and the nests were often placed so close together that by enlarging one hole I could work laterally to the nest-chambers of other nests, for the nests were from two feet to three feet deep in the bank. The nest-chamber was always lined with dry grass, stalks, and a few feathers, and the eggs were usually four in number, pure white. In digging out these eggs and similar ones I use a narrow heavy trowel, and am invariably provided with a looking-glass to flash in the light to see what is in the hole before putting in my hand, as I once touched Biinyarusfasdatus, and shall not forget it." Mr. Doig took numerous nests in the E. Narra, Sind, on the I "tli February. He himself writes: — "Found numbers of the nests of these little birds in holes in the steep sandy banks along the Xarra on the 21st February; of some 30 nests the greatest number of eggs in any one nest was four. The holes were from 2 to 3 feet in the bank, and the nest consisted of grass, lined with a few feathers." Writing of Rajputana in general, Lieut. H. E. Barnes says : — " The Indian Sand -Martin breeds during February and March." Colonel Butler remarks : — " The Indian Sand-Martin breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa in the cold weather. I found seven nests in the bank of a river near Deesa on the 23rd January, 1>7<), and dug them all out with the following results : No. 1, 1| feet from entrance of the hole, contained three eggs slightly incu- bated. No. 2, 2 feet from, entrance, contained four fresh eggs. Nos. 3, 4, 5, aud 6 contained young ones nearly ready to leave the nest ; others, young ones only just hatched. Most of the nests were within 2 feet of the entrance, but one was about 3 feet. The numbers of young birds varied from 3 to 4. The nests, as a rule, were thick pads of dry grass, fibrous roots, &c., thickly lined with good-sized soft feathers, loosely placed at the bottom of the nest. Some nests were thick and solid, others slight, small, and loosely put together. One nest was empty. I found another nest on the 2nd February in the same bank, containing one fresh egg. I took another nest in a river-bank on the 15th March, containing three fresh eggs ; it was composed exteriorly of coarse dry rushy grass, and lined with fine dark-coloured fibrous roots, with one large solitary Kullum's feather at the bottom for the eggs to rest upon." Messrs. Davidson and Wenden tell us that in the Deccan this species is " tolerably common. At Sangoia it breeds singly, in 180 HIETJNDINID^E. river-banks, in December. On the banks of the Bhima, Davidson got a single nest with three fresh eggs, in March." Finally Colonel Godwin-Austen notes that this Sand-Martin was " breeding in January at Shirshang in banks of the Lumessary River " in the Khasi hills. The eggs of this bird, like those of all kindred species, are pure white and devoid of gloss. In shape they are oval, a good deal pointed towards one end ; and, so far as size and shape goes, they appear to differ scarcely perceptibly from those of C. riparia. They vary in length from O63 to 0*73 inch, and in breadth from 0*45 to 0*53 inch. The average of a large series is O68 by 0-48 inch. I here reproduce a note I wrote years ago regarding the uidifi- cation of C. subsoccata, which I at that time, together with others, considered might be a race or subspecies of C. sinensis : — On the llth of January, 1867, I came across a colony of Sand- Martins, breeding in the high sandy banks of the Jumna, below Sheregurh, very near in fact to the joint boundary of Etawah and Cawnpoor. I shot two of the birds and got some eggs. I re- visited the spot on the 12th March, and again shot a pair of the birds and obtained more eggs. Later, examining the specimens, I found that they differed from some specimens I had of C. sinensis, exactly as pointed out in Sir W. Jardine's letter to Adams, and accepted them as distinct. Further experience has led me to doubt the value of the diagnostic points indicated by Jardine. If distinct, I can say this much of the uidification of the Dusky Sand-Martin : — They build in communities in sandy banks overhanging rivers. They bore a small hole, about 3 inches in diameter, from 1| to 3 feet deep into the bank, usually sloping a little upwards, at the end of which they scoop out a sort of chamber, say 6 inches in diameter ; there they make a nest of very fine twigs and grass lined with a few soft feathers of the wild goose, brahminy, and such-like water-fowl ; they lay from two to three eggs. The eggs are white and glossless, closely resembling those of C. sinensis and C. riparia, from which it would be difficult to separate them. Normally, they are a pointed oval, but somewhat cylindri- cal varieties occur. They vary a good deal in size, as do those of all the allied species. The epgs that I took of this supposed species varied from 0-64 to O74 inch in length, and from O48 to 0-53 in breadth, and they averaged 0-68 by 0-5 inch. 810. Ptyonoprogne rupestris (Scop.). The Crag-Martin. Cotile rupestris (Scop.), Jerd. £. Ind, i, p. 1G6. Ptyonoprogne rupestris (Scop.}, Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 91. The Crag-Martin only breeds, so far as I know, amongst pre- PTYONOPEOGKNE. 181 cipitous rocks in the Himalayas at heights of from 7000 to 10,000 feet. I once found a number breeding on the road from Mussoorie to Simla, not many miles from the new hill station Chukrata. This was at the end of April, and I got both eggs and young birds. The nests were composed of pellets of clay, and were mostly rather deep saucers plastered in angles of the cliff under projecting ledges. They were warmly lined both with grass and feathers. I have no eggs now by me. I did not keep eggs in those days, but I noted that they were long oval pinky-white eggs, with numerous specks and tiny blotches of brownish red and purple. Major Wardlaw Bamsay says, writing of Afghanistan : — " The Crag-Martin was abundant in the valley in June, and apparently nesting in the cliffs near our camp." 811. Ptyonoprogne concolor (Sykes). The Dusky Crag-Martin. Cotyle concolor (Sykes), Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 165. Ptyonoprogne concolor (Sykes), Hume, Rough Di'aft N. 8f E. no. 90. The Dusky Crag-Martin breeds at least twice a year. In the plains of India I have mostly found the eggs in January, February, and July ; but I have seen them in April, and writing from the Xilghiris Miss Cockburn says : — " These small Crag-Martins build in the months of April and May. One nest was constructed in a small cave which had been dug out of the earth, where some pretty ferns and moss were growing : I admired the Martins' choice of a site for the abode of their young during the few weeks they might require a dwelling-place. The nest was of clay and of a cup-shape, lined with many feathers, and had two white eggs with minute dark spots all over them, but particularly at the thick end." The nest is solitary, very like the Wire-tailed Swallow's, but deeper and smaller, coming to a well-defined point below; it is lined with feathers. Mr. F. E. Blewitt says : — "This species breeds in both the cold and hot seasons, though I have obtained most eggs in July and August. It has its nest in holes of walls, on projecting eaves, and sometimes on the ledges of rocks, where convenient shelter is afforded. " The nest-lining is composed of soft flowering grasses and feathers, the latter forming as it were the inner lining. " The regular number of eggs appears to be four. Strictly speaking, it does not breed in company, though at Talbehut I have seen two and three pairs together, occupying as many holes in the old fort wall, near to each other. Dr. Jerdon justly remarks of this Martin that it is scattered sparingly. I have found it only in the vicinity of old forts and mosques, and but few in number. When flying, or rather while feeding on the wing, two and three together, they alternately chirrup to each other. It is a chit, chit, chit, rapidly uttered in quite a soft melodious tone." Mr. James Aitken makes the following general remarks on the 182 breeding of this species : — "The natural habitat of this Swallow is amongst rocks and on the faces of cliffs, and in such situations it may always be found ; but it readily avails itself of the windows and porches of houses, even nesting among the two-storied houses in native towns. I have also known it make its nest on the side of a well. The nest is open all round, merely attached to the wall by one side, and is very neatly lined with feathers. The eggs are more round than those of any of our other Swallows, and are minutely speckled with brown, especially about the thick end; the usual number is, I think, three. They are persecuted while building, and occasionally driven away, by the Sparrows ; but their open nest not being adapted to the wants of these birds, they do not take pos- session of it. Though capable, from their length of wing, of great speed, they are no travellers, but may generally be found flying about their chosen cliff or building in a very leisurely manner ; the young continue about the spot for some time, but I never saw the old ones feed them upon the wing after the manner of the Wire -tailed Swallows." Major 0. T. Bingham writes, from Allahabad : — " On the 13th October I found a nest with two eggs. A mud cup, stuck against a niche in the ruins of an old temple, 3| inches in depth outside, 1 in depth inside, lined with a few straws and feathers. Eggs pale pinky white, blotched rather than speckled with tiny marks of grey and purple and sepia." Colonel Butler writes : — " The Dusky Crag-Martin breeds at Mount Aboo in June and July, on the sides of cliffs and in hollow rocks, sticking the nest to the wall, as do others of the tribe. The nest is usually a half-cup open at the top, similar in composition and appearance to the nest of Hirundo Jilifera. " On the 26th August, 1876, I found a nest in Deesa similar to the one already described, but built against a wall under the eaves of a building in the European barracks. It contained two nearly fresh eggs. Another nest in Deesa, in a similar situation, con- taining three fresh eggs, on the 24th September, 1875. Another nest on a beam in the verandah of the regimental school, Deesa, 5th October, 1876, containing three fresh eggs." And subsequently he wrote from Belgaum : — " Belgaum, 13th July, 1879, three fresh eggs ; llth August, three fresh eggs ; 15th August, two fresh eggs; 29th August, three fresh eggs; 21st ^February, 1880, three fresh eggs ; 15th March, three fresh eggs." My friend Mr. Benjamin Aitken favours me with the following note : — " These birds may be seen wherever there is a range of cliffs or a row of dark walls, provided the place is not much frequented by men ; and they always choose the shady side, as far as I have observed, to sail up and down. Their old nests are very numerous on the rocks that line the railway-cutting through the Bhore Ghat, and also on the cliffs at Poorundher, the sanitarium 18 nvles south of Poona. These nests are placed at from 5 to 12 feet from the ground. I satisfied myself that the Martins were breeding on the top of the Bhore Ghat at the end of May 1871 ; PTYO^OPROGNE. 183 and 011 the 9th of June I observed a pair at their nest at the bottom of the Ghat. " At Poona, on the 1st March, 1871, I saw a nest under a ledge of stone in a well. The old bird was sitting, and though repeatedly frightened off the nest only made two or three circles round the inside of the well, and returned to the nest. " The nest was then given up as inaccessible, from distance and other causes ; but on the 20th of the following August my brother went down to the same nest by means of a rope and found two eggs, on which the bird was sitting. He described the nest as extremely fragile ; it crumbled to pieces on the least touch. " In June of the same year my brother, Mr. E. Aitken, saw a nest, in which the parent bird was sitting, under the porch of the Club at Poona. Of this he has perhaps informed you himself." Messrs. Davidson and Wenden remark : — " In the Sholapoor districts it breeds in abundance in the rains and in February. At Egutpoora it was breeding in the verandah of the Engineers' bun- galow in the middle of March and first week in August. At Laiioli on 20th March." Mr. G. Yidal, relating his experiences in the South Konkan, says : — " Common on the coast and for a few miles inland. I have found nests on the cliffs in February, March, and April, and under the eaves of a bungalow in August." Referring to Rajputana in general, Lieut. H. E. Barnes tells us that "the Dusky Crag-Martin breeds during March and April, and again in July and August. The nest, composed of pellets of mud, well lined with feathers, is deep saucer-shaped, and is generally affixed to the side of a house under shelter of the eaves." Mr. R. Thompson writes to me that in the Central Provinces the majority, lie thinks, breed in March and April, but certainly in Jhansee and Saugor January and July are the months. The eggs of this species are intermediate between those of H. fliivicola and B. smithii so far as the character, extent, and intensity of markings go. The ground-colour is white, and they are all more or less thickly speckled, spotted, and at times, though rarely, blotched with different shades of yellowish and reddish brown. Unlike those of H. Jluvicola, which are as often pure white as not, these eggs are always pretty thickly marked ; but these markings, though better defined and darker than those of //. Jluvicola, are neither so bold nor so bright as in H. smithii. As in both these species, the markings are always most dense towards the broad end, where a more or less ill-defined zone or irregular and partial cap is not uncommon. In length they vary from 0-68 to 0*75 inch, and in breadth from 0*5 to 0*56 inch ; the average of a large number of measurements is 0'72 by 0*52 inch*. * Colonel Butler has communicated to me the following note on the breeding of P. obsoleta (Cab.). This bird is not yet known to breed in India: — " I had two eggs sent me this year of a Martin, which I fancy must belong to the present species, although I cannot at present vouch for their identity. " The nest, which was built of inud with a lining of feathers, and of the usual 184 HIETJNDINID^E. 813. Hirundo rustica, Linn. The Swallow. Hirimdo rustica, Linn., Jerd. B. 2nd. i, p. 157 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 82. A few Swallows breed during April and May along the whole line of the Himalayas from Cabool to Assam, at heights of from 4000 to 7000 feet. Rarely more than one or two pairs are found, as far as my experience goes, breeding in the same immediate neighbourhood anywhere to the eastward of Cashmere ; and, indeed, eastwards of this happy valley it is only here and there that they are met with. I myself have only seen them breeding near Dhurumsalla, at two or three bungalows between Sooltanpoor in Kooloo and Simla, and at Simla itself. Captain Cock first pointed out to me that they breed near Dhurumsalla, where he procured their eggs. From Murree I have received a nest, eggs, and both parents ; from Almora, a single egg. Mr. Masson tells me he once noticed a pair building near Darjeeling; and Colonel Godwin-Austen writes that he found this species breeding at Asaloo in April, in the high roofs of the Naga houses. The specimens shot were small, only 12 inches in extent, and may have been H. yutturalis. Jerdon mentions this bird as arriving early in July in Upper Burmah ; they thus " probably breed along the whole line of high hills from the Burrail and Patkoi Ranges into North Burmah, &c." In Cashmere they breed more numerously, from all T can learn, than in any other part of the Himalayas. In Candahar, as Captain Hutton tells us, they breed abundantly. On the whole, it would appear that while a comparatively small number breed here and there everywhere along the southern faces of the Himalayas, the great majority of the vast numbers that during the cold season throng the neighbourhoods of our jheels and half-cup shape, was fixed to one of the rafters which support the roof of the verandah of one of the telegraph-buildings at Jask, on the Mekran coast ; and in the same verandah were several nests of Hirundo rustica. The eggs were white, sparingly sprinkled with small dusky specks, most numerous towards the large end ; and the man who took them informed me that one or two pairs of this bird breed there every year, but that they leave directly afterwards. No date arrived with the eggs, but I believe they were taken in March. As I said before, I cannot be sure of the species at present, as unfortunately the skins of the bird that were secured at the time the eggs were taken were* destroyed by rats, and consequently never reached me ; however, from the account of the bird, which was described to me as ' a pale, dusky-coloured Martin,' and from the man's recognizing the bird at once when I described P. obsoleta to him, and from the fact of no other pale-coloured Martin (C. riparia, which breeds in sand-banks, but not along that coast, being of course excepted) being known along that coast, and that being common in the cold weather, I have little doubt in my own mind that it belongs to the present species ; but I hope next year to get skins of the old birds with the eggs, and then the matter will be settled." The eggs are slightly elongated ovals, a little compressed towards one end ; the snell is extremely fine and delicate, but has scarcely any appreciable gloss. The shell is nearly pure white when blown, and is thickly speckled and spotted, most thickly about the broad end, with a sort of sepia-brown, quite devoid of the reddish tinge that is usually observable in the eggs of this family. HIRTJNDO. 185 ponds seek Cashmere and other more westerly localities to rear their young in. The nests that I have seen resembled much those of the Wire- tailed Swallow, but were deeper, and had the pellets of which they were composed larger and a good deal mingled with grass &c. The nest sent me from Murree is a very perfect, rather deep, half-saucer ; two that I found containing young ones, fixed in corners of verandahs, were mere quarters of very wide and shallow dishes ; another, in a tiny niche in a beam, was a mere mud screen, shutting in the lower half of the niche, with a few mud pellets inside, apparently to round off the corners. All consisted exteriorly of pellets comp'osed of mud, more or less mingled with dry fir-needles, straw, and the like — a coarser and far less tidy structure than that of the Wire- tailed Swallow. Interiorly the lining appeared to be chiefly soft feathers ; but there was a little fine grass, and in one some grey, very soft fur, which I could not make out. There were four eggs, slightly incubated, in the Murree nest ; but I believe they sometimes lay six. Dr. Scully writes from Nepal : — " This Swallow breeds freely about the valley in April and May ; young birds, just able to fly, are often seen about the beginning of June." From Sikhim, Mr. Grammie writes : — " The Common Swallow arrives in this district in the beginning of February, and remains till the end of October. They commence building about the end of March, and place their nests in coolie-sheds, stables, outhouses, or open verandahs. The nest is the usual mud structure, thickly lined with soft feathers. As the soil there is not very adhesive, it is mixed with a good deal of grass. In the stable at Eungbee, six or eight pairs used to breed regularly ; and the syces, who took an interest in them, were in the way of fixing up small boards here and there, at angles with the roof, on which the Swallows readily built. When undisturbed they get very tame, and I have seen a pair cooly feeding their young on the nest when the heads of four Europeans were within a foot of it. After ministering to the wants of their family, they would perch within a yard of the spectators, and give them a' pleasant little song. They breed at least twice in the season, and, I think, occasionally three times. On the 29th April I took a nest containing five hard-set eggs out of a kutcha bungalow, and on visiting the same place on the 26th 'June fol- lowing found that the same pair had, in the interim, built a rough nest and reared a brood, which had flown about four days before, and the parents were busy repairing the nest for a third batch of eggs. The usual number of eggs is four or five." Lieut. H. E. Barnes, writing from Chaman, in Afghanistan, remarks : — " The Swallow is not uncommon ; still they do not occur in such numbers as they do in Kandahar, where almost every out- house contains nests. They breed in May. I found two nests affixed to the roof of a ' Landy,' used as a native hospital. One contained three young birds, and the other three eggs, spotted not unlike those of Hirundo filifera ; one egg was pure white. They measure 072 by 0-5." 186 HIEUNDINID^E. The eggs of this species vary much in size and a good deal in shape. Typically they are elongated ovals, a good deal compressed towards the smaller end. The cubic contents of some eggs must be nearly double those of others. The shell is very fine and com- pact, and has, in some eggs, a slight gloss. The ground-colour varies from pure white to a pale salmon-pink, but in the majority it is white. Typically the eggs are pretty thickly spotted and speckled with brownish red and inky purple, the markings being always most numerous, and at times very dense, towards the large end, where they occasionally form an irregular mottled zone. Occasionally the brownish red is replaced by a slightly reddish olive-brown. In some eggs the markings want the speckly-spotty character of the typical egg, and are merely pale inky-purple and brownish-red clouds. In some, again, the markings are, as a whole, much more minute, and the whole surface of the egg is finely freckled and mottled with pale brownish red. In size the eggs vary from 07 to 0-84 inch in length, and from 0*5 to 0*55 inch in breadth ; but the average of seventeen eggs was 0-76 by 0-53 inch*. 