131 

 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 



No. I —SIZE OF REMARKABLE TREES. 



Mr. L. Augusto has kindly measured the great Gouralr Chintz—the Baobab — 

 Adansonia digitata near the Custom House at Mora, Karanja (Bombay- 

 Harbour), and reports it to be 30 feet 5 inches in circumference at 4 feet 



from the ground. 



G. MARSHALL WOODROW. 



Kelvinside, N., 



Glasgow, January 1903. 



No. II— NESTING NOTES FROM KASHMIR. 



I have spent the past summer in Kashmir, and it may interest oologists to 

 read a few notes I have made on the nidification of certain birds whose nests 

 and eggs are almost or altogether unknown. During April and May I was in 

 the Astor District. On the 29th April, at an elevation of about 10,000 feet, 

 I saw 3 young Nutcrackers — Nucifraga multipunctata — hardly able to fly, so 

 this bird must breed very early. I think, too, it probably has 2 broods in the 

 year, as I found a nest, containing young, in Sonamarg at the end of July. 

 During May I found nests of Tlnnunculus alaudarius, Tetraogallus himalay- 

 ensis, Pica rustica and Cinclus asiaticus, but I was too early for eggs of the 

 last two mentioned. June, July and August I spent in Sonamarg and in the 

 higher valleys in its neighbourhood. Sonamarg itself has often been visited 

 by egg collectors, but the higher alpine valleys round it appear to have been 

 but little exploited. It is in these alpine valleys, from 10,000 to 14,000 feet, 

 that many new nests may be discovered, and the best time to visit them is 

 from the 20th June to the end of August. 



Mr. J. Davidson, in the Ibis for January 1898, gives a very interesting 

 account of ' a Trip to Kashmir' in search of eggs, and to any one intending to 

 come up here for this purpose, it would prove of the greatest assistance. 



No. 369. Tribura major is common at Sonamarg, and its characteristic note 

 (Tic-tic-tic) loudly proclaims the bird's advent in the latter part of June. It 

 is never met in the forests, but frequents the outskirts and the low bush 

 jungle in the open meadows. I found 3 nests in July, but only secured one 

 clutch of eggs. The nest is a small cup of grass lined with fine grass, placed 

 on the ground in thick herbage, and is difficult to find. The eggs, 3 in number, 

 are pinkish white spotted finely with reddish brown, and average 74" x '57" 

 in size. The bird does not appear to breed below 7,500 or above 10,000 feet. 



No. 405. Phylloscopus affinis I found breeding plentifully during July in the 

 Juniper scrub from 11,000 to 13,000 feet. The nest is globular, loosely built of 

 grass, lined with hair and feathers and is placed from 6 inches to 2 feet from 

 the ground. The eggs, three or four in number, are either plain white, or 

 white spotted sparingly with cinnamon red. The plain and spotted eggs 

 sometimes occur in the same nest. The average size of the eggs is •62"x'47". 



No. 589. Alseonax ruficaudus. — This Flycatcher is not uncommon in the 

 Sind Valley from 6,000 up to 10,000 feet, but its nest is extremely hard to 



