NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF TH AND IAN I. 287 



and the nest, which is built of grass, is generally placed low down in a fork of 

 a yew tree. I have come across other nesting sites in small bushes in a hollow 

 in a bank and in a silver pine. The nest in the latter was a most peculiar one. 

 First a platform of coarse grass and bents, about a foot wide and 3 or 4 inches 

 deep, had been laid on a low spreading branch and in the middle of this was 

 built a nest composed of the pine needles of the blue pine. The eggs are a 

 lovely turquoise blue unspotted and the clutch is always three. 



(187). Myiophoneus temminchi.— The Himalayan Whistling Thrush is only 

 to be observed down hill between 5,000 and 6,000 feet on the mountain streams. 

 I did not look for nests. The song notes are very like the whistling of a human 

 being. 



(190). Larvivora cyanea. — Looking for the nests of the next species I once 

 came across a pair of birds which I have no doubt were Siberian Blue Chats. 

 An account of the circumstances under which I happened on this rare species 

 to India was published in the notes to Vol. XVIII, page 197 of this Journal. 



(191). Larvivora brunea. — Though a very common bird on the hill and 

 heard everywhere, the Indian Blue Chat is rarely seen. He is a skulker "par 

 excellence," and only an occasional glimpse is to be caught of him as he hurls 

 himself from cover to cover. At pairing time he throws off these secretive habits 

 to a great extent and is to be seen displaying his beauty to advantage perched on 

 a bush or branch of a tree, and uttering with open and quivering bill, and 

 apparently much strain on his syrinx, his whistling song of " Jerri-Jerri," 

 followed by a rapidly repeated " tlca-tlca-tica" or " qulck-qulck-quick." When 

 perching in the open he has a curious habit of jerkily waving his tail 4 or 5 

 times from the line of the back down, every fifth or sixth wave raising it 

 considerably higher. A good way to observe this bird is to creep quietly into, 

 and sit down in the centre of, a clump of thick bushes which he is known to 

 frequent. He may then be seen at quite close quarters as he hops warbling and 

 whistling through the cover. The female, owing to her rather sombre garb and 

 quite as unobtrusive habits, is still less easy to observe. The nest, which is built 

 of moss and leaves, and lined with hair and a few feathers, is usually placed in 

 the crevice of a rock or under a stone in a gully and near thick cover and is, as a 

 rule, wonderfully well concealed. The eggs, four in number, are plain blue 

 unspotted and not as described in the " Fauna of British. India." When one 

 approaches a nest in which there are young, the parents show their concern by 

 uttering a peculiar "tack-tack" note very similar to the alarm note of the Stone- 

 chats and easily simulated by knocking together two small stones. After sound- 

 ing this note the bill is often opened and shut several times without any sound 

 being produced. The spirits of the male bird are irrepressible and he sings even 

 when the brood is hatched and his time is taken up in foraging for his young. 

 The young leave the nest at an early age and before they can fly. This species 

 is one of those selected by the common cuckoo as foster parent for its young. 



(226). Zosterops palpebrosa. — Only twice have I met with the Indian 

 " White eye " ; on both occasions in small parties hunting for insects under the 