817. Hirundo javanica, Sparrm. TJie Nilyliiri House-Swallow. Hirundo domicola, Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 158. Hypurolepsis domicola (Jerd.}, Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 83. Mr. Davison remarks : — " The Nilghiri House-Swallow breeds OJi the western side of these hills from February to April, rearing (from what I have observed) two broods in immediate succession. The nest is composed of pellets of mud, thickly lined with feathers, open at the top, with the saucer-like depression rather deep ; it is usually placed in some building, cave, or against some well-sheltered rock. The eggs, usually three in number, are white, spotted with brown and reddish brown, with a few larger markings of a purplish colour. Occasionally four eggs are laid; but when this is the case I have found that invariably only three hatch. " About a week after the first brood have flown the old birds begin to remove the topmost feathers of the nest, replacing them by fresh ones. Three eggs are then again laid, and a second brood reared. After this brood have flown, the old birds still continue * Mr. J. Darling, Jun., records the following note regarding the nidification of Hirundo badia (Cass.), which is found in the Malay Peninsula, and may possibly extend to Tenasserira : — "The first bird of this species I shot in Kossoom was one of a flock that appeared from the east and flew straight away westwards. I afterwards found them in considerable numbers in a large lime- stone cave, in which they were breeding later on. "Again, in Poongah, I saw numbers flying about the limestone hills that surround the town. Their habits and voice are almost similar to that of H. javanica. The nest is built of pellets of mud stuck to the under surface of some rock in the shape of a half-goglet with a very long neck, and is lined with coarse grass-roots and feathers." HIETIXDO. 187 to occupy the nest at night, or, more correctly, to occupy the edge of the nest, for they do not get into it, but merely sit close together on its edge. The same nest is occupied the following year, the upper feathers being only removed and replaced by fresh ones. Should the nest have been destroyed a fresh one is* built on the same site. " The bird does not begin to sit till the full complement*^ eggs are laid, and both birds take part in the task of incubation." Mr. Wait, writing from Conoor, to the eastward of Ootacamund, remarks that they " breed from April to June, building underjeaves, bridges, open sheds, &c., and generally against the sides of the rafters. The nest, composed of mud pellets worked together and lined with soft feathers, is somewhat irregular in its external shape, and has a rather shallow cup-like egg-cavity some 2| inches in diameter ; they lay from two to five eggs, very round ovals, white, spotted with reddish brown." Miss M. Cockburn, writing from Kotagherry, remarks : — " They are fond of returning to the same places in which they build every year, and appear to prefer erecting their little nests in verandahs and eaves of outhouses. Many years ago I remember watching for some days a battle between a cock Sparrow and a pair of House-Swallows. The latter had finished their neat nest in our verandah, when the Sparrow discovered it, and never left it except for the purpose of satisfying his appetite. The poor Swallows saw they could do nothing, so they disappeared and told their friends the sad tale in Swallow language ; and as ' in the multitude of councillors there is wisdom,' some time after, to our surprise, we saw a great number of House-Swallows, each with a wee lump of clay in its bill. They flew up to the nest, and succeeded in build- ing up the sides, the Sparrow inside doing his utmost to stop their work ; but they, being accomplished artisans in their own masonry, did not take a second to fix each piece of clay. It became a most exciting scene, and we fully expected the Sparrow would have been imprisoned for life ; but no, he was much too crafty to allow that. "With one effort he burst through the very small hole which was unclosed, and escaped, being attacked by all the Swallows at the same instant. This conflict ended by the rightful owners having possession of their nest. They build here in the month of April, and lay two white eggs with dark specks and spots." Dr. 'Jordan says: — "I found it breeding chiefly in deserted bungalows and outhouses at Ootacamund, also at the Government wooden bungalows at the Avalanche. The nest small, open at the top, and profusely lined with feathers ; the eggs were two or three, white, spotted with reddish brown. It also breeds in houses in Xuwera Ellia, in Ceylon." Mr. Ehodes "W. Morgan, writing from South India, says : — " It breeds in the Xeilgherries in the roofs of houses and verandahs, also on large rocks and cliffs. In shape the nest resembles a pocket or the half of a teacup. It is formed of small clay pellets, agglutinated together with the saliva of the bird, and is very 188 HIRUNDINIDJE. firmly cemented to the face of the rock. The lining consists of feathers. The eggs are generally two in number, minutely speckled with claret-coloured spots on a whitish ground, the spots being gathered together in a zone at the larger end. Average length 0-77 inch, breadth 0-5." In Ceylon, according to Colonel Legge, this Swallow breeds in April, May, and June. Mr. W. Theobald makes the following remarks on the breeding of this bird in Tenasserim : — " Lays in the second week of April. Eggs three in number, long, ovato-pyriform ; size O77 by 0'52 inch ; colour white, spotted and ringed with umber. Nest a saucer of mud ; inner part coarse roots profusely lined with feathers and vegetable down, attached to the under part of snags projecting some 4 feet above the water." The eggs of this species closely resemble those of H. rustica, but are decidedly smaller, and are, I think, somewhat less glossy. They are moderately broad ovals, slightly compressed towards one end, have a pinky-white ground, and are very finely speckled and spotted, thinly at the small end, more densely at large end, where there is a tendency to form a zone, with different shades of dull purple and brownish red. In some the markings are comparatively large and coarse, in others excessively minute, and the intensity of the colour of the markings varies much in different specimens. In length the eggs vary from 0-64 to 0*77 inch, and in breadth from 0-48 to 0*57 inch ; but the average size is about 0'7 by 0'5 inch. 818. Hirundo smithii, Leach. The Wire-tailed Swallwv. Hirundo filifera, Steph., Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 159. Uromitus filifera (Steph.), Hutne, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 84. In the plains of India the Wire-tailed Swallow breeds chiefly in February and March, and again in July, August, and September ; but I have seen eggs as early as January and as late as November. In the lower ranges of the Himalayas, where it breeds up to an elevation of from 4000 to 5000 feet, I have taken the nests both in April and May, and have had eggs sent me in June. They breed almost exclusively in the immediate neighbourhood of water, under the cornices of bridges, under culverts beneath which some little pool remains, under overhanging shelves of rock or kunkar, projecting from the faces of stony or earthy river-cliffs, and in cells of buildings overlooking the water. The nest is composed exteriorly of mud, and is usually lined with feathers ; in shape, for the most part, about two thirds of a deepish cup. I have a note of two nests which I took at Etawah at a canal-bridge, March 8th, 1867 ; one contained three, the other two eggs. Those of the one nest were ready to hatch off ; those of the other were quite fresh. The shell of the nest was made of pellets of clay. In shape the first was half of a wide cone, blocked HIEUNDO. 189 up against the voussoir faces just below an overhanging cornice. Internally it was carefully lined with a few tine roots of grass and many soft feathers, chiefly those of doves and parrots, so as to leave a neat hemispherical cavity for the eggs. The second was a deep cup, plastered against the face of the bridge, a little way below a square projection, and had absolutely no lining of feathers, only a few grass-roots. A beautiful nest taken by Mr. Adam in the Etmadoodowla Gardens at Agra in the third week in August was a broad shallow half-saucer of pellets of clay, about 5| inches broad and about 3 inches from front to back, plastered against one of the walls of the small cells facing the river and near the roof. Several other birds of the same species were breeding in the same cell. The bottom of the nest was about f inch and the sides about | inch thick. The cavity was lined with fine grass-roots and a very few feathers. It contained three fresh eggs. Mr. Adam remarks : — "On the loth July, at Sambhur, I observed this species building in an old rest-house. " The nest was half-finished, and was placed in a very exposed place under the cornice, about 10 feet from the ground. Both birds were bringing mud from an open well about 200 yards off ; but the male seemed very inactive, and appeared to be shy of ap- proaching the nest while I stood about 8 yards off with my bino- culars, watching the building-operations. " The mud was taken from the water's edge, each bird taking from eight to ten pecks at the mud to fill its bill, and sometimes with the mud a piece of fine grass was taken. When the birds reached the nest, the mud was discharged along the edge by shaking the head and body, much like the shaking which takes place when a pigeon is feeding its young. The grass or fibre was carefully worked along the edge of the nest, and great care seemed to be taken by both birds to make the portion attached to the wall very secure. " On the 18th July I once took a nest with four eggs from an old well. The eggs were pinkish white with rust-coloured spots and blotches. On several occasions during August I have found the nest of this bird about old buildings along the Jumna near Agra. The nests generally contained three eggs." Three, I think, is the usual number of eggs ; but I have found only two, hard-set \ and Mr. "W. Blewitt, who took several nests during July and August, all built under canal- and drain-bridges in the neighbourhood of Hansie, found four eggs in two of the nests. Where there is plenty of water, from three to seven nests will often be found quite near to each other ; while, where there is little water, they are usually quite solitary. Dr. Jerdon remarks that " it breeds in old buildings, on walls, in stone bowries or wells, and very commonly under bridges and in rocks overhanging water, making a small nest, open at the top, and laying two or three eggs, which are white sparingly spotted with 190 HIRTTNDINIDJE. rusty red. I always found the nest single, and we seldom see more than five or six couples in one place." Major C. T. Bingham says : — " I have found many nests of this beautiful Swallow under the bridges on both the eastern and western Jumna canals at Delhi. They are half-saucers of mud lined with straw and a few soft feathers. On the 27th May eleven nests that I took contained three eggs each and more than half of them hard-set, so that I should say the bird breeds about Delhi in April and May." Mr. James Aitken, writing of this Swallow, says: — "This spe- cies supplies in Berar the place of H. rustica, which it so strongly resembles in its habits. It seems to be even fonder of water, indeed it rarely leaves it, skimming over the surface with a speed matching that of the Swift, its metallic colours flashing in the sun. It is a permanent resident, and breeds from February till June. The nest is a mere shallow saucer built under a rock or wall, some- times even an earthy bank at the waterside, and it exhibits in the construction all the forethought and patience of its English rela- tive. The first nest I watched took four weeks to complete, a narrow layer of mud being added cautiously each day and left to dry. When this part of the business was complete, a lining of fine grass was added, then one of feathers, and on this were laid three long-shaped eggs, of a white colour, well spotted with dark reddish brown. I confess to having been guilty of the cruelty of taking two of these for my collection, but the faithful little bird continued still to sit, and I had afterwards the satisfaction of seeing the re- maining egg hatched and the young one fledged. Long after they are able to fly the young are fed in the air by the old birds exactly after the manner of the English Swallow, parents and young circling round and round and then, with a complacent twitter, clinging together for an instant, during which the mouthful of insects is transferred from one to the other." Mr. Benjamin Aitken tells us that he has " observed the nidifi- cation of the Wire-tailed Swallow only on the river at Akola." " One pair had a nest on the 23rd December, 1869, but I did not examine it. On the 7th of January (1870) another pair were building a nest. " Three eggs were taken from a nest in the beginning of February 1870. The birds at once began a new nest against a rock a few yards off from the first place, and successfully reared three young. " On the 26th July, 1870, 1 made a note that the Wire-tailed Swallow had almost disappeared from Akola ; they had been com- mon on the river in the dry season." Colonel Butler says : — " I found a nest of the Wire-tailed Swallow at Deesa on the 10th August, 1875, fastened to the brick- work of a well, but could not ascertain its contents, as I could not induce any of the coolies to go down and take it. I took another nest out of the same well on the llth August the following year (1876) containing two eggs very slightly incubated. It was a half- cup, built of mud and thickly fined with feathers, and fastened to 191 the brickwork under an overhanging ledge of stone. I have often found the nest under bridges overhanging the water, and in holes of rocks with a similar aspect." Writing subsequently from Sind, he further says : — " Hydrdbad, Sind, Mi June, 1878. A nest under an archway over a canal, containing two fresh eggs. Another nest in a well on the 12th June, containing three fresh eggs Two more nests under arch- ways over canals on the 20th idem, each containing three fresh eggs ; and any number of other nests later on in the same neigh- bourhood, and in the E. Narra in similar situations." I Messrs. Davidson and Wenden, writing from the Deccan, re- mark : — " Common and breeds." Lieut. H. E. Barnes, writing of Eajputara in general, tells us that " the AVire-tailed Swallow, to my thinking the handsomest of the Hirundines, breeds from the latter part of February to April, and again in August and September." The eggs are in shape a long narrow oval, a good deal pointed towards one end. In some there is a pyriform tendency, and some are so excessively long and narrow as to recall the eggs of Cypselus affinis. In texture they are fine and delicate with, when fresh, a beautiful gloss, which, however, almost disappears as incubation proceeds. The ground-colour is white or pinkish white (wrhen fresh and unblown almost a delicate salmon-pink, owing to the yolk partially showing through), richly speckled, spotted, and blotched with various shades of reddish brown and brownish red. The extent of the markings varies greatly, as well as the intensity of their colouring. Some are spotted pretty uniformly all over ; but in the majority the markings are most numerous at the large end. Occasionally they are gathered into a well-marked zone towards this end ; and one egg has a nearly complete cap of con- fluent markings covering the whole of the larger end. These are the most richly-marked Swallow's eggs that I know, and some specimens are excessively handsome. The eggs vary greatly in dimensions, viz., from 0*65 to O8 inch in length, and from O5 to 0'57 inch in breadth ; but the average struck from a large number of measurements I find to be 0*72 by 0-53 inch. 819. Hirundo fluvicola, Jerd. The Indian Cliff-Swallow. Ilirundo fluvicola, Jerd., Jerd. JB. 2nd. i, p. 16J . Lagenoplastes Luvicola (Jerd.}, Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 87. The Indian Cliff-Swallow is one of the commonest of our Swal- lows, in Upper India at any rate. From the Tonse Biver near Mirzapur to the Sutledge near Ferozpur it abounds wherever there is water and cliffs or ruined buildings against which it can plaster its huge mud honeycomb-like congeries of nests. In the Doon under the Solanee Aqueduct, in Ajmere, at Ahmedabad, in Gruzerat, in Saugor, in the Central Provinces, and twenty other places, I have noticed numerous colonies in and on buildings ; and as for 192 HIBUNDINIDJE. breeding in cliffs, to give one single instance (and I could give fifty), visiting the Eiver Chambal, where the Etawah and Gwalior road crosses it, and following its course downwards to its junction at Bhurrey with the Jumna, one will meet with at least a hundred colonies of this species, all with their clustered nests plastered against the faces of the high clay cliffs which overhang the river. They breed, according to my experience, from February to April and again in July and August. They build a small, more or less retort-shaped mud nest, in clusters of from 20 to 200, packed as closely as possible, so that a section parallel to the wall or cliff face against which a colony has established itself, and about 4 inches away from the wall, would present an appearance much like that of a honeycomb, though the cells would be less regular. The tubular mouths, from 2 to 5 inches long, all point outwards, but those of the exterior nests of the cluster are generally turned somewhat. The chambers vary a good deal in size, but average about 4 inches in diameter. Their nests are to be found equally in the wildest and most desolate, and again, as at the Kotwalee in JDehra and the city-gate at Ajmere, in the most thronged and fre- quented localities. The nests are well lined with feathers, and I remember more than once that, when robbing these nests, numbers of feathers were carried away by the wind, all of which the little IS wallows indus- triously captured in their mouths, but at last, not knowing what to do with them, the men being still at work at the nests, appa- rently reluctantly let them fly. Mr. E. Thompson says : — " I found large numbers of this Swallow breeding in the Central Provinces, especially about the fine arched bridges which span the rivers on the Great Northern and Deccan road." Mr. E. E. Blewitt enquires : — ;' Does this bird breed twice in the year ? I ask the question for the following reason. Though I have occasionally seen this Swallow in other localities, yet only at Talbehut have 1 found the nest. On the side wall of a Hindoo place of worship facing the main road of the city there are clustered closely together above one hundred of these retort-shaped nests. When I passed there in the latter end of April the birds, a perfect colony of them, were breeding. " Owing to the strong prejudice of the people, who would not permit the nests to be robbed, I with difficulty secured four eggs. Again, in the same nests, the birds were found breeding in August, and some twenty eggs obtained. Four appears to be the regular number of eggs." So far as I can judge, three is the normal number ; I have opened a very large number of nests, and only twice or thrice found more than three eggs." Mr. James Aitken writes : — " The smallest of our Swallows, and much less familiarly known than the other species, as it lives in colonies, and is strictly confined to certain localities ; at Akola there is one of these colonies, which build their nests under a HIBUXDO. 193 broken portion of a wall which stretches out into the Moorna. The nests are retort-shaped ; a few stand apart, but. the majority are attached together, the tubular necks all standing out from the wall, and presenting a very peculiar appearance. With the first heavy showers of the monsoon, the river comes down in a flood and washes the whole place clean. As soon as the rains abate, rebuilding commences, and the bustle in the early morning is pro- digious, the birds hurrying from all quarters with their bills full of mnd. They are much persecuted by Sparrows, wTho take pos- of the egg-cup of the nest before the neck is added, and a single pair will cause several nests to be deserted before they suit themselves. As soon as the nests are finished the eggs are laid, and when hatched the birds simply throw the egg-shells into the water instead of carrying them to a distance, as is done by most birds, aware apparently that the stream will carry them away. I have noticed this also in the case of the Weaver-bird. The second brood is in February, during which month they swarm about the nests like bees about a hive, while every now and then splash into the water goes some too fragile neck, breaking even under the light weight of the little owner. These breakages do not, however, interfere in the least with the process of incubation, but appear to be repaired even while the mother bird is sitting. The eggs are two, sometimes three, in number, of a white colour, spotted with faint red ; I have seen some, however, pure white. They vary greatly both in colour and size. " After the young quit the nest, they associate in a large flock, playing about over the surface of the water, and drinking fre- quently as they fly. The old birds do not by any means confine themselves to the water, but spread freely over the country, and sing much on the wing. Their flight is comparatively feeble.'