MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 193 



Accentor nepalemis (Brit. Mus. rufilatus). — The Eastern 

 Alpine Accentor. 



Major Buchanan, 4th Sikhs, in a note to the journal, Vol. XV, p. 132, states 

 that he found the nest of this bird at 13,500' alt. in Kashmir, but describes the 

 eggs as being pinky white, speckled and spotted with red. Now this is quite 

 different to the eggs of the Alpine Accentor, which are plain blue, as also are 

 my specimens of those of the Eastern form. This bird breeds all along the 

 Safed Koh from about 12,000' — 15,000' alt. I came across the first nest on 

 July 1st ; it was placed under a rock on the hillside, and was beautifully 

 constructed of roots and grass, and lined with moss and a little mouse-hare 

 fur, and contained 3 sky-blue eggs. Both eggs and nest reminded one very 

 much of those of the Hedge Sparrow. The eggs measured "91" X '6" ; the 

 clutch appears to be three. Two other nests I saw were placed in clefts of 

 a cliff, and this seems the favourite site. This is not, I think, the first record 

 of the nest. Mr. Stuart Baker has, I believe, an authenticated clutch found 

 previously to mine. 



Pycnorhampus carneipes. — White-winged Grosbeak, 

 In summer this bird is found in the Safed Koh between about 8,000' and 

 11,000'. It is not nearly such a shy bird as the Black and Yellow Grosbeak. 

 I found a nest with two hardset eggs on July 6th in a juniper at 8,500' alt. It 

 was cup-shaped, very neatly made of twig and heath and well lined with fresh 

 strips of juniper bark, and about 3' from the ground. The eggs were French 

 white in colour, blotched and scrawled with red brown, like a hawfinch's, and 

 measured 1'18" X '72". 



C. H. T. WHITEHEAD, Lt., 56th Rifles, F. F. 



Parachinar, Kurram Valley, 

 N.-W. Frontier, &th May, 1907. 



No. XII.— AN INDIAN DORMOUSE. 



One day last summer whilst out looking for nests in the Safed Koh (Kur- 

 ram Valley, N.-W. Frontier) at about 10,000', my guide, my old and much 

 weather-worn Ghilzai, beckoned to me and pointed to a wee creature crouch- 

 ing under some brushwood. Just as I made it out, it took fright and scurried 

 up the hill with us after it, finally taking to a tree, which it ran up like a 

 squirrel. Not knowing the little beast I shot it. On going back to the spot 

 where I had first seen it, I was sorry to find a nest with new born young ; it 

 was a round ball of grass hidden under a tuft. However I sent the skin and 

 the young in spirit to the British Museum, and Mr. Bonhote has since written 

 and told me that its scientific name is Eliomys nitedula, a Palaearctic dormouse, 

 ranging from the Alps to Persia, and not hitherto found East of Persia. 



This year I picked up a dead one at 6,500', which appeared to have been 

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