NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF THANDIAN1. 291 



stand on boulders over which the water flows at a depth of an inch or so, 

 picking up the insects that flow towards them. Often they make dashes under 

 the spray of falling water and sometimes pick up their food out of a foaming 

 rush of water by hovering just above it. One bird I watched which was con- 

 stantly flying with food, in under the bank of the torrent and below where I 

 was seated, evidently had a nest there, but I had not time to go down and 

 search for it. 



(646). Rhyacornisfuliginosus. — The Plumbeous Redstart is common on the 

 above mentioned stream and that at Kala Pani. It is a very tame bird, and 

 examples are often to be seen standing on rocks quite close to the dhobis 

 washing clothes. This Redstart takes flies on the wing like a flycatcher. On 

 July 9th and 10th I saw a number of fully fledged young. There is a fascina- 

 tion in watching the tails of these little birds, especially the white tails of the 

 females and young. The motion is simultaneously a wag and an expansion, and 

 I can liken it to nothing so much as the scintillations of light on water slightly 

 disturbed. This peculiar tail motion is more marked in this genus than in the 

 last. 



(673). Merula castanea. — This lovely songster, the Grey-headed Ouzel, is 

 fairly common above 7,000 feet. Below, its place is taken by the next species. 

 The song, although not so continuous as that of the Song Thrush (Turdus 

 musicus), is yet very similar and is one of the delights of the residents of 

 Thandiani. The nest is built, as a rule, low down in a yew tree. The breeding 

 season commences in May. 



(676). Merula boulboul. — The Grey-winged Ouzel, a well known songster and 

 favourite cage bird with the Kashmiris and Punjabis, is not very common and 

 does not occur above 7,000 feet. Eggs taken in the middle of June were shewn 

 me. 



(690). Petrophila erythrogastra. — The Chestnut-bellied Rock-Thrush is rather 

 rare. Like the next species, he is fond of perching on the topmost branches of a 

 bare pine tree, but although I have watched a male bird once or twice I have 

 never heard his song. I saw one bird hawk and catch a flying insect on the 

 wing like a drongo. 



(691). Petrophila cinclorliyncha. — Perhaps the commonest of the thrush 

 family on the hill is the Blue-headed Rock-Thrush. Perched high up in a pine 

 his pretty three-note warbling song of " Tew-li-dl, Tew-li-di, Tew-li-dl, Tew " (the 

 Tew descending in the scale and getting louder at each repetition j is commonly 

 sung in the mornings and afternoons. This thrush is sometimes seen floating 

 down from the top of a high tree to a lower one with wings outstretched and 

 singing all the time like a skylark. Eggs freshly taken were shewn me in June 

 and I saw a nest with four nearly fledged young in it on June 17th and another 

 on July 9th. The nests were built in crevices in rocks, The alarm note used by 

 both parents when one approaches the nest is a " goink-goink". 



(693). Petrophila cyanus. — The Western Blue Rock-Thrush is fairly com- 

 mon on the bare rocky hills below Kala Pani. 



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