? Mr. Benjamin Aitken, relating his experiences of this Swallow, says : — " You remark that the Indian Cliff-Swallow builds its nests * in clusters of from 20 to 200.' It may therefore interest you to know that the only group of their nests I have observed consisted of about 600 nests. It was on the river at Akola, Berar, below the bund. There was a pool at the place, so that unless heavy rain had flooded the river the water was, in wet and dry season alike, breast-high. The nests were therefore much more difficult of access than one would have supposed, looking at the almost dry condition of the channel below the bund. The lowest rows of nests were only a foot or so above the surface of the water, but on wading up I could not see into a single nest, and could not reach more than a few with my hand. The nests were placed under the wreck of an old bridge, and were quite inaccessible from above. The birds were occupied about their breeding twice a year, but either they had two broods each time or some of them delayed much longer than others to lay their eggs. At any rate, the period between the time the flock returned to the breeding-place and the time when the old and young birds were scattered over the country was about two months. I regret that I was very VOL. ii. 13 194 HIHUNDINIDJi. negligent in making exact notes of their nidification ; the follow- ing are all I have : — " 7th Jan., 1870. Young birds just fledged. " 17th Jan., 1870. Scores more have left the nest. " 22nd June, 1870. The Swallows have come back to their nests in great numbers. " 5th Jan., 1871. Swallows breeding. " 9th Feb., 1871. This morning I waded into the water and examined a number of the nests. I first put my fingers into those with short necks, and found them all empty. 1 then broke open five nests that had necks 6 inches long. Of these two were empty, but lined with straw, feathers, and rags ; two more contained young birds; the fifth had three white eggs. It is worth record- ing that for some weeks past young birds have been leaving the nest, the old ones feeding them on the wing. The nests are made entirely of pellets of clay, all exactly alike and as large as dry peas. I lately watched about twenty of these Swallows building ; they took the mud from the edge of the water about ten yards from the nests, and were in a tremendous bustle. They took several pecks at the mud to make each pellet, and stayed five seconds on the ground each time. "A colony of these Swallows breed under a bridge over the ri\er at Poona, but it would be impossible to get a sight of the nests without a boat, and the Poona Boat-club never go on that branch of the river." Messrs. Davidson and Wenden remark of this Swallow in the Deccan : — " Very common. Breeds in great numbers under the railway-arch over the standing water of Sholapoor tank." Colonel Butler says : — " I have eggs of the Cliff-Swallow taken at Sattara in 1875. Some are pure white, the others marked all over with pale yellowish brown." Captain E. B. Shopland, I.M., found this Swallow breeding at Akyab. He says : — I found about ten nests in April under a bridge ; some contained young birds, others fresh eggs. The nests were composed of mud and lined with grass, casuarina-1 eaves, and feathers. The greatest number of eggs in any one nest was four, and they were white speckled with two shades of brown, chiefly round the larger end." The eggs of this species vary much in size, shape, and colour. >ically they are a long oval, a good deal pointed towards one end; but some are fairly perfect ovals, while others are pyriform, and here and there a nearly cylindrical variety is observable. They are smaller, as a rule, than those of H. erythropyyia and more glossy, resembling in these respects those of H. Jilifera. The ground-colour in all is white, a good deal tinged, when fresh and unblown, with pale salmon-colour, due to the partial transparency of the delicate shell. About half are pure and spotless white, the rest are more or less streaked, mottled, speckled, or clouded with pale yellowish, or somewhat reddish brown. The markings are never bold or sharply defined as those of H. Jilifera so commonly HIRUNDO. 195 are ; and though the difference may not be very apparent by the description, in practice the two eggs could not well be confounded. As a rule the markings are most numerous towards the large end, where they have a tendency to form an ill-defined mottled cap, and in many eggs they are almost entirely confined to it. In length the eggs vary from O65 to 0-8 inch, and in breadth from 0-48 to O58 ; but the average struck from fifty eggs is 0*76 by 0*53 inch. 822. Hirundo nepalensis, Hodgs. Hodysons Striated Swallow. Lillia daurica (Lmn.\ Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 85 bis. This, the larger of our Indian Mosque-Swallows, although visiting during the cold season the plains of India, breeds, so far as I know, exclusively in the Himalayas — I mean, of course, within our limits. It is very familiar about the houses of most of our hill-stations, but I think constructs its nest by preference under the eaves and in the verandahs of empty houses and staging bungalows, which are seldom in the hills occupied for many successive days in any month. At the same time its nest is often to be seen under pro- jecting ledges of cliffs, and occasionally, where these occur, in ruined buildings. The breeding-time, according to my experience, is from April to August ; but I have taken a dozen eggs in July to one in any other month. The nests are very similar to those of its plains congener, long and retort-shaped, very neatly built with clay pellets, as a rule very \varmly lined first with grass or fibres and fine roots, and then with various-sized feathers, of which there is often quite a large bunch. They average, however, much larger than those of H. erytliropyyia, and one I recently measured had the tubular entrance 13 inches in length and the chamber more than 7 inches in diameter exteriorly. Mr. Brooks remarks : — " The nest is always a half-retort, fixed to the underside of an overhanging rock or cave, generally with only one entrance ; but a friend of mine, Mr. Home, gives me an account of one fixed to one of the verandah rafters of a house where the nest has two entrances. "In the hills about Almora I found the nest several times, sometimes in open exposed places, at other times where the rocks were overgrown with wood. The eggs resemble those I took in the plains. The plains bird does not breed till the hot winds are over, end of June or beginning of July ; but in the hills I found eggs nearly hatched in May. Others at Binsur, Mr. Home in- forms me, have only just laid in the middle of July, when I write. The hill-bird breeding in the verandahs of houses, as well as in eaves, accords with the habit of the Chinese bird, w hich Mr. Svvin- hoe remarks ' breeds under the roof-tops.' " Captain Hutton says : — " This is the common Swallow of the 13* 196 Doon and hills, arriving in the latter locality in March, and building its retort-shaped nest of mud beneath the eaves of houses, against window-frames, at the side of verandah beams, and other suitable situations ; the lining is of feathers. Some eggs taken on the 29th of May were hard-set, but other broods were still earlier, as a nest placed against the window of m y room had then contained youug ones for some days previously. During the heavy mists of the rainy season these nests often fall by their own weight from the quantity of moisture imbibed. " When far removed from houses, these birds resort to lofty rocks, beneath the ledges of which the nest is placed. Its shape is flattish hemispherical, with some variation, being at times more globose, with a long neck forming the entrance passage, and thus giving the nest a retort shape. When the bird has selected the spot on which it intends to build, it usually deposits a white chalky substance, by way of cement, against the wall or beam as the case may be, as an adhesive foundation for the subsequent wall of mud. Without this precaution the weight of the material would cause it to part from its foundation. This same whitish earth may also be seen in the narrow neck of the nest, more especially at the mouth, where strength is required to resist the constant abrasion that would otherwise ensue from the frequent entrance and exit of the bird. Generally speaking, this chalky cement is applied to any part that may from circumstances appear to require strengthening, as it likewise gives consistency to the mud. Sometimes, if the situation affords sufficient room, the long neck projects in a straight line from the body of the nest, but where the space is confined, or an obstacle interposes, the neck is turned off at an angle, and in such cases there is pretty sure to be a layer of the chalky cement at the point of deviation from the previous direction. When, however, the material is of a sufficient consistency to be adhesive without the cement, none is applied. In the construction of the nest the mud is laid on in small rounded lumps, which gives a rude and knotty appearance to the surface. The lining is abundant and is composed of fine grass and feathers. " There are frequently two broods from the same nest in the same season, the first in the end of May and beginning of June, the other in July and August. The birds that built against my window reared one brood in June, and, as soon as the young were able to fly, they were escorted by the old birds during the day and were initiated in the art of fly-catching, returning to the nest about sunset or earlier if the rain was heavy. This continued for about ten days, when the young birds disappeared, and the old ones laid again in the same nest towards the end of July." The late Captain Beavan mentions that he " found a nest which was built in the verandah of the dak bungalow at Fagoo on the 2nd August, 1866. It was then but just finished, and the female had not yet begun to lay her eggs. The nest is like that of H. rustica, made of mud, but has a funnel-shaped entrance, some 4 or 5 inches in length, continued from the top of the nest along the HIRUNDO. 197 angle caused by the meeting of the wall and the roof. The female keeps inside the nest, and from the continued twittering which she made when visited by the male, I thought at first that the nest contained young ; and it was not until I drove her out that I dis- covered my mistake." "Writing from Murree, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall remarks : — "This is the House-Swallow of Murree — breeds under all the eaves. Lays pure white eggs in June." The eggs of this species are similar to those of //. eryifiropygia, except that they are slightly larger. They are long ovals, slightly com]! .ised towards one end, pure white, the shell of exquisite fineness, and somewhat, but not very, glossy. In length they vary from 0-8 1 to O89 inch, and in breadth from O55 to 0-6 inch, but the average is 0-85 to 0-55 inch. 823. Hirundo erythropygia, Sykes. Sykes's Striated Swallow. Hirundo daurica, Linn., Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 160 (part.). Lillia erythropygia (Sykes), Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 80. Sykes's Striated Swallow, which is, as a rule, a permanent resident of the plains, breeds, according to my experience, from April to August. Typically the nest, which is usually affixed to the under surface of some ledge of rock, or the roof of some cave or building, and which is constructed of fine pellets of mud or clay, consists of a narrow tubular passage, like a white-ant gallery on a large scale, say some 2 inches in diameter, and from 4 to 10 inches in length, terminating in a bulb-like chamber from 4| to 7 inches in diameter externally. These nests have been aptly described as retort-shaped, and I do not think any lengthy description will convey a clearer idea of the typical shape. They are not always, however, of this shape. Indeed (though I am bound to say I cannot agree with him) Mr. F. E. Blewitt, who has probably taken more of their nests than any one else in India, is disposed to believe that the long retort-shaped nests are commonly built as residences, and the less-developed ones as breeding-places. He says : — " Eccentric to a degree is this Swallow in the selection of a suitable place for its nest. I have obtained it on the ground, at the base of a rock, having for protection just a small overhanging ledge ; in a hole in any old wall; affixed to the roof-top of a pucka house; to the under ledge of a high rock; the arch of a culvert or bridge, &c. ; but never, though they may occur there, ' in mosques and pagodas ;' and ' twenty and thirty together/ as stated in Jerdon. I have always found the nest single. The form and material of the nest depend mainly on the locality chosen for it. Sometimes a simple collection of feathers answers the purpose, at others, as when attached to a roof-top, ledge of rock, &c., it is more or less dome- shaped, the exterior of fine clay, the inside lined with feathers. The opening for egress and ingress is invariably made above the 198 HIHUNDINIU^E. centre of the nesfc. Frequently have I seen the ' spherical or oval- shaped mud nest with the long neck or tubular entrance,' described by Jerdon, but only once with eggs in it. This peculiar-shaped nest is also constructed at times by H.filifera, and from frequent observations I have sometimes fancied that it is intended more for a winter residence than for breeding purposes. I have recently observed many of both species actively employed in the construction of these nests, long after the breeding-season was well over. In the beginning of August I robbed a nest of H. erytliropygia, found attached to the roof of an outhouse : and in the identical place from whence I had removed the former nest, the same pair of birds have now nearly completed a new nest, ' oval-shaped, with the tubular entrance,' for, as I suppose, a winter retreat. The birds only occupy it at night. The eggs are pure white, and four appears to be the greatest number." During the breeding-season the old birds fly round about their nest, morning and evening, uttering quite a variety of rather pretty, somewhat musical notes. During the day they remain near, and one of them generally in the nest, or the pair may be seen perched on some stone below the nest, sitting for an hour at a time preening their feathers, the male every now and then singing a few notes. Old quarries, like those near Futtehpore Sikri and Chunar, are favourite breeding-haunts of this species ; and so are the old Mos- lem ruins that abound so in Upper India. The nest-chamber is lined, sometimes thickly, sometimes thinly, with feathers only, as a rule, but occasionally with a mixture of these and fine grass. They are not easily driven away once they have made a nest. I have broken into nests twice running, to see if any eggs were laid, and each time the birds have repaired the nest, in which, despite these repeated burglaries, they have finally laid. Major C. T. Bingham remarks : — " Breeds at Allahabad in March, April, May, and June, and at Delhi I have found their nests also in September. They build long retort-shaped nests made of pellets of mud, plastering them against the roof of culverts underneath, against the top of caves, in banks of rivers, and in ruins, against the roof of any deserted mosque. Three, I think, is the ordinary number of eggs laid ; these are pure white, and rather cylindrical in shape." Colonel Butler, writing from Aboo, says : — " Very abundant at Aboo, where it breeds during the rains in June and July, fixing its curious retort-shaped nest usually to the roof of a cave, and laying two or three pure white eggs. I am doubtful whether it occurs in the plains during the hot weather, but 'I am inclined to think it does not. My opinion is that most of them pass the hot weather on the hills, where they abound at that season, and breed in the rains, returning to the plains again about the end of September, soon after which they disappear entirely on the hills, and become very common all over the plains." And he subsequently added the following note : — " The Red- 1IIBT7NDO. 199 rumped Swallow breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa in June and July. The nest is usually stuck to the roof of caves or holes in rocks, and, like that of other Swallows, is built of mud exter- nally, and lined with dry grass and feathers. It is of a peculiar form, being completely closed up, of an oval shape, terminating at one end with a tubular passage about 7 or 8 inches long, by which the birds enter. During the period of incubation, the female sits very closely, suffering a great noise to be made without flying off the nest. It is not uncommon to find both birds in the nest during the time the hen is sitting. I have taken nests in April at Mount Aboo, but these were exceptionable instances, as they do not as r ule commence buildiug before the middle or end of May. In the plains they often build under bridges, archways, across nullah culverts, &c." Mr. Benjamin Aitken mentions that " Between the 20th and 31st May, 1871, Jerdon's Eed-rumped Swallow was observed to be in possession of nests, in similar places to those of Cotyle con- color, at Khaudalla, a hill-station on the top of the Bhore G-hat." Mr. G. Vidal notes from the South Konkaii : — " Common and generally distributed. Breeds in the hot weather on the cliffs and under eaves of houses." Mr. James Aitken says : — " This is one of those birds which seem highly to appreciate the advantages of civilization, and to think, like Cowper's cat, that men take a great deal of trouble to please them. In Berar they have almost discarded the mosques which gave them their name, and have betaken themselves to the culverts of the roads, which are now being constructed all over the country. Wherever a road is made some of the culverts are sure to be taken possession of, as soon as the rains commence, by pairs of these Swallows, which may be seen darting in at one end and out at the other, or hawking about for flies over the pools of water at the road-side ; their flight has, however, nothing of the extreme rapidity of that of the Swifts or Wire-tailed Swallows. During the cold season the young often assemble in large flocks, but these all disperse, or perhaps migrate, as the weather gets warmer, and only a few pairs remain to breed during the monsoon. The nest is of mud, with a prolonged entrance running along the wall, and is lined with coarse grass and feathers. The eggs are long shaped and pure white, without spot of any kind. In the subterraneous situation in which the nest is so often placed, and with the air still further excluded by the long neck, it is a marvel how the young escape suffocation." Mr. Davison remarks : — " This species breeds on the Nilghiris about the commencement of April. The nest, as usual with Swallows, is composed externally of mud, and thickly lined with feathers ; it is shaped like the half of a Florence flask. It is placed generally against the roof of a cave or overhanging rock. The eggs are generally three in number, pure white, and of rather an elongated form. Several nests are often placed close together, 200 and often some favourite site is apparently the bone of contention between several pairs. " I once found, a few miles out of Ooty, several nests of this bird placed on the underside of a large overhanging rock, and although the breeding-season had long passed (it was, I think, in the early part of November that I found these nests), I never- theless climbed up to where the nests were, to see if there were any addled eggs. After examining a few of the nests, I came to one which had the tubular entrance walled up, and the mud per- fectly hard and dry. On breaking away a part of the nest I found a dead bird in it, which had come quite to the sealed end of the tubular neck, and had there died ; the nest contained three old eggs, of which the contents had partially dried up. I can only account for this bricking, or, I should say, walling up of the entrance to the nest, by supposing that some of the other birds had coveted and failed to obtain this site for their nests. It is only natural to suppose that more than one pair were concerned in the business, as it would have taken at least one bird to keep the bird from leaving its nest, and another to keep its mate away from the nest, and probably another, or several other pairs to close the entrance." Dr. Jerdon (who, however, did not discriminate this and the preceding species) states that " a few couples, at all events, breed in the south of India ; for I have seen their nests on a rock at the Dimhutty waterfall on the Nilghiris, twenty or thirty together. I have found one or two nests in deserted outhouses in Mysore; and they are said to breed very constantly on large buildings, old mosques, pagodas, and such like ; hence the native name of Mosque- Swallow in the south of India ; but I rather think there is a con- siderable increase of their numbers during the cold weather, and it was no doubt at the time of their northward migration that Colonel Sykes saw them in such vast numbers at Poona. The nest, as figured by Pallas and observed by myself, is a spherical or oval- shaped mud nest, with a long neck or tubular entrance, of the kind which is called a retort nest, and the eggs are white, faintly marked with rusty-coloured spots." Miss Cockburn, writing from Kotagherry, says : — " I only once found a nest, and this was on the 9th April. It was constructed under a shelving rock, raised so high from the ground as to allow of my walking under it. The cave, if I may so call it, was in a wild, lonely locality, suggestive more of bears than Swallows. " The nest, which was built of clay, was about | foot long, the entrance being at one end. It was warmly lined with feathers, and contained three pure white eggs, very long in shape. As I wished to know if the number would be increased, they were left for a couple of days. On visiting the spot again, I found the length of the nest had been increased considerably, the eggs being left at the far end ; but as there were no more than three, they were taken possession of." MOTACILLA. 