MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 909 



No. XIII.— BREEDING OF HODGSON'S MARTIN (CHELIDON 

 NEPALENSlS) AND THE RED-BILLED CHOUGH (GBACULCS 



ERE MIT A). 



I have been on the look-out round Naini Tal for several years for the nests 

 of 0'ieViloii nepalensis, a resident species apparently, and last December while 

 taking a Lammergeyer's nest we were overjoyed to see a vast number of mud 

 nests on the cliff and a good number of Chelidon nepalmsis hawking round 

 them. The nests were mostly in inaccessible places, but afler a prolonged 

 survey we decided that some of the lower nests might be got at. So on April 

 3rd we went with ropes and long bamboos but found to our horror that twelve 

 enormous bees' nests were scattered about among these lower nests making it 

 quite impossible to attempt them. Very high up however there was one small 

 new colony free from bees and although it seemed impossible to get at th«-m, 

 my men by climbing up to a narrow ledge, drawing up bamboos and lashing 

 them together succeeded in reaching this small coiony of at out twenty nests ; 

 it was a fine feat of climbing and our grief was great when we found nearly all 

 the eggs too hard-set to blow and only eight of them were saved. I think we 

 should have been a fortnight earlier. I calculated there were over 3,000 nests 

 in sight, there being three main colonies of about seven hundred nests in each 

 and many smaller colonies. The nests were in masses touching each other, 

 mostly under overhanging cliffs but in some cases they were exposed to the 

 weather and the foot of the cliff was covered with a debris of fallen nests and 

 droppings to a depth of several feet. The nests and eggs resemble almost 

 exactly those of the Kashmir Martin {Chelidon kashmirienxis) ; the elevation 

 is about 4,500 feet above sea-level. I had not expected to find them breeding 

 so low down. 



The Red billed Chough (Graculus eremita). — I was fortunate this year in 

 getting the eggs of the Chough from a nest in a cave at about 12 000 feet in 

 Garwhal that I discovered some years ago. The four eggs were very hard-set 

 on April 22, they measure 1*65 by 1*12 inches ; the ground colour is greyish 

 white and they are pretty thickly speckled all over with two shades of slightly 

 yellowish brown aid pale purplish grey ; they are very like the egg of the 

 Chough (No. 2 1 4) as figured in " British Birds with their Nest and Eggs ", and 

 are not unlike some eggs of the Common Magpie but are of course very much 

 larger. 



S. L. WHYMPER. 



Jeolikote, 12th July 1908. 



No. XIV.— FLORICAN SHOOTING IN KATHIAWAR. 



In India four species of bustard are obtainable, viz., the great Indian bustard 

 (Evpodotis cdioardsi), a fine bird to be met with in suitable haunts throughout 

 India, Sind excepted : the houbara {Houbara macquemi), practically coi fined 

 to Sind; the lesser florican or likh (Sypheotis aurila), to be found in PeLinsular 