201 I also have noticed the birds (or one of them) still building, and yet found eggs more or less incubated within. The eggs are pure white, with scarcely any perceptible gloss ; generally a long oval, occasionally somewhat pyriform in shape, and rarely very long and narrow like those of our Indian Swift. They are perfectly spotless, and so far as shape and size go the egg of H. daurica figured by Bree sufficiently correctly represents an average specimen. Many eggs, however, are longer and nar- rower than that figure, and while all are, as in the figure, somewhat- pointed towards the end, some are conspicuously so. The eggs vary from O75 to 0-83 inch in length, and from 0-52 to 0-6 f. ,h in breadth ; but they average about 0-78 by O55 inch. 825. Hirundo hyperythra, Blyth. The Ceylon Swallow. Hirundo hyperythra, Blyth, Hume, Cat. no. 85 quint. Colonel Legge writes in his ' Birds of Ceylon ' : — " The Red- bellied Swallow breeds in the north, south, and centre of the island from March until June, constructing a Martin-like nest in outhouses, open dwellings, or under culverts and bridges. The nest is composed externally of mud, and lined with feathers ; it is large and the entrance is situated usually at the end of a spout, running from 3 to 6 inches along the planks at the top of the nest ; some have merely a circular orifice at the top. One which I fre- quently observed during the course of its construction was built in a merchant's office at Galle, the familiar little architects taking no notice whatever of the clerks who wrote at their desks just beneath ; it was completed in about three weeks, the spout being added last, and after this wras finished one of the pair took up its position inside the nest, and received the feathers brought by its mate to the entrance. The eggs are either two or three in number, and some brought to me as belonging to this bird were pure white and pointed lengthy ovals in shape, much resembling those of Oypselus ciffinis ; they measure O85 inch by O56 inch. I have not taken the eggs myself." Family MOTACILLIDJE. Motacilla personata, Gould. The Masked Wagtail. Motacilla dukhunensis, Sykes, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 218. Motacilla personata, Gould, Hume, Cat. no. 591. Writing of M. personata in Afghanistan, Major Wardlaw Earn- say says:— "The Masked Wagtail (Motacilla alba of my first paper, Ibis, 1879, p. 448) was abundant, and was breeding 202 MOTACILLID^E. throughout May and June. On the 5th June I found a nest .... It contained five young birds, which had been hatched a few days. On returning to the nest on the 28th of the same month, the young had flown, and a second laying of three eggs was in the nest. In course of preserving the female, which I shot, I found in her a fourth egg, ready for laying. Another nest was placed in a recess under a large stone near the edge of the water." Motacilla hodgsoni, Gr. E. Gray. Hodgson s Pled Wagtail. Motacilla luzoniensis, Scop., Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 590. Hodgson's Pied Wagtail breeds during May and June in Cash- mere, where Mr. Brooks himself took several nests. This Wagtail nests in holes, under large stones, in shingle beds of rivers, and in accumulations of drift wood. Mr. Brooks says : — " Cock and I took several nests during our trip to Cashmere. The birds build under large boulders in the beds of rivers, where they would be destroyed if a flood took place causing the river to rise. One nest found by Captain Cock was inside a heap of drift wood." Later, writing from the valley of the Bhagiruttee in the hills north of Mussoorie, he says : — " Motacilla hodysoni, Gray, breeds near Dangulla and about Deralee, where there are suitable gravel- beds in the river. On the llth May a female which I dissected had an egg nearly full-sized. Some of the birds I saw at this time had grey backs, others partly grey and partly black, and some had pure black backs. The male has a pretty song." The eggs are typically somewhat broad ovals, pointed towards the small end, but somewhat more elongated, and occasionally slightly pyriform, varieties occur. The ground-colour is greyish white, sometimes with the faintest possible brownish tinge. Some are very minutely and thickly speckled all over, but most thickly at the large end, with pale brown and brownish grey ; in others the markings, though still minute, are brighter, bolder, and more sparse, with here and there very faint, scarcely noticeable, inky-purple or grey clouds underlying the primary markings. The eggs, as might be expected, often very closely resemble those of both M. alba and M. lugubris, but are, I think, slightly larger. In length they vary from 0-76 to 0*8, and in breadth from 0-6 to 0-64. Motacilla maderaspatensis, Gm. The Large Pied Wagtail. Motacilla maderaspatana, Briss., Jerd. B. Ind. \\, p. 217 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 589. The Large Pied Wagtail breeds throughout India from north to south, only avoiding the low country of Bengal Proper. In the Himalayas it is never found, I believe, at elevations exceeding MOTACILLA. 203 3000 feet, but it ascends the mountains of Southern India to any elevation at which water occurs, and breeds at Ootacamund. Throughout the country, March, April, and May are the months in which they chiefly lay, more eggs being met with in April than in any other month ; but on the Cauvery my friend Mr. H. K. P. Carter met with eggs both in December and January. They always nest in the neighbourhood of water, but, with this sole reservation, they place their nests almost anywhere. These may be found in holes in banks, crevices in rocks, under stones, mult -r clods of earth, amongst the timbers of bridges, in drains, holes in ^lls, on roofs, and in fact anywhere except on shrubs or bushes. / .he nests are always down on something solid, and that is about all that can be said. In the middle of the River Jumna, at Agra, there is an iron buoy attached to the pontoon bridge, which is surmounted by an iron ring, which lies down nearly horizontal, and in this ring for several successive seasons a pair of Pied Wagtails nested, within 5 yards of the roadway, and in full view of the thousands of passengers who daily cross the bridge. In the Chumbul, a little above its junction with the Jumna, a pair built in the clumsy old ferry boat which was but seldom used, and \vhen the female was sitting she allowed herself to be ferried backwards and forwards, the male all the while sitting on the gunwale singing, making from time to time short jerky flights over the water and returning fearlessly to his post. In this latter case the nest was nothing but one of those small circular ring-pads, say 4 inches in external diameter, and an inch thick at the circumference, which the women place on their heads to enable them to carry steadily their round-bottomed earthen water- vessels ; a dozen tiny soft blades of grass had been laid across the central hole, and on these, of course bending them down to the surface of the massive boat-knee on which the pad had been accidentally left lying, the eggs were laid. The character and materials of the nest are quite as various as are the situations in which it is placed ; as to character it varies from nothing (for they will lay in a tiny depression on the bare earth) up to a neat well-formed saucer or shallow cup; as to materials, nothing tolerably soft seems to come amiss to them : fine twigs, grass-roots, wool, feathers, horse-, cow-, and human hair, string, coir, rags, and all kinds of vegetable fibres, seem to be indifferently used. It is impossible to generalize satisfactorily in regard to the nidification of such irregular-minded birds as these, and it will be well to quote a number of different accounts to illustrate the matter properly ; and I need now only add that four is the normal number of the eggs, that I have twice (out of perhaps a hundred nests) met with five, and that I have frequently found only three more or less incubated, as well as only three young ones. First, to quote an old note of my own recorded at Etawah : — " Found three nests of this bird on the 14th March, 1867, on the 204 MOTAClLLIDjE. banks of the Jumna, near Sheregurk; two were built inside clusters of kunker rocks, completely under overhanging slabs, and one was so situated that one's hand could hardly reach it. The nests were circular, about 5 inches in diameter and about 2 inches thick, with a central 3-incb diameter and an inch-deep depression. The nests were rather solidly woven with grass-roots and grass, and thickly and warmly lined — the one with cotton-wool and a little sheep's wrool and human hair ; the other with cotton-wool, a few soft duck's feathers, some soft tow, and several pieces of soft native cotton-thread : the one contained four perfectly fresh, the other three slightly incubated, eggs. " The third nest was under the curving side of a huge log of sal stranded a few feet above the present water-level. It was very solidly woven of hair, a great proportion of which was human, and the rest of cows and horses. There were only two eggs, and they were fresh." Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall tells me " that this bird breeds com- monly in the Saharunpoor District on the flat roofs of the canal chokies, or in the small ventilating holes in the wall ; sometimes it makes an elaborate and very neatly constructed nest of twigs and grass thickly lined with hair and feathers ; at other times the eggs are deposited on the bare sand which lodges in the drain- pipes at the corners of the roof. The eggs are four in number, and differ much in size and colour." The late Mr. A. Anderson remarked: — " Several pairs of these "Wagtails breed annually at Futtegurh ; their favourite place appears to be the bridge of boats. The nest is usually placed inside a ' pigeon-hole,' either at the bow or stern of a boat, and is a large solid structure, well lined with wool and tow. " The eggs are usually four in number, and I have known the same pair to lay a second clutch very soon after the first batch had been removed. They do not begin to build till the end of April or beginning of May. " Two years ago I found M. maderaspatana, Columba intermedia, and Coracias indica, a pair of each, building in the same boat : the Wagtail's nest was on a rafter under the planks, and the other birds occupied ' pigeon-holes ' or niches at either end of the boat." From Sambhur Mr. E. M. Adam notes that " the Pied Wagtail is very common about all the open wells and tanks. They build during April and May. Although I have been looking out for the nest of this bird for some time, the first I found was on the morning of the 18th April. I then noticed an adult catching a large dragon-fly, and as it did not proceed at once to devour it, I thought that it might be for its young. After flirting about for fully five minutes with the fly in its bill, it popped into a hole at the very water-level of a tank near to my house, and immediately reappeared without the fly. On examining the hole I found a nest containing three full-fledged nestlings and one addled egg. The nest was a longish oval, about 7 inches in length and 4 inches in breadth ; in thickness it was about 2 inches. It was composed of MOTACJLLA. 205 pieces of twine, cloth, fibres of plants, feathers, and a large pro- portion of human hair. Bound the outer edge there was a rim formed, I presume, to keep the young in the nest. The egg- receptacle was quite flat, and lined with a few feathers, horsehair, wool, and fibres firmly matted together. On the 1st May I observed another bird building, and found its nest in a hole in the bank of an open well. The nest had just been commenced ; on the 3rd it was finished, and on the 7th it contained t\vo eggs, which I took with the nest. Another bird I watched finished its nest on the 7th May, and ou the 9th, 10th, llth, and 12th it laid an egg & \ day. The eggs are dirty white in colour, much speckled a^o. spotted with pale brown and dusky ; at the broad end the spots are massed together, while in one egg they form a zone.'" From Hoshungabad Mr. E. C. Nunn writes : — " On the llth April we found a nest in a low bank in the bed of the Nerbuddah. It was composed of a mixture of wool, hair, feathers, grass-roots, pieces of thread and hemp, and bits of cotton. On the very next day we found a second precisely similar nest in a similar situation. Each nesfc contained two fresh eggs." At Ahmednuggur, in the Deccan, the Eev. H. J. Bruce recorded the following note : — " 26th April, 1869. — Found a nest of this bird containing four fresh eggs. The nest was situated on a shelf under a projecting rock in the perpendicular bank of the river; was but 6 or 8 inches above the water-level, and 15 inches from the edge of the bank. It was composed of coarse sticks upon the lower and outer sides, above which were finer sticks and roots of grass lined with hair. The whole was so loosely put together that it was with difficulty removed from its place. The outer side was built up with sticks nearly 4 inches, while the inner side was scarce an inch thick. " The egg-cavity was 2| inches in diameter and 1| inch in depth. The eggs were of bluish-white colour, thickly covered with light brown blotches which often run into each other. On the larger end of one specimen these blotches form an irregular circle, while the other three have the whole larger end more or less thickly covered." Writing from Poona about this species, Mr. E. Aitken remarks : — " I found a nest on the 17th of last April. It was on one of the barrels on which the platform of the boat-club floats. By raising one loose plank, I got a look at the nest, and thought I distin- guished three young ones, nearly fledged. They had a nest in the very same situation (on the identical barrel, I believe) last year." Colonel E. A. Butler writes :— " The Pied Wagtail breeds at Mount Aboo round the lake in March and April, placing its nest in holes of stone walls, which are often made at the edge of the water to support the road leading round the lake. The cock-bird during the period of incubation generally sits upon some big rock which, rising above the surface of the water, forms an island at no great distance from the nest." ^06 MOTACILL1DJ5. He adds : — " The Pied Wagtail breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa in the early part of the year. I found a nest in the hole of a river-bank on the 9th April, 1870, containing three half-fledged young ones ; the parent birds kept flying backwards and forwards to the nest with small dragon-flies in their mouths. I found another nest at Sattara in September 1872, in a small hole cut as a step in the stonework of a well by the side of a large tank." Mr. "W. Davison says : — " The Pied Wagtail breeds in April and May on the Nilghiris. I have taken the nest from the bank of a stream, between the beams of an old bridge, and for several years in succession from a slit in a rock in the Ootacamund Lake. The nest is chiefly composed of grass and grass-roots, lined with flue dry grass." Writing from the banks of the Cauvery Mr. H. E. P. Carter records that on the 17th December, 1866, he " found a nest in the space between the girder of a bridge and the wall. The nest was made principally of coir, lined with bullock's hair; it was shallow and not well formed. Eggs three, very broad and blunt at one end, and pointed at the other. " 20th January, 1867. — Again examined the old nest and found that it had been strengthened by some rags, otherwise was much as last year's. There were two eggs in it this time." Messrs. Davidson and Wenden, writing of the Deccan, say : — " Common, and breeds in cold weather and rains." The eggs differ very much in size and shape, and vary from a long to a rather broad oval. They are always more or less pointed towards the small end. In the general shade of the egg and in the colour and extent of the markings they vary excessively. There are, however, two leading types— the one in which the pre- vailing tint is greenish, a greenish-white ground with greenish- brown markings ; and the other in which the general colour is brown, dingy \vood-brown markings on a pale earthy-white ground. Each of them again is divisible into two classes — those in which the markings are comparatively distinct, and leave a good deal of the ground-colour, especially towards the e-mail end, visible ; and those in which they are nearly confluent everywhere, only leaving the ground-colour to peep through in specks or as a feeble paler mottling. Even this last class is again divisible into t\\ o types — one in which the markings are excessively close speckling, and the other in which they are close smudgy mottling. All the varieties that their eggs exhibit are reproduced amongst those of our Larks, and both in their nesting-habits and the character of their eggs there seem stronger affinities between the Wagtails and the Larks than would be surmised from their plumage and external appear- ance. Generally it may be said that the ground-colour (of which more or less is visible in different specimens) varies from pale brownish to greenish white. The markings are clouds, smudges, streaks, spots, and specks ; sometimes all these forms are exhibited in one and the same egg, but most commonly one or other form greatly predominates, so as to give its own peculiar character to MOTACILLA. 207 the egg. The colour of the markings is sometimes earthy brown, sometimes dark olive-brown, and sometimes purplish brown. In some eggs the whole surface is covered with markings more or less uniformly ; in others they are far more dense on the large end, and comparatively sparse elsewhere. In length these eggs vary from 0-82 to O98, and in breadth from 0-6 to O7 ; but the average of twenty-nine eggs is O9 by rather less than 0-66. MtT . 3illa melanope (Pall.). The Grey War/tail. Calobates sulphurea (Bechst.*), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 2^0. Calobates boarula (Perm.), Hume, Rough Draft N. 8? E. no. 592. The Grey Wagtail breeds plentifully, Mr. Brooks tells us, along the mountain-streams of Cashmere, at elevations of above 6000 feet. All the nests of which I have received any record were takmi during the latter half of May and the early part of June. Four or five appear to be the usual number of eggs. Mr. Brooks remarks : — "I have examined a good series of both of Calobates sulphurea and C. melanope, Pallas, and though the color- ation is the same, there is such a very great difference in length of tail that I cannot conclude them to be the same. " The situation chosen for the nest is different, and C. melanope is not nearly such a noisy bird when breeding as C. sulphurea. " One nest that I found in Cashmere, at Kagari, was placed in a small bush on an island in the Sind Eiver, about 5 feet above the ground. The situation was that of a Finch's nest ! It was composed of moss, fibres, &c., and lined with hair, a neat compact nest, and placed in the forks of the branches near the top of the bush. " The other nest was placed under a large boulder on the dry bed of the river, and was composed of the same materials. The eggs out of this nest were more pinkish than those of any sulphurea I have ever seen." Major Wardlaw Eamsay says, writing of Afghanistan : — " Com- menced to breed in May. On the 5th June I found a nest in the roots of a tree which was lying in the dry bed of the stream near our camp ; it contained four young ones just hatched, and one addled egg, which I secured with the old bird." The eggs are pretty uniform, both in size and shape — broad ovals at the larger end, and much compressed and pointed towards the small end. Typically the ground-colour is yellowish or brownish white, closely mottled and clouded all over with pale yellowish brown or brownish yellow ; these markings, always pale, dull, and smudyy, are somewhat darker in some specimens and lighter in others. Almost all the eggs have a very fine black hair- like line twisted about somewhere near the large end. Mr. Brooks took a nest, which he feels certain belonged to this bird, in which the eggs are similar in shape, size, and character of markings to 208 MOTACILLTD^E. those which I have above described as typical, but which had the ground-colour pale salmon-pink and the mottling a darker, slightly brownish, salmon-colour. In length the eggs vary from 0-68 to 0*73, and in breadth from 0-53 to 0-55. Motacilla citreoloides (Hodgs). Hodgson s Yellow-headed Wagtail. Budytes citreola (Pall], Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 225. Budytes calcaratus, Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 594. Hodgson's Yellow-headed Wagtail, figured by Gould, breeds in Cashmere, where it is excessively plentiful during the season, but only one Indian oologist appears as yet to have taken its eggs. Mr. W. Theobald makes the following remarks on its nidification in the Valley of Cashmere: — "Lays in the third week of May; eggs, four in number, ovato-pyriform ; size, O95 by 0*70 ; colour, pale grey, thickly dotted and ringed with greenish-brown and greyish-neutral mingled together ; a depression in soft earth beneath a rock : valley generally.''* Anthus trivialis (Linn.). The Tree- Pipit. Pipastes arboreus (Bechst.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 229. Pipastes plumatus (Mull}, Hume, Rough Draft N. # E. DO. 597. A pair of Tree-Pipits, obviously breeding, were brought to me in the flesh at Kotegurh on the 6th May, together with a nest con- taining three fresh eggs. They were all alleged to have been procured two days previously on the snowy hills north-east of Kotegurh and on the other side of the Sutlej. The nest was nearly circular, a shallow saucer composed of grass and lined with fine grass-stems and a little hair, and had been placed on the ground at the foot of a tuft of grass. It was found high up, close below the snow-line, while the men were shooting Tetraogallus himalayanm. No one can rely upon what native huntsmen say, but the birds, as dissection showed, were breeding, and I believe the eggs to be genuine. They are very broad ovals, very slightly compressed towards one end. The shell has but little gloss ; the ground-colour is greyish white with a faint pinkish tinge, and the eggs are pretty thickly speckled and spotted all over, and very densely so at the large end, with dull purple and purplish brown. They vary from 0-83 to 0-86 in length, and from 0-59 to 0-67 in breadth. AXTHUS. 209 Anthus maculatus, Hodgs. The Indian Tree- Pipit. Pipastes agilis (Sykes), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 228 ; Hume, Rouyh Draft N. $ E. no. 590. The Indian Tree-Pipit, so common throughout the plains of India from north to south during the cold season, breeds but spar- ingly, if at all, within our limits. All I know of its nidification is that a loose grass nest, contaiu- ing a sino£" _rg, taken on the 3rd June, and a male bird (said to have been shot on the nest) were sent to me from Upper Kooloo. The nest was found on the snowy range bounding Spiti, at an ele- vation of probably 11,000 feet, at any rate above the Pines. Even if this was not the nest of the Pipit, the latter must, from the season, have been breeding somewhere near, and this chiefly is my reason for mentioning the fact. I entertain no doubt of the good faith of my correspondent, but he is no ornithologist : and the egg is so large, and so closely resembles those of Oreocorys sylvanus, of which several accompa- nied it, that I feel by no means sure of its authenticity. The egg is a moderately broad oval, slightly compressed towards one end, has a greyish-white ground, and is thickly and minutely speckled and spotted all over with two different shades of rather pale dingy purple. It is clearly the egg of a Pipit of some kind or other, but, as I said before, I cannot vouch for its authenticity. The egg has only a very faint gloss. It measures 0'93 by 0'68. The late Mr. A. Anderson was fortunate to find nests of this Pipit himself. He writes : — " Pushing on as quickly as possible for the region of the snows, I arrived at Dhaknri Benak, which is at an elevation of nearly 11,000 feet, on the loth May. This was reputed to be almost a sure find for Woodcocks, and it was marked off in my chart as one of the chief places to be visited. Great, however, was my grief when I was obliged to quit the place without ever flushing a bird, notwithstanding that I employed an additional staff of coolies and offered most tempting rewards for even the sight of one. " But though I had here to take temporary leave of the Wood- cocks, I did not leave Dhakuri empty-handed, for the very last pieces of cover I drew, out flew a Pipit from a tussock of long grass, under the shelter of which was placed the nest, which contained four hard-set * very black-looking eggs of the much-disputed (by European ornithologists, I should add) Indian or Green-backed Pipit (Anthus maculatus). The nest was deeply placed in the damp * These eggs were on the point of hatching, but I saved them by means of carbolic acid. It may not be generally known that small eggs can be preserved in this way by making a largish hole and inserting pieces of cotton- wool tightly rolled into small pills well saturated with the acid ; they should thus be stuffed fo the utmost, and then allowed to dry. Eggs prepared in this way («'. e. when they are too far incubated to admit of beirg blown^ never go bad. YOL. II. 14 210 MOTACILLID.E. (almost wet) ground, and it was a large massive structure of green moss lined internally with fine grass-stems. The bird, during the time I was engaged in examining the nest and eggs, stood motion- less on the grassy slope, not more than ten yards from where she had been flushed, eyeing me all the while with outstretched neck, and remained in that position till I shot her. " These eggs are very large for the size of the bird, much more so than the usual run of the eggs of kindred species (Anthus arbo- reus and A. pratensis), and larger than a second sitting of fresh eggs which I obtained later on. On the same day several more old birds and two fully-fledged young ones, while in the act of being fed by their parents, were brought to bag. " I next encountered the same species in great abundance at Furkia, on the banks of the Pindar, close under the glacier, at an elevation of 12,000 feet. My camp here was pitched on solid ice, and it snowed heavily during the night : it was indeed an ' abode of snow.' Here I saw Aquila chrysaetus, gyrating over the snow- capped peaks, and Pyrrhocorax alpinus for the first and only time. Chaimarrornis leucocephala, Ruticilla fuliginosa, Enicurus scouleri, and Hydrobata asiatica were my constant companions, and were to be seen enjoying themselves on the spray-covered boulders in the foaming torrent; while my paharees shared the same cave with Columba leuconota, and amused themselves by catching marmots (Arctomys hemachalanus). " Here, with the snow lying several feet deep on the ground, I found my second nest of Anthus maculatus : it contained three callow young ; but as the nest-architecture differed very materially from the first one, and as the parent birds were so terribly wild, I was necessitated to have the sitting bird noosed on the nest ; shooting it was quite out of the question. This nest was composed entirely of grass-bents, a very shallow saucer-like affair without the addition of any moss or warm materials, as in the first one. " The third and last nest, containing four beautiful fresh eggs of the same dark type as the first clutch, was taken atBepulla on the 14th of June. This one, as regards position, size, and materials, was exactly similar to the second one above described. " To sum up. Anthus maculatus affects by preference the more open grassy mountain-slopes in the immediate vicinity of woods, at elevations from 7000 to 12,000 feet ; these open glades in Northern Kumaon are thinly covered with trees and overgrown with beautilul thick, soft, velvety grass, about a foot high, with occasional IUSSOCKS, especially in the neighbourhood of sheep-pens, sufficiently dense and ^igh to afford cover to a hare. This, at any rate during the breeding-season, is par excellence the abode of both Anthus maculatus and A. rosaceus, which are the only two species of Pipits to be met with at so high an elevation. " The birds on these undulating meadows, at limes stretching away for miles, and covering the crest of some of the highest spurs, are extremely lively and very difficult to approach. You have fre- quently to go on * all fours,' taking advantage of every hollow and ANTHUS. 2 11 irregularity on the ground before you can get within shooting distance of them, and by the time you have bagged three or four you are completely done up, notwithstanding the thermometer registers only 50°. Once flushed, they become doubly wild, and at the first approach of danger rise perpendicularly almost out of sight, with a series of jerky flights, at times poising themselves in mid-air, very much after the fashion of the Sky-Lark. " In its nidification it resembles Anthus arboreus. The nest, as I have already_mentioned, is constructed of dry grass-blades, and it is well co"T iled under a tussock of overhanging grass. The eggs, however, are very different from those of the sister species, and resemble very dark varieties of Anthus pratensw ; in short, they are very like Hewitson's second figure of the Meadow -Pi pit's egg, a variety which that author says is seldom met with. " Although I explored many miles of good ground where these birds were plentiful, I procured only three nests ; the conclusion to be arrived at is that the majority of them are late breeders, say from the latter end of June to July. "Mr. Brooks, who has been so good as to examine my series of this bird, pronounces them, one and all, to belong to the typical Anthus maculatus. The chief specific characters of this species, as has now so frequently been referred to, consist in the narrow ill- defined striations on the back, which is an olive-green colour, and in having the posterior half of the supercilium pure white. I never once came across Anthus arboreus, which would appear to summer much further north, probably from Thibet to Yar- kand." Anthus nilgblriensis, Sharpe. The Nilyhiri Pipit. Pipastes montanus (Jerd.), Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 230 ; Hume, Rouyh Draft N. $ E. no. 598. Mr. Davison brought me a skin, nest, and four eggs of the Nilghiri Pipit from the Mlghiris, and informs me that they were obtained in May at Neddivattam, at an elevation of about 6500 feet ; the nest is a shallow cup of grass loosely put together and lined with finer grass. He snared the bird on the nest. He remarks : — " This bird breeds at Ootacamund and its immediate vicinity, and also down the slopes to about 6000 feet. The nest is placed under a tuft of grass, or bush, on the side of a hill, and is composed of dry grass lined with finer grass. The eggs, two or three in num- ber, are pale dingy greenish brown, thickly mottled with a darker shade. The bird breeds in April and May." The eggs vary in shape from rather broad to moderately elon- gated ovals, and one of them is a good deal compressed and some- what pointed towards the small end; they are dull-looking eggs, with scarcely any gloss. The ground-colour, of which by the way the markings leave little visible, varies in every egg : in the four before me it is pinkish-, greenish-, greyish-, and creamy- white, and 212 MOTACILLID^E. it is freckled, mottled, streaked, and blotched all over, but as a rule most densely towards the large end, with dingy brown or purple, of different shades in different eggs, or both. In one egg the whole of the markings are a dingy brownish-pinkish-purple ; in another they are a mixture of sepia-brown and very pale inky purple ; in another all sepia-brown of different shades ; while in a fourth the brown is slightly yellower. In length the four eggs vary from 0'79 to O89, and in breadth from 0-59 to 0-62. Anthus sordidus, Riipp. The Rufous Rock-Pipit. Agrodrorna cinnamomea (Riipp^ Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 235. Agrodroma similis, Jerd., Hume, Rough Draft N. q E. no. 603. Miss Cockburn says : — " The Rufous Rock-Pipit is considered a very rare bird, even on the Nilghiris. It is also extremely shy, never approaching the habitation of man, and if a human being trespasses on its wild retreat it instantly mounts high up in the air, as if trying to escape his reach. " Dr. Jerdon has figured this species in his ' Illustrations of Indian Ornithology,' and says he has met with it ' on the Segoor Pass of the Nilghiris among rocky ground.' A nest of this rare bird was found on this very Pass under a shelving rock ; it was formed of fine grass, and contained only one egg. No doubt the bird would have laid others, but it was too precious to an oologist to be left even for a day, and therefore was brought safely away. This egg was very much like a Lark's except that a greater number of spots make it appear darker. It was found in the month of March." Subsequently she obtained another nest, and favoured me with two eggs. They very closely resemble those of Alauda malabarica, Jerd. nee Scop., but are more glossy. They are moderately elon- gated ovals, somewhat compressed and pointed towards one end, with a creamy-white ground densely but very minutely freckled and speckled all over with what on close examination proves to be very pale yellowish brown and pale purplish grey. The markings are almost uniformly distributed over the whole surface, but they are slightly more dense at the large end. These eggs were taken on the 16th May, and measured O85 and 0-86 by 0-65. Anthus jerdoni (Finsch). The Brown Roclc-Pipit. Agrodroma sordida (Riipp.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 236. Agrodroma jerdoni, Finsch, Httme, Rough Draft N. 8f E. no. 604. I have never myself succeeded in finding a nest of the Brown Rock-Pipit, and, looking to the eggs of this species sent me by Colonel Marshall, those brought by Mr. Thompson's men from ANTHUS. 213 Grurhwal arid described in 4 Lahore to Tarkand,' p. 76, cannot have belonged to it. From Murree Colonel 0. H. T. Marshall writes : — " Bough-made nest of grass. Breeds from May till middle of July, low down the hill-side. Lays four eggs, much resembling the eggs of other species of this family. We took six nests, and twice found the Common Cuckoo's eggs in them. They do not breed above 6000 feet up." The eggs sent me by Colonel Marshall are barely, if at all, separable fr,~ those of Oreocorys sylvanus. I have a great num- ber of the eggs of this latter species, many taken with my own hands, so that there can be no doubt, I think, as to the authenti- city of these. Colonel Marshall, again, has taken numerous nests of the present species, and he is equally certain of the authenticity of his eggs ; either one or other of us is wrong, or it is a fact (which is hardly credible) that the eggs of Oreocorys sylvanus and Agrodroma jerdoni (A. sordida, Riippell apud Jerdon) are in- separable ! Major Wardlaw Ramsay, who found the nest of this Pipit in Afghanistan, unfortunately merely remarks : — " I found the nest on the 22nd June under a small bush at the foot of a rock. It was neatly let into the ground, and contained three eggs, which I regret not being able to describe, as my collection of eggs has not yet arrived from India." The eggs sent by Colonel Marshall are moderately broad, fairly regular, ovals, somewhat compressed or pointed towards one end ; the shells are compact and fine, but almost entirely devoid of gloss. The ground-colour is a brownish or greyish white, and they are profusely speckled, spotted, and streaked, and in places blotched and clouded, with a sort of sienna-brown and a pale dingy half -washed-out colour, which varies from pale sepia to pale inky purple. The markings are everywhere thickly set, but they are much most dense towards the large end, where they very gene- rally form a more or less confluent cap. Some of the eggs have all the markings somewhat purple, and others have them browner. In length these eggs vary from 0-82 to 0-87, and in breadth from 0-62 to 0-65. Anthns rufulus, Yieill. The Common Pipit. Corydalla rufula ( Vieill}, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 232 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 600. The Common Pipit or Indian Tit-Lark breeds (though, according to my experience, somewhat sparingly) all over the plains of India, as also in the Himalayas, up to elevations of 5000 or 6000 feet. I have very seldom found its nest ; the few I have seen have all been placed on the ground and under or in the midst of tufts of grass. All have been shallow or saucer-like nests, composed of 214 MOTACILLID.E. grass and roots and lined very scantily with finer roots. Three eggs is the largest number I have seen in one nest. The breeding-season certainly extends from March to July, but the three nests I have myself taken in Upper India were all found in April. A nest of this species, taken by Mr. F. R. Blewitt at Saugor on July 16th, and kindly sent to me by that gentleman, was a shallow ragged saucer some 4 inches in diameter, with an egg- cavity an inch deep. It was composed almost entirely of very fine brown rootlets, looking for all the world like a lump of oakum, inter- mingled with a few pieces of grass, and with a mere pretence for a lining of fine grass-roots. The fine oakum-like rootlets were fitted together so as to make the bottom and sides of the nest, comparatively speaking, very firm. Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall tells us that " the Indian Tit-Lark breeds in the Saharunpoor District in March, the eggs being hatched in the first half of April. " The nest is placed on the ground, under a tuft of grass or against a clod in the open field. A nest taken on the 24th March with three slightly-set eggs was placed against, and half under, a large clod, with grass growing on it, which bending over com- pletely concealed the nest ; it was cup-shaped and composed of grass and grass-roots and fibre, much coarser and more strongly put together than the nest of the Crested Lark. There was no perceptible lining. The egg-receptacle was 2| inches in diameter and nearly 2 inches deep. " The eggs, three in number, were of a slightly yellowish-white colour, profusely and boldly spotted and blotched with yellowish brown and dingy purple, the markings being most numerous towards the larger end, where they exhibit a tendency to form an irregular confluent cap." According to Mr. Hodgson's notes, this species " breeds in Nepal, laying in March and April, the young ones being ready to fly in June. They build their nests under the shelter of some clump of grass or overhanging clod, constructing it of dry grass and cow-hair, which they round into a very shallow pad-like nest. They lay three or four eggs." Dr. Jerdon states that "it makes its nest on the ground in April and May, under a slight prominence or in a tuft of grass, or at the edge of a bush, and lays three or four eggs, of a greenish ground-colour, with numerous small brown specks, chiefly on the larger end." This Pipit has been found breeding by Mr. Doig in the Eastern Narra districts. Colonel Butler writes from Deesa :— "April 30th, 1876. Found a nest of the Indian Tit- Lark, containing three young birds about a fortnight old, so that the eggs were probably laid about the end of the third week in March. The nest was placed on the ground in the centre of a small tamarisk-bush growing on some hard, bare, incrustated ground in the bed of the river. It was a well-built ANTHUS. 215 nest, consisting of fine light-coloured roots and grasses intermingled with a considerable quantity of oakum woven together and lined with similar materials, but finer, and a few horsehairs. A con- siderable-sized hole had been excavated for the admission of the nest. The two parent birds kept running ( Wagtail-like) to and fro with insects in their mouths, principally small dragonflies, which they caught along the edge of the water." He subsequently wrote from Belgaum: — " Belgaum : 14th June, 1879, a well-built nest under a tussock of grass on a rocky ' maidan/ containing three incubated eggs. Another iiest ou the 22nd June, containing three fresh eggs. 30th June, two nes" one containing a single fresh egg, the other three young birds about ten days old. All of the above nests were in the same locality and in precisely similar situations. The nests were all compact and well built, and in some instances had a slight canopy, evidently as a protection from the rain. " Belgaum : 28th March, 1880, a nest by the side of a tussock of grass, containing three half-fledged young ones. The nest was on a bare ' maidan ' in a very exposed situation. April 4th, visited two nests that J had left on the 2nd April, each then containing two • fresh eggs, and found them both empty and deserted. One nest was very solidly built of dry grass, coarse exteriorly, fine interiorly, and completely hidden under the grass, having a run up to it through the grass, and would never have been discovered unless the old bird had been seen going to and from it whilst building. The other was in a tussock of coarse grass in a comparatively open situation. In the breeding-season these birds rise into the air constantly, much like Pyrrhulauda grisea or Chcetornis locusttlloides, and, after soaring about singing for a short time, descend, Lark- like, with wings and tail spread, usually settling on some low bush or bank near the nest. 1 notice that in the breeding-season these birds perch constantly on low bushes. April llth, a nest on an open fc maidan' in a tussock of grass, containing three incubated eggs. As a rule, when nests are built on a maidan exposed to the wind, such as we have in this neighbourhood, they are invariably placed on the leeward side of the tussock, and usually have a canopy over the top to protect them from the wind. The nest thus resembles a ball of grass with a good-sized entrance at the side. "On the 17th of April I found another nest, containing three fresh eggs, and, placing a horsehair noose at the entrance, caught the hen bird in a few minutes. On the 18th April I took another nest with three fresh eggs ; and on the 19th April found three nests, each containing a single fresh egg. Two more nests on the 23rd April, each containing three incubated eggs ; -and one on the 26th April, containing three fresh eggs. 27th April, another nest con- taining three fresh eggs, and one containing three incubated " 2nd May, two nests, each containing three incubated eggs. 16th June, a nest containing four fresh eggs : this is the first time I have ever seen more than three eggs in one nest. 20th June,. 216 MOTACILLID^. three fresh eggs. 25th June, a nest in the hole of a bank by the road-side containing four fresh eggs." Colonel Legge informs us that this Pipit breeds in the west and south of Ceylon during May, June, and July. Mr. J. R. Cripps, writing from Furreedpore, in Eastern Bengal, says : — " Common, and a permanent resident. Found in high cultivated fields and paddy-fields. Breeds during April and May under tufts of grass, on the sides of embankments, &c. The nest is made of fine grasses, cup-shaped ; very often a hollow is taken advantage of, and this the bird fills neatly with grass. Some birds breed even in June." Mr. Gates remarks that this Pipit breeds commonly all over Burma in suitable localities from March to May, or even later. The eggs, very variable both in shape and tint, are generally moderately broad and rather perfect ovals, scarcely at all pointed towards the small end, and in size and shape closely resemble those of the Common Tit-Lark. The ground is typically a brownish or greenish stone-colour, and it is thickly streaked, clouded, and streakily spotted, sometimes with dull brownish and purplish red and sometimes with brown of different shades, or brown intermingled with pale purplish grey. The markings are not unfrequently greatly more dense at the large end, where they have a tendency to become confluent, and where they are often more or less united by a dull dingy purple or brownish nimbus. Some eggs are altogether paler, having the ground a greyish white and the markings minute, more speckly, and better defined than those first described. In length they vary from O75 to 0'86, and in breadth from 0-57 to 0-63. Anthus rosaceus, Hodgs. Hodgson's Pipit. Anthus cervinus (Pall.), Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 237. Anthus rosaceus, Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. 8f E. no. 605. My friend Mr. R. Thompson sent two men, one an experienced shikaree and the other a stuffer, into Upper Grurhwal to procure birds and eggs for me, especially those of the larger Pheasants. The men returned with numerous skins, but without a single egg of the species they had been directed to search for. They brought with them, however, two nests of eggs which they had found on the ground, along with a skin of one of the parent birds belonging to each nest. The skin pertaining to the one nest was that of Anthus jerdoni, the other was that of A. rosaceus. The men had never been instructed to search for eggs of this kind — they had no earthly object in deceiving. The birds are both very common in the interior where they were, and the shikaree was not likely to have been himself deceived as to the bird really belonging to the egg he brought. There was, therefore, a pretty fair presumption that the eggs were what they purported to be : but, for all that, it OREOCORYS. 217 is pretty certain, from Colonel Marshall's experience, that their pretended eggs of A. jerdoni did not pertain to that species ; and it may therefore well be doubted whether the eggs they produced as those of Hodgson's Pipit can be at all relied on. Future inves- tigations must decide this point. The eggs are moderately broad ovals, scarcely pointed at all towards the small end, but greatly resembling in shape (though somewhat larger) and in the character of their markings those of Anthus rufalus. The ground-colour is a ruddy cream, and they are very thickly streaked and clouded and streakily spotted with red and purplish red. Strange to say, though the character of the markings is very different, the colours recall those of some varie- ties of our " Ibul's. They have, like those of A. rufulus, a faint gloss. They measure 0'8 and 0-82 by 0-65. They were obtained on the 27th May in Upper Grurhwal, at an elevation of over 12,000 feet. The nest was found on the ground in a small depression and under the shelter of a tuft of grass. It seemed to have been a flat saucer some 4 inches in diameter, and was composed entirely of dry grass. A nest of this species obtained by Mr. Mandelli's people in the Dolaka District of Xepal on the 5th May is a mere pad of fine grass-stems loosely twisted together, and with a few dry pinnse of some Pteris incorporated at one side. It appears to have been circular, about 3-5 in diameter and 0'75 in thickness. It was placed on the ground in a little depression amongst grass, and contained two fresh eggs. An egg said to belong to this species, obtained by Mr. Mandelli in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling on the 19th May, 1875, re- sembles a Lark's egg. It is a very regular rather elongated oval. The ground-colour appears to be greyish white, and it is very thickly freckled over its whole surface with a very pale earthy brown, which is slightly darker in patches and especially in a zone near the large end. The egg has scarcely any gloss. It measures 0-85 by 0-60. Oreocorys sylvanus (Hodgs.). The Upland Pipit. Heterura svlvana, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 239 ; Hume, Hough DraftN.fyE.no.WQ. The Upland Pipit breeds throughout the middle ranges of the Himalayas east of the Beas, at elevations of from 4000 to 7000 or 8000 feet. Westward of the Beas, I daresay, it may also breed, but I have no record of the fact. I have myself found the nests in Kooloo, in the Sutlej Valley, at Simla on Jacko itself, and near Mussoorie. In Kumaon I found young ones just able to fly, and Mr. Hodgson obtained the eggs in Kepal. The breeding-season lasts from April to July, but the majority of the birds lay in the neighbourhood of Simla in the last fortnight of May and the first week in June. I have obtained young birds 218 MOTACILLID^E. barely able to fly in September, and either some pairs rear a second brood or else some breed very late. All the nests that I have seen have been composed entirely of soft grass, rounded into a more or less shallow, saucer-like shape, in some cases too loosely put together to bear removal, in others tolerably compactly interwoven. I think the nests average nearly 5 inches in diameter, and scarcely more than an inch in thickness. They are always placed on a hill-side — an open more or less grassy slope — under some overhanging tuft of grass or projecting rock, and as a rule pretty well screened from view. The female, I think, alone sits. The male, however, is always at hand, uttering from time to time a single whistling note, followed by a single clacking note often repeated, sometimes on the ground and sometimes as he descends, after a short flight, with open wings, like the Tit-Lark at home. Four is the usual complement of eggs, but I have found five. I again notice the fact that the numerous eggs of this species v hich 1 possess and have seen, many of them taken by myself, are, as far as I can judge, absolutely undistinguishable from the eggs sent me by Colonel C. H. T. Marshall as those of AntJius jerdoni. 1 feel disturbed about this. I cannot see how I can have made any mistake. There were a pair bred on Jaeko whom I watched building their nest, and then watched the eggs laid, one a day till there were four. The birds cannot be confounded. It is almost impossible that these widely different birds should lay precisely similar eggs, yet Colonel Marshall is certain of those he obtained. Mr. Hodgson notes that he took a nest of this species in the valley of Nepal on the 4th May. The nest was on the ground, on a slope shaded by a tuft of grass, and overhung by a large clod of earth ; it was a shallow cup, some 6 inches in diameter and 2 in height, loosely made of fine dry grass and devoid of lining, and contained four eggs, figured as precisely similar to those which I have taken. The eggs are oval, some narrow and elongated, and others moderately broad or even slightly pyriform ; the ground is white or slightly greyish white, and they are very thickly spotted and speckled all over, in some with reddish, in others with purplish brown and with pale inky purple. In some the markings are all very minute, speckly, and streaky ; in others they are somewhat bolder and more spotty. Looked closely into in a good light, the tone of the markings varies a good deal, but not so much as do the eggs of our European Anihus trivialis. These eggs are almost entirely devoid of gloss. I should add that in some eggs a ruddy purple tinge pervades all the markings, while in others the general tint is browner or greyer. In length they vary from O82 to O98, and in breadth from 0*63 to 0'72 ; but the average of twenty-seven eggs is nearly O9 by 0-68. ALJEMON. 219 Family ALAUDID^E. Alsemon desertorum (Stanley). The Desert-LarTc. Certhilauda desertorum (Stanley}, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 438 ; Hume, Cat. no. 770. Regarding the breeding of the Desert-Lark, Lieut. J. C. Francis, writing from Karachi, says : — " I discovered a nest of this bird yesterday (li~ May), but imfortunately the young, three in num- ber, were just hatched. I was looking for the eggs of the Small Terns, when I saw a Tern swoop down at another bird on the ground. I saw that the bird on the ground was a Desert-Lark, and on going closer I saw that it had a worm or small insect in its bill. 1 watched it, and saw it run up a mound of sand and stop there for a short time. On going up to this, I found the nest. The mound was just on the edge of a strip of bare sand ; it was about 2 feet in circumference at the top, and 18 inches high, and roundish in shape. The nest was large, placed in the sand, from outside twig to outside about a foot across. It was composed of, first, a layer of small branches, and then a deep, circular cup, some- what like an English Thrush's nest. The cup was composed of sand stuck together with bits of grass and two pieces of rag and lined with grass. Nest very conspicuous. "1 know the Desert-Lark perfectly, and have two specimens which I shot and skinned myself, so I did not shoot the birds. The old bird was very daring, running round and round my legs at a distance of less than five yards with outspread wings and open beak, but uttering no sound. I am certain of the bird — the shape of the beak, the spotted breast, the white on the wings, and its running powers and unwillingness to fly render it unmistakable. I watched a small colony of these birds, about six, a short time back, and found them constantly flying up perpendicularly to about 15 or 20 feet, and uttering a short, melodious, whistling song, the notes of which have quite gone out of my recollection." Mr. Scrope Doig writes : — " On the 3rd June I found a nest and young of this species on a large open plain on the borders between the Narra and Hydrabad districts. Since then I have to thank my friend Mr. Flinch for an egg of this bird taken at Jask. The nest I found was similar to those of Pyrrhulauda grisea, but larger. The egg in my collection is in markings very similar to eggs of P. melanauchen, the markings being bolder and the egg about twice the size." The eggs are moderately elongated ovals, slightly compressed towards one end, with a fine, compact, but scarcely appreciably glossy shell ; the ground-colour is greyish white, in some thickly, in some thinly, freckled, speckled, or in some blotched, with pale yellowish brown. The markings have a tendency to form an irre- 220 gular /.one about the large end, and in and about this zone are generally faint underlying clouds of very pale sepia or inky grey. In some eggs the markings are sparse and comparatively bold, in others very numerous and speckly and streaky in their character. Two eggs measured 1-05 and 1 in length by 0'76 and 0-72 respec- tively in breadth*. Otocorys elwesi, Blanf. Elwes's Horned Lark. Otocoris penicillata (Gould], Jerd. E. Ind. ii, p. 429. Otocorys penicillata (Gould), Hume, Cat. no. 763. Mr. Mandelli sent me eggs obtained from a nest on the ground on the borders of Thibet and Native Sikhim, which he considered •to belong to this species. They are typical Lark's eggs, with a white or greyish-white ground, minutely freckled and mottled all over with a pale olive- brown, more or less intermingled with dull purplish grey. The eggs are somewhat elongated ovals, exhibit a slight gloss, and measure 0-88 and 0-9 by 0'64 and 0-65. Alauda arvensis, Linn. The Sky-Lark. Alauda triborhyncha, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 433. Alauda arvensis, Linn., Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 766. This, though certainly not A. triborhyncha, Hodgson, is the larger Sky-Lark which Dr. Jerdon describes under this latter name, and which, if distinct from the European bird, should stand as A. liopus, Hodgson. Mr. Brooks considers that it is specifically distinct ; I do not. I therefore call it A. arvensis : he retains Hodgson's name. It makes very little difference, as with this ex- planation everybody will understand which bird I refer to. The Sky-Lark (he would call it the " Larger Indian Sky-Lark ") breeds, / believe, pretty well all through the Himalayas, at eleva- tions of from 8000 to 10,000 feet, although I only know of its nests having been found in Kooloo and Cashmere. In India as in England the oft-quoted lines subjoined well describe alike the nest and its situation : — " He loves, where tufts of grass Luxuriant crown the ridge ; there, with his mate, He founds their lowly house of withered bents And coarsest spear-grass ; next, the inner work With finer and still finer fibres lays, Rounding it curious with his speckled breast." The only five nests of which I have records were found in May * Mr Hume appears to hare examined numerous eggs of this species. Amongst his notes, however, lean find measurements of only two eggs. These were taken at Jask, in the Persian Gulf, on the 15th April, 1878. I cannot dis- cover, however, any note regarding the finding of these or any other eggs. — ED. ALAUDA, 221 and June, and contained, one five, two four, and the rest lesser numbers of eggs. Eggs which I consider belong to this species, though Mr. Brooks would assign them to A. liopus as a distinct species, taken at Soonamerg in Cashmere by Captain Cock, and in Kooloo by my own collectors, very much resemble those of A. gulgula, but are somewhat larger, and have the markings, I think, rather coarser. The ground-colour of the egg is white, tinged greenish, yellowish, brownish, and greyish in different specimens, and the whole surface is thickly and moderately finely mottled over (much more densely towards the large end) with brown (the shade of which varies much in different eg;*^ generally more or less intermingled with dull grey. In some eggs the brown is decidedly yellowish ; in others it is a sepia-brown ; in some it is decidedly greyish. In most eggs the markings seem more or less completely confluent towards the large end, and form there a more or less irregular clouded cap or zone. The eggs vary in length from O83 to 0*93, and in breadth from 0*65 to 0*67 ; but I have unfortunately only measured four. Alauda gulgula, Frankl. The Indian Sky-Lark. Alauda gulg-ula, Frank!., Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 434 ; Hume, Rouy/i Draft N. $ E. no. 767. Under this one specific title I propose to include all the many races of the Indian Sky-Lark, and there is the less inconvenience in this, that all these races, alike in hills and plains, north and south, breed at the same season (from the middle of April to nearly the end of June), build the same kind of nest, and lay the same number of precisely similar eggs. The nest is always placed on the ground in a shallow depression, usually, I believe, scratched by the birds themselves, under the shelter of some clod of earth, large stone, tuft of grass or other herbage, or dense stunted bush. It consists merely of a deeper or shallower cup or saucer of fine grass, in many cases a mere lining to the hole or depression, in others a regular nest, the interior always being composed of the finest grass. Five is certainly the maximum number of eggs laid, and three is, I think, the usual complement. From Almorah * Mr. Brooks tells us that he found the Indian Sky-Lark laying in Kumaon in May, and he says that the bird is " common on open ground near Almorah, and between that place and Binsur. It is a most delightful songster, quite equal to the English Sky-Lark, I think, and the song is sweeter. I do not think it goes on for quite so long a time as A. arvensis. * A specimen of a Sky-Lark procured by Mr. Brooks at Almorah, and now in the British Museum appears to be referable to A. gulyula rather than to A. arvensis (var. A. liopus) as might have been expected. — ED. 222 " The nest is placed in any little hollow more or less overgrown with short grass, and one I found with a stone partly overhanging it. It is composed, just like that of the English Sky -Lark, of a small quantity of fine grass. Number of eggs three or four, greyish white, mottled and speckled all over with two shades of light brown. The colouring closely resembles that of the eggs of A. arvensis" From Saharunpoor Colonel G-. F. L. Marshall writes : — *' Our Sky-Lark builds a deep cup-shaped nest on the ground, against some clod of earth, composed of grass. It lays in the latter half of May, and five is the full number of the eggs." Major C. T. Bingham says : — " I have only found nests of this bird at Allahabad, where it bred from the end of February to the end of April. Of eight nests found marked down for me, none contained more than three eggs. "The nests are more or less deep saucers composed of fine grass-roots, very loosely put together, and placed nearly always under the shelter of a tuft of grass." Colonel E. A. Butler writes :— " The Indian Sky-Lark is not particularly common. I found a nest near Deesa on the 8th July, containing two eggs, amongst some tussocks of coarse grass in the sandy bed of a river. The nest consisted of a well-woven pad of fine dry grass, placed in a hollow at the root of a small tuft of grass growing on bare shingle/' "Belgaum: 18th April, two fresh eggs; 19th April, two eggs slightly incubated. Both nests were built on the ground in small depressions by the side of a clod of earth, OIL a very open maidan, where the grass had been burnt away. I snared the hen birds at the nest, so that there should be no doubt as to identity. The nests were of the usual Lark-type — neat little cups of dry grass, coarse exteriorly, and fine within. Another nest, which I took on the 26th April, containing two incubated eggs, had a collection of small pieces of dried horse-dung in front of it, forming a slight em- bankment in front of the entrance. " Belgaum : 17th September, 1879, found three fresh eggs. The nest consisted of a neat little cup sunk in a patch of short green grass on a grassy plain, upon which numerous herds of cattle were feeding. It was scantily lined with fine dry grass-stems, with a single lock (numbering about half a dozen hairs) of black horse- hair intertwined with the grass at the bottom of the nest. On trying to remove it, the whole affair fell to pieces in my hand. It was a difficult nest to find, being completely overgrown by the surrounding grass, with a small passage through the grass on one side for ingress and egress. To make sure of the species, although I had very little doubt, as the cock bird was soaring high overhead singing beautifully at the time, I laid a horsehair noose at the nest and caught the hen bird. I shot a young bird in the same neigh- bourhood, only just able to fly, in June, so that they lay also much earlier in the season/' Mr. B. Aitken writes :— " AJcola, 20t7i July, 1876.— I found a ALAUDA. 223 Sky-Lark's nest this morning with t\vo young ones a week old. The nest, which was in a hole in a piece of broken ground, was cup-shaped, very deep, and neatly made of fine roots and straws ; it had no lining. The old bird had just put an entire flying-ant, of large size, wing and all, into the bill of one of the young ones. Both the young were in a weak state, perhaps in consequence of the rainy weather, and the one in particular was making no effort to swallow its large and coarse mouthful, the wings of which, a full inch long, were sticking out of its bill. " Akola, 1r 3 fresh eggs." An egg of this species obtained on the banks of the Jheelum on the 20th March much resembles those of the preceding species, but it is more glossy, the ground-colour is somewhat purer white than either, and it is less densely spotted and speckled, the mark- ings being spots and specks and small smears of pale yellowish brown, with a few very minute pale inky-purple specks and spots underlying the brown markings. Generally I may add, after seeing several more eggs, the ground- colour is dull white, spotted and mottled all over, but more thickly towards the larger end, with pale greenish brown. There are a few spots of grey intermixed with the brown ones, especially towards the larger end. Several eggs that I measured varied from 0*7 to 0*8 in length, and from 0-5 to 0'57 in breadth. Mirafra cantillans, Jerd. The Sinyiny Bush-Lark. Mirafra cantillans, Jerd., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 420 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 757. The Singing Bush-Lark, as Jerdon calls it, breeds in many places in the Xorth-western and Central Provinces and the Punjab. The bird has always been a puzzle to me. At distances of 50 miles or more apart you come upon small colonies, while in hundreds of intermediate and apparently precisely similar localities you never see it. I have had its eggs sent me from near Lahore and from Hansie, have found them in Goorgaon and in the south of the Cawnpoor District, and again have received them from Jhansi. The breeding-season lasts from March to August. The nest, like that of M. assamica, is sometimes a mere pad, sometimes a domed nest, composed of rather fine dry grass and roots, and sometimes slightly lined with finer grass or roots, but usually without any pretence for a lining. It is placed mostly amongst thick grass and is well concealed ; but at times in little frequented localities, such as the ravines of the Jumna on the south of the Cawnpoor District, it will be found in a slight depression of the soil or niche in a bank quite open to view. Tour is the largest number of eggs I have ever found in one nest. From Hansie Mr. W. Blewitt wrote one year : — " I secured one nest of this species in the Dhana Beerh, or jungle preserve, near 15* 228 Hansie in July. I shot the parent bird at the time and sent with the eggs. The nest was formed of fine grass, almost meeting above and with a hole at the side for ingress and egress, and, though much smaller, reminding one of a Mnnia's nest. It was placed on the ground in a tuft of coarse grass at the root of the tuft, and contained three fresh eggs. " This bird is very common in this preserve. I shot, if I re- member right, more than a dozen specimens there in one morning ; but it so carefully conceals its nest, that, though constantly searching for it, I only succeeded in securing this single nest." Next year he was more successful, and again wrote, saying : — " This species breeds, I found, plentifully in the Dhana Beerh, near Hansie, in March and the early part of April, laying its eggs in a slight depression in the ground in amongst tall grass. It usually lays four eggs, but on the 28th March I found a nest con- taining seven fresh eggs ; whether these belonged to one or more couples, or whether some herd-boy had collected the eggs of two or three nests into one, I cannot say, but certainly one bird was sitting on them all when we found the nest." I think all these Mirafras have two broods in the year, and I suspect that it is for the second brood, when rain is to be appre- hended, that the bird most often domes its nest. Colonel E. A. Butler writes from Deesa : — " The Singing Bush- Lark breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa during the rains. The nest as a rule is placed under a tuft of grass, and is almost sphe- rical, with a hole near the top for ingress and egress ; it consists of dry grass somewhat massively put together and neatly lined with similar material of a finer quality. The following are some of the dates upon which I have taken nests : — " July 22nd, 1875. A nest containing 3 fresh eggs. „ 16th, 1876. , 3 „ 16th, „ , „ 3 „ „ 28th, „ 3 Aug. 5th, „ „ 9th, „ „ 10th, „ „ 15th, „ Sept. 2nd, „ „ 2nd, „ „ 2nd, „ " The hen bird generally sits very close ; in fact I have taken them on the nest on more than one occasion, with a horsehair noose fastened to the end of a thin rod." From Lahore Colonel Marshall writes : — " In June I found a nest of this species in the side of a little bank, about 6 inches above the level of the plain. It was a poor, badly made thing : there was a little hollow in the earth, and in this was placed a small makeshift sort of nest of grass-fibre lined with a Uttle finer material. Three fresh eggs." The eggs closely resemble, as a rule, those of the other species 3 incubated eggs. 4 fresh eggs. 2 4 4 incubated eggs. 3 fresh eggs. 3 MIBAFEA. 229 of Mirafra, though some specimens are more streaky and less speckly in their markings, reminding one of some types of our Common Sparrow's eggs. The ground-colour is greyish-, greenish-, or yellowish-white, and some eggs are thickly speckled, spotted, and streaked, and others are uniformly and very densely freckled with different shades of yellowish and sepia-brown, with here and there in the spotted types tiny, very pale inky-purple clouds underlying the browu markings. In shape and size they seem to vary more than those of the other, species. The shape is normally, I think, a rather long oval, mcx ttely pointed towards the small end, but short, pyriform, and regular broad oval forms seem not uncommon. They have a faint gloss. They vary in length from O72 to 0'9, and in breadth from 0-58 to 0-65. Mirafra assamica, McClell. The Bengal Bush-Lark. Mirafra assamica, McClell., Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 416 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. SfE.no. 754. Dr. Jerdon tells us that "the Bengal Bush-Lark is found throughout all Northern India to the Nerbudda, extending east- wards into Assam." This appears to me to convey a somewhat erroneous conception of the bird's habitat ; it is found nowhere in Northern India, except in the comparatively humid districts that fringe the skirts of the Himalayas east of the Juuma. From the greater portions of Oudh and the North-west and the Central Provinces, from the whole of the Punjab and Kajpootana, it is, according to my experience, entirely wanting. Throughout Lower and Eastern Bengal, in the better-watered and wooded tracts of the Central Provinces and Chota Nagpore, in Assam and Cachar, and in the Dhoons, Terais, and Bhaburs that lie at the feet of the Himalayas, and the immediately adjacent districts of Behar, Oudb, and the North-western Provinces, it is a permanent resident. It lays from the middle of May to the middle of June, con- structing on the ground, generally in some hollow, concealed and overhung by tufts of grass, a loose and usually partially domed circular nest, composed of fine dry grass and grass-roots. Some- times the nest is a mere pad of grass, perhaps 4 inches in diameter and an inch in thickness, with a slight central depression. More commonly it is wholly or entirely domed over, sometimes with the entrance at the top, and sometimes at the side, never very compact in structure, often so loose that you can see the eggs through the straggling roof. I once found a nest entirely under a large clod of earth, which completely overhung and concealed it ; in this case the almost invariable grass-tuft was absent. The largest and most perfect nest I ever saw was rather more than a hemisphere, the curved surface uppermost, 7 inches in diameter and 5 inches high, and with a neatly made circular aperture 2 inches in diameter nearly at the top. More roots had been used in this than is cus- tomary, and these had been specially used internally, at the bottom, 230 ALAUDID-S. as if to form a lining, but as a rule there is no pretence for this latter. Most nests are loose, flimsy things that will not bear removal. Five is the usual complement of eggs, but four, three, and even two, hard-set eggs or young are often found. From Saharunpoor Colonel G. F. L. Marshall writes : — " Builds in the first half of June a nest of grass and roots roofed over and placed against a tuft of grass on the ground. The bird is common in the north of the Saharunpoor District, but the nest is very difficult to find. On 7th June I found a nest with one fresh egg and one addled, on the 19th June one with three fresh eggs, and on the 30th June one with five fresh eggs. The nest has a side entrance, is very loosely put together, and has no lining." Dr. Jerdon says : — " One (nest) which I obtained in Dacca in June was distinctly domed or covered in by turning the stems of grass over, and was very artfully concealed. The eggs are dull greenish white, with numerous grey and brown spots." Mr. J. E. Cripps, writing from Furreedpore in Eastern Bengal, says : — « Very common and a permanent resident ; found in open plains and cultivated fields, and also on the public roads. 1 have repeatedly found their eggs. On the 23rd March a female flew past me with a straw in her bill and settled in the dry bed of a tank. On my going up to the spot she flew off the nest and was shot. The nest, the lower half of which rested in a small hollow, was a domed structure of ' sone ' and ' doob ' grass-roots with a lining of very fine roots of those grasses ; there were also some lumps of matted fur like that of the rat in the nest ; the entrance was at the side ; there were two fresh eggs ; the whole thing was very artfully concealed. I found another nest in an indigo field, which was partially overhung by a tuft of grass, but which \\as only a pad of grass-roots and contained four fresh eggs. I shot the female as she flew off. This was on the 22nd June ; the breeding time is from the beginning of March to the 15th July." The eggs taken by Mr. Cripps are moderately broad ovals, pointed towards the small end. The shell is fine, though slender, and has a slight gloss ; the ground-colour is white, but with a faint greyish or greenish tinge. Eound the large end is a more or less irregular but conspicuous zone densely set with specks and spots almost black, but browner in some specimens, and little clouds and smears of inky grey, and similar markings, though much less dense elsewhere, are scattered over the rest of the surface of the egg. Generally speaking, the eggs of this species closely resemble those of M. erythroptera, but as a body are larger. They are charac- teristic Lark eggs, with greyish or yellowish-white or stone- coloured grounds, very thickly freckled and spotted, and sometimes finely streaked, with yellowish or pale purplish brown. The markings are commonly somewhat more dense at the large end. In shape the eggs are slightly elongated ovals, but little pointed towards the small end. They have, as usual, a faint gloss. MIBAFRA. 231 Sometimes the markings are all very fine and speckly ; and are, the one set a blackish brown, the other pale purplish grey. In length the eggs vary from 0'79 to 0-92, and in breadth from O57 to 0*65 ; but the average of twenty-six eggs measured is 0*83 by 0-61 *. Mirafra erythroptera, Jerd. The Red-winged Busli-LarTc. Mirafra erythroptera, Jerd., Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 418; Hume, Rough Draft N. $ E. no. 756. Dr. Jerdon tells us that " th£y ad-winged Bush-Lark is found in the tableland of the Deccan, extending south to the edges of the Carnatic, and it is found also in the hilly district of Monghyr ;" but he did not observe it in Saugor or Mhow. Now. this again conveys a scarcely correct notion of the distri- bution of this species. This, and not M. assamica, is the Bush-Lark par excellence of Northern India. Throughout the Central Provinces, the North-western Provinces, the Punjab and Ikij- pootana (except at the extreme west), and the drier portions of Oudh, this Lark abounds, and is perhaps the commonest resident Lark throughout this vast tract, as a whole. It breeds from March to August. The nest is never (so far as I know, and I have seen fifty) anything more than a smaller or larger pad of finer and coarser grass, in which at times a little vegetable fibre is inter- mixed, with a slight central depression. The situation chosen for the nest varies. I have found them in a hoof -print, in a perfectly bare plain, in an equally bare field under clods of earth, in open country at the foot of some dense tuft of grass, in scattered jungle, at the base of caper-bushes, or even young babool or neem trees, and in amongst grass. Later, when the rains have set in, heaps of kunker by the roadside or heaps of ballast beside the railway are often selected ; and Mr. Brooks tells me that on one occasion he found a nest containing the full complement of partially-incubated eggs amongst the ballast between the rails and almost under one of them, so placed that trains were perpetually passing over the birds, the rim of the wheels passing within 2 or 3 inches of her head. Four is, 1 think, the regular complement of eggs ; but I have often found three hard-set, and once or twice five fresh ones. Major C. T. Bingham writes : — " Although this bird is common enough at Delhi, I have not procured many nests of it. Personally I have only found one, but three others were marked down for me and 1 took them with my own hands. The one I found was on the 21st September, while walking on the ridge. I saw one of these Larks with a straw in its beak, and watched it to the nest, where I found the female sitting on two fresh eggs ; as she flew off I shot her. The nest was a soft pad of very fine grass, placed, like all Larks' nests I have found, on the north side of a stone. * 1 found, however, from Mr. Hume's detail measurement-sheet, that one of the eggs here measured was 0'9 by 0*65, a perfect monster, unduly raising the average. — ED. 232 Unlike the three other nests got earlier in the year, the present nest was domed beautifully over with the same material as the nest. " The three nests referred to above I procured as follows : — One on the 5th April containing three slightly set eggs ; two on the 17th May containing, one two hard-set, and the other one fresh egg." Colonel E. A. Butler says:— "The Eed-winged Bush-Lark breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa from March till August or September. I have found nests on the following dates (1876) : — " April 29th. A nest containing 3 fresh eggs. " May 7th. , „ 2 half-fledged young birds. "July 20th. "July 29th. " Aug. 18th. " July 25th. " July 31st. 3 fresh eggs. 3 young birds. 1 incubated egg. 3 young birds. 1 addled egg, 1 young bird. The nest as a rule is dome-shaped, and placed under a tussock of grass, exactly similar to the nest of M . cantillans ; but in some instances it consists of a pad of fine dry grass placed on open ground, in a hole scratched by the old birds. The eggs as a rule are greyish white, thickly speckled and marked all over with greyish brown, sparingly underlaid with inky purple, most densely towards the large end. One nest which I found was placed under a low bush, and was so cleverly concealed that had I not watched the old bird with food for the young ones in her mouth, I should never have found it. It looked more like the nest of a field-mouse than that of a bird. The entrance was not visible from above, and it was only by lowering my head almost to the ground that I could see into it." The eggs are typically nearly perfect ovals, neither very broad nor very long, and but little pointed or compressed towards the smaller end ; indeed some of the eggs can scarcely be said to have a smaller end. They vary less, I think, in size and shape than those of any of the other species of this genus, but in colour they differ more. The ground-colour, which harmonizes with the general colour of the markings, ranges through greenish-, greyish-, pinkish-, yellowish-, and brownish-white, in some the tint being very faint, in others fairly well marked. They are invariably more or less finely speckled and spotted all over, more hazily and confluently in some, more clearly and definedly in others. The colour of the specks and spots varies in different eggs from red, brownish red, and inky purple, to reddish-, yellowish-, and olive-brown, the markings of each egg being commonly unicolorous ; and while in some the markings are fairly bright and deep, in others they are very faint and feeble. The uniform speckly character of the markings is typical in this species, but in a few eggs the great density of the spots towards the large end renders them more or less confluent there, and produces very imperfect and irregular zones or caps. All the eggs have a little gloss, but some have a good deal more than others. In length they vary from 0*7 to 0*82, and in breadth from O55 to 0*65 ; but the average of twenty-nine eggs is O76 by 0*59. MIEAFBA. GALEEITA. 233 Mirafra affinis, Jerd. The Madras Bush-Lark. Mirafra affinis, Jerd. ; Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 614 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. 4r E. no. 755. I have never found the nest of the Madras Bush-Lark. Dr. Jer- don states that /'it breeds on the ground, making a loose nest of grass, and lays three or four eggs, greenish grey, with spots and stains of brown and dusky." Colonel Tickell remarks : — " Nest ordinary, of grasses, 4 inches in diameter, placed on the ground- if~ i er shelter of clods, tufts of grass, &c., in fallow fields or open patches in jungles. Eggs, three or four, ordinary, rather lengthened, O81 by 0*56 ; dirty ashy white, with stains, smudges, and specks of dusky, ashy, and rusty brown." Colonel Legge, writing of Ceylon, remarks : — " In the Western Province, the Bush-Lark breeds in May and June, and in the north somewhat earlier, commencing about March." Mirafra microptera, Hume. The Burmese Bush-Lark. Mirafra rnicroptera, Hume ; Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 755 bis. This is the Burmese Bush-Lark which I characterized in * Stray Feathers,' vol. i. p. 483. Mr. Gates tells us : — " I found the nest on the 25th July at Boulav, near Thayetmyo, with two eggs and one young bird just hatched. It was on the ground in a hoof-mark, protected and concealed by grass, slightly domed, composed entirely of fine grass and fibres. " I have now only one egg. This measures 0-83 by 0'6. The ground-colour is white. The whole egg is thickly spotted with rusty brown and dark brown spots, very thickly at the larger end, where they form a distinct ring." Galerita cristata (Linn.). The Crested Lark. Galerita cristata (Linn.}, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 436 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. Sf E. no. 769. The great majority of those vast multitudes of Crested Larks that during the cold season meet us on every bare plain and every stubble-field, throughout the drier and better-cultivated portions of Continental India at any rate, are, I am convinced, migratory. A certain number, however, unquestionably remain to breed. 1 have taken the eggs at Etawah, Bareilly, and Ferozepoor, I have had them sent from Saharunpoor and Lahore, and I know of the birds breeding in the Salt Eange and about the Sambhur Lake. The breeding-season lasts from March to June. They build on the ground like other Larks, and in very similar situations, that is to say in hollows or depressions under the cover of some bush, 234 ALAUDID^E. tii ft of grass, clod of earth, or overhanging stone. The nest varies from a shallow pad 4 or 5 inches in diameter, with a slight central depression as an egg-cavity, to a neatish and regular cup, with a fully hemispherical cavity. Exteriorly the nest is always composed of more or less fine grass, just like those of all the preceding species, but unlike theirs the nests have generally a more or less regular lining of very fine grass, cotton, wool, soft vegetable fibres, hair, and even a few feathers. I think that, as a rule, the nests of this species may be distinguished at a glance by the lining from those of all our other Larks with which their eggs could be confounded. Three is the largest number of eggs that I have found as yet in any nest, but others report five. Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall sent me the following note on the nidification of this species. He says : — " The Crested Lark, to judge from the two or three nests I have seen, breeds in March in the Saharunpoor District, the young being hatched early in April. " The nest is placed on the ground in a slight hollow beside a tuft of grass or a small ber bush. I found one nest in the middle of a village-cart track near a low bush, between the wheel-tracks. The nest is cup-shaped, formed by lining a hollow in the earth with grass, roots, fibre, and little bits of straws, dry wheat-leaves, and stringy bark, neatly put together, so that the sides are level with the ground. There is no perceptible lining. The size of the egg-receptacle is about 2| inches in diameter and 2 inches deep, but the material did not hold together sufficiently well to retain the shape after it had been taken out of the ground. '* The eggs, three in number, were slightly glossy, of a white ground, profusely speckled, spotted, and blotched with various shades of yellowish and pale purplish brown. In one the specklings were so close all over the egg as almost to conceal the ground- colour, and in all the markings are much thickest at the large end, where they have a tendency to form a nearly confluent cap." Major C. T. Bingham writes : — " I have only found two nests of this Lark, and both at Delhi, one on the 31st March and the second on the 23rd April. The former, which was a deep cup, was placed under the shade of a bush, in a deepish hole which I am inclined to think the bird itself dug. It was composed of straw without any lining. The latter nest was placed in the centre of a clump of surpat grass, and was composed of the same materials. Two fresh eggs were in the first nest, and four hard-set ones in the second. " From Sambhur Mr. !R. M. Adam writes : — " The Crested Lark is very common. It breeds about April and May. On the 29th April I saw a nest all but finished in a wheat-field. In young birds the head and wing-coverts are spotted with dusky white." Mr. W. Theobald makes the following note on the nidification of this bird in the neighbourhood of Find Dadan Khan and Katas in the Salt Eange : — " Lay from the fourth week of March to the 3rd May : eggs four; shape ovato-pyriform, measuring from 0-82 to 0-88 in length, and from 0*64 to 0-66 in breadth ; colour yel- GALERITA. 235 lowish white, uniformly freckled with greyish yellow and neutral. Nest a little grass in a hole in the ground." Colonel Butler has sent me the following note from Sind : — " At Kurrachee, 22nd April, 1877, I found a nest containing one fresh egg. The nest was on the ground in the centre of a small scrubby salt-plant, common all over the sandy maidans about Kurrachee. It was composed of coarse dry grass, roots, &c., and lined with lumps of raw cotton, bits of rag, thread, &c., the exterior being encircled with a slight embankment of lumps of hard incrustated earth which had peeled frotf-^ e surface of the ground that had been inundated. " In the same neighbourhood I found nests later on, on the following dates : — " April 29. 2 nests, each containing 1 fresh egg. 1 April 29. 1 nest containing 2 fresh eggs. ' April 30. 1 „ 3 chicks fully fledged. 4 April 30. 1 „ 1 fresh egg. " 'May 1. 1 „ 2 fresh eggs. 'May 1.1 „ 3 half-grown young birds. ' May 5. 1 „ 3 eggs (1 fresh and 2 incubated). ' The eggs vary so much in shape and markings that I have scarcely two alike. The ground-colour seems generally, however, to be a pale greenish white. JSome eggs are boldly blotched, spotted, and speckled with dark olive -brown, with a few inky- purple secondary markings. Others are speckled all over with greenish olive and inky purple. Others are boldly spotted and speckled, principally at the large end, with olive-green, without any secondary markings, and in some instances there is a decided tendency to a zone. In some eggs the markings are clear and well defined, in others they are faint and indistinct. In shape and size they also vary greatly. It is a wonder to me how any of the eggs of this species are ever hatched, as out of many dozens of nests of both species which I left this year with single eggs in them to take later on, I found invariably on returning a day or two after that the nests were empty. What it is that takes the eggs I do not know (possibly foxes, as I saw their i pugs '), but whatever animal it is it must be an uncommonly clever nest-seeker as hardly an egg seems to escape notice." The eggs are broad ovals, typically a good deal pointed towards the small end, and they have a little but not much gloss. Our Indian eggs, I must remark, are very much smaller than those of European birds to judge from Mr. • Hewitson's figure. I have taken a good many eggs of this species, and they averaged little, if anything, bigger than Mr. Hewitson's figure of the egg of C. braekydactyla. They have a strong family resemblance to the various Lark eggs already described, but they are of course larger than most of them. The markings, too, as a w:hole are larger and more conspicuous. The ground-colour as usual is a greenish or yellowish white, and the markings, specks, spots, and blotches are yellowish or greenish brown and pale purple, all three colours of 236 ALAUDID^!. markings being often met with in the same egg. Here and there an egg is found with a pretty conspicuous zone of more or less confluent markings. In length they vary from O85 to 0*92, and in breadth from 0*65 to 0-69 ; but the average of seventeen eggs is O87 by 0-65. Galerita deva (Sykes). JSyJces's Crested Lark. Spizalauda deva (Sykes), Jerd. B. 2nd. ii, p. 432 ; Hume, Cat. 110. 765. Spizalauda simillima (Hume), Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 765 bis. Sykes's Crested Lark breeds in suitable localities, viz., dry, open, more or less cultivated lands throughout a considerable portion of Central and Southern India. The breeding-season lasts from June to August, but the great majority of the numerous eggs I have from Lahore, Etawah, Jhansi, and Saugor were obtained on various dates in August. They build on the ground in dry, open, thoroughly drained country, always placing the nest in more or less of a depression in the soil, and often concealing it entirely behind an overhanging clod, or at the roots of a thick bush, or within a dense clump of grass. The nests of this species which I have seen have all been small, rather oblong, shallow cups, measuring externally about 3 inches to 4-5 in diameter, and 1-5 to 2-25 in height, rather compactly and densely put together with coarse vegetable fibre and by no means fine grass. The egg-cavity, which had no lining, measured from 2 to 3 inches in diameter, and was from an inch to 1J inch in depth. From Jhansi and Saugor, where he obtained numerous nests, Mr. F. K. Blewitt writes : — Sykes's Crested Lark breeds from the middle of June to August. A grass patch is generally selected for the nest, sometimes a close-growing bush, at the base of which the nest is made. The nest is always made on the ground, and, as far as possible, well secreted in the patch or bush under which it is sheltered. The nest at the base is made of coarse roots and grass to about an inch or 1| inch in thickness. On the upper surface of this is placed grass of a finer texture, with occasionally khus intermixed. The centre of the nest is a hollow of from 1| inch to an inch in depth. The grass of the nest is closely put together, forming on the whole a compact structure. The diameter averages about 5 inches. " The eggs are white, with minute ashy-looking spots, some- times of lightish brown, all over, thicker towards the broad end. " The average length is about 0*8 and breadth O6. Three are the regular number of eggs, though two are frequently found." In this latter remark I quite concur. Out of six nests found and taken by myself one contained three, and two, two eggs each, GALEBITA. 237 all fresh ; one contained two hard-set eggs and two, two young ones. In my opinion three is the maximum number. It is probable that these birds have a second brood in February or March, just as their southern ally has, but I have had no evidence of this. The eggs of this species appear to me to be more variable than those of any other Lark, and they are also more glossy than those of the majority of the species of this family. The shape 1 take to be typically a rather short broad oval, a good deal pointed at times towards the smaller end. Eggs taken even out C^ lie same nest vary greatly in size. Some eggs have a clear greenish-white ground, and are richly and thickly spotted and speckled, but most densely at the large end, with rich reddish and orange-brown, intermingled with tiny faint inky-purple clouds. In this type of egg the markings are clear and well defined, reminding one of some types of Thamnobia cambaiensis. The majority of the eggs, however, have a creamy-yellow ground, and are thickly and very finely freckled and crowded all over with faint inky-purple and yellowish brown, the markings everywhere ill-defined and all but confluent. Other eggs have a greyish or yellowish-white ground, and are streaked and spotted, or clouded and speckled, with greyish-, earthy-, or olive-brown, as the case may be. The eggs vary from O73 to 0-86 in length, and from 0-55 to 0-65 in breadth ; but the average of thirty-nine eggs is 0*77 by 0-6. Galerita malafoarica (Scop.). The Malabar Crested Lark. Spizalauda malabarica (Scop.\ Hume, Rough Draft N. $ .£. m. 765; Cat. no. 765 his. This present species ascends the Nilghiris to heights of 4000 and 5000 feet at any rate, and there on the 8th April Miss Cockburn found a nest which she sent me, containing three eggs. The nest was a tolerably compact but shallow saucer, composed of grass and fibres and lined with fine roots, placed on the ground under some overhanging tufts of grass. She has also sent me the following interesting note on the habits and nidification of this species. She says : — " This bird differs from the Sky-Lark (Alauda gulgula} in never singing while on the wing. He sits on a stone or the stump of a dead tree while performing his part in the general concert, which in the breeding-season is heard on every side. "With drooping wings and tail erect he continues turning round and strutting about until his song comes to a close, which it seldom does before he has imitated the peculiar song or call of every bird and beast that may come within reach of his most wonderful ear. " His power of mimicry is quite astonishing. A pair of these birds once built their nest in a strawberry-bed in our garden. The young ones were taken when fully fledged and I reared them. AVhen I could distinguish the cock by his attempts to sing 1 gave 238 the hen her liberty. The cock I kept caged, and when three years of age he had attained to such a proficiency that, while sitting in my room as he hung outside the window, I could imagine the Nilghiri Robin within a yard of the window, the Common House-Sparrow actually on the window-seat, the Black- headed Tit-mouse on one of the flowering plants close by, the Kite just flying over, the Hill Mynah on a large tree at a short distance, the Yellow Wagtail just taking flight, and innumerable others, all close at hand, all the notes being sung in rapid succession, and amongst them occasionally would be the neighing of a horse introduced, so correctly imitated that some who heard it have doubted that it could be the bird till they had looked in vain for the animal. " On the JSTilghiris the Crown-crest generally builds, first in the months of March and April, and again in August and September. They always construct their nest on the ground and beneath a tuft of grass. They scratch a shallow round hole on the surface of the ground, and lining it very neatly with fine grass seldom lay more than two eggs, though I have occasionally found three in their nests. Their ground-colour is a light yellowish brown with a pro- fusion of dark spots, particularly at the thickest end." Colonel E. A. Butler writes :— " Belgaum, 14th June, 1879. A nest on the ground on the Rifle-ranges, consisting of a round deep cup well sunk in the ground, and neatly and compactly built of fine dry grass with two or three blades of the surrounding grass growing over it, which partially concealed the contents. It was in a very exposed situation, being actually on the Range between the firing-point and the target, and all of the bullets, when the men were firing, must have passed close over the head of the bird when sitting. The grass was only a few inches high at the time, and consequently afforded very little cover. The eggs, three in number and quite fresh, were greyish white, thickly speckled with yellowish brown, greyish brown, and leaden blue, forming a dense cap or zone at the large end." He adds : — " Mr. Davidson has sent me two eggs taken at Sholapore in the Deccan, on the 15th and 30th August, 1877, respectively." Mr. G. Yidal, C.S., writes from Ratnagiri : — " This Southern Crested Lark breeds at Ratnagiri in October and November, after the heavy rains have ceased. There is a rugged laterite plateau of considerable extent to the east of the station, where this species is plentiful for the greater part of the year ; this tableland is entirely bare, and appears as a huge sheet of flat rock, the laterite cropping to the surface every where. During the S.W. monsoon, however, rank grass sprouts up wherever the crumbling surface affords a hold for the roots — lilies, hardy creepers, and ferns shoot up from the fissures in the rocks, and here and there coarse hill- grains are sown in the least unpromising patches of ground. The Crown-crests as a rule affect no concealment in their choice of a site. A slight hollow in the bare ground or hard rock, either GALEBITA. 239 natural or artificially scraped out by the birds themselves, is filled in with grass of two kinds, a coarse quality for the outside, and a finer for the inside. No other material is used, and the grass is somewhat loosely put together. In shape the nests are rather shallow cups, with an internal diameter of about 2| inches. Nests formed on the bare ground are fully exposed to view on three sides, but are invariably shaded or sheltered on the remaining side by a stone or chip of rock, which is sometimes more, but never less, than double the height of the nest from the ground, .^he only Crown-crests' nest I have found without this flanking s» ^ae was placed under cover of thin grass. There is one distinction between all the nests of the Crown- crested Larks and the FincLr- Lark (both of which species breed at the same time with us) that I have observed, and that is, that while the Crown-crest's nest is always placed in a depression of the ground, the Finch-Lark's nest always rests on the level surface. The latter certainly scrapes up all round its nest a tiny embankment or rampart of loose stones and crumblings of rock, but never makes or chooses any ready made hollow or depression. I am aware that this distinction does not hold good in other localities, but all the nests I have found of P. grisea as yet have been placed on more or less bare sheets of rock, where excavation would be difficult, and hoof-prints im- possible. Of course, the nests of the two species can never be mistaken one for the other, as those of P. grisea are much smaller, and are invariably lined with shreds of wool (probably stolen from the blankets of cowherds). " Out of eight Crown-crests' nests examined and recorded, I have never found more than three eggs. In one instance only I found two hard-set eggs. The eggs vary considerably in shape, size, and markings, but those found in one nest are always of the same type. The prevailing ground-colour is a dull white, and the markings vary from bold irregular blotches of earthy-brown and inky-purple to minute freckles of pale brown. The following is a record of the dates on which eggs were found : — " Oct. loth. 1 nest with 3 eggs fresh. „ 16th. „ 2 „ 23rd. „ 2 „ 27th. „ 2 Nov. 3rd. „ 1 „ 10th. ,, 2 eggs hard set. „ 23rd. „ 3 eggs fresh. „ 23rd. „ 3 " It is not unusual to find single eggs of this species prema- turely laid on the bare ground before any nest has been prepared. I have watched such eggs from time to time, but have never found a second egg laid in the same place. Miss Cockburn states (Rough Draft) that S. maldbarica never sings on the wing ; I think this must be a mistake. I have heard this bird myself sing- ing as it soars hundreds of times, and Mr. Fairbank, in describing 240 ALAUDIDjE. S. hayi (I presume he refers to the same species), says, * it is a true Sky-Lark, singing as it mounts.' " Messrs. Davidson and Wenden remark, writing from the Deccan : — " Very numerous and breeds in July and August." The eggs, many of which Miss Cockburn kindly sent me along with one of the parent birds (so that there can be no mistake as to the species), are, as might be expected, very Lark-like in their appearance. In shape they are moderately broad ovals, somewhat pointed at one end, and they have little or no gloss. The ground- colour is a dull white, and they are profusely spotted and blotched with dull pale yellowish brown and dingy inky-purple ; in some of the eggs the markings are comparatively small, and so thickly set as to leave but little of the ground-colour visible, the markings assuming the character of a dense uniform mottling. In others the markings are larger and far less closely set, fully half the surface of the egg being free from marks. As a body, the eggs of this species besides being larger are dis- tinctly more strongly and better marked than those of G. deva. The great majority of these latter at a distance of a yard look quite uniform in colour, while at the same distance more than half of those of the present species are seen to be quite distinctly freckled, mottled, and streaked with a darker tint. In length they vary from 0'85 to 0-92, and in breadth from O63 to 0'68 ; but the average of eighteen specimens is 0*87 by 0*65. Ammomanes phcenicura (Prankl.). The Rufous-tailed Finch-Lark. Ammomanes phcenicura (Frankl.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 421 ; Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 758. The Rufous-tailed Pinch-Lark, so far from being, as Jerdon says, rare in the Central Provinces north of the Nerbudda, and unknown in the North-western Provinces, is common enough in the Sambhulpoor, Jubbulpoor, Saugor, and Jhausi Districts, and in Gwalior, and is by no means very rare in Etawah, Agra, Ally- gurh, &c., and in the eastern portions of Rajpootana. About the Sambhur Lake, for instance, it is very common. Purther west, and throughout Sindh and the trans- Jheelum and Indus, Punjab, it is replaced by the next species, A. phoenicuroides. It is not, so far as I know, at all a migratory bird, though it shifts its feeding- ground according to season ; and it is to be found breeding, I believe, in all the localities mentioned, as also in many parts of Southern India, where the climate and soil are not too damp to suit it. The breeding-season, so far as I know, lasts from Pebruary to April. Tickell, as it will be seen, says that he found its eggs in June, but one can never feel sure that he is correct, and the nest he describes is more like that of one of the Mirafras. The nests that I have seen have all been \ ery slight circular pads AMMOMANES. 241 of Hue grass or roots, sometimes sparsely lined with softer materials, placed in some slight natural depression, or a tiny hollow scratched by the birds themselves, under the shelter of some clod or large stone, or at the foot of a tuft of grass or dwarf bush. Pour is the full complement of eggs. 1 have never found more, and _/*?/• contra have repeatedly found three more or less incubated. Prom Kaipoor Mr. F. E. Blewitt writes :— " This Rufous-tailed Lark pairs in February and breeds in March and April, though I had hard-set eggs brought to me in the beginning of May. It makes its nest on the ground, generally in ploughed lands, often under the cover of a clod of earth. The nest is simply a moderate sized circular hollow in the earth, say about half an inch or so deep, without the 4 grass and other materials ' referred to by Dr. Jerdon ; at least this was the case in the score and odd nests discovered by me and my men. Four is the maximum number of eggs. Its favourite haunts are open plains, stubbles, and ploughed fields ; but I never witnessed it, and I have well observed the bird's habits, ascend suddenly in the air by a few interrupted shakes of its wings, uttering at the same time a pleasant, loud, whistling note, something like too-wJiee (the note is altogether different), ' and then descend with a sudden fall.' On the contrary, it is not ' very rarely,' but very often, in the breeding-season, that it perches on a low bush or twigs, and utters the meanwhile its short, tuirliwj, melodious note." Dr. Jerdon says : — " It makes its nest on the ground of grass and other light material, generally under the shelter of a clod of earth or tuft of grass, laying three or four eggs, dirty greenish white, with numerous small brown spots. It breeds about Jaulnah in February and March. Tickell found it breeding in Central India in June." Mr. E. C. Xuun remarks : — " I found the nest at Hoshungabad on the 28th April, 1868. It was placed in a cavity of the river- bank, and was composed of fine roots of grass, lined with wool and a few feathers. It measured 3*5 inches in diameter internally, and contained three fresh eggs." Colonel Tickell's account is : — " Nest flat, shallow, circular, 4 inches in diameter, placed in meadows in long grass, which it entwines over the nest, leaving only a small passage open. Eggs four, lengthened, blunted, 0*87 by 0*62, dirty greenish white, thickly sprinkled with pale and dark brown confluent spots. Lays in June." Colonel Butler writes :— " Belgaum, 18th April, 1880, 3 fresh eggs. The nest was a simple cup of dry grass placed in a hollow under a ledge of earth or an open maidan, from which the surrounding grass had been burnt away. 20th April, another nest exactly similar, containing a single young bird ready to leave the nest. 4th May, another nest well lined with rat's fur and goat- hair, and placed under a good- sized stone ; contents 3 incubated [essrs. Davidson and Wenden, writing of the Deccan, VOL. ii. 16 242 ALATJDIDJE. say : — " Very numerous. Seen with Mirafra erytJi ropier a also perching on telegraph-wires. Breeds plentifully throughout the Poona and Sholapoor Districts in April and beginning of May. Their nests, as a rule, are built in a hole in a bank, either of a river or a nullah, but sometimes in an ordinary bund. Nest well lined with hair and wool and warmly made — like a llobin's. All the nests taken by Davidson during last season contained but two eggs each, but a nest containing four young Larks, which he believed to be of this kind, was brought to him in May." The eggs have but little gloss, and in shape are moderately elongated ovals slightly pointed towards the smaller end. The ground-colour is creamy or pale yellowish white, pretty thickly freckled and speckled all over, but most densely at the large end, with yellowish or at times somewhat reddish brown, with which freckling very pale inky-purple blotches or spots (only faintly visible) are here and there intermingled. The eggs vary from 0*77 to 0*95 in length, and from 0*56 to 0-65 in breadth j but the average of twenty-six eggs is O85 bv 0-62. Ammomanes phoenicuroid.es (Blyth). The Desert Finch-Lark. Ammomanes lusitanica (Gut.), Jerd. 1L Ind. \\, p. 422; Hume.Rou