MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 991 



I believe these birds have been found breeding at Kohat by Mr. Whitehead, 

 but I do not think they have been recorded from these parts befoie. The 

 e^;8 measure 1 inch by -7 and are greenish grey, spotted and scrawled with 

 purplish black and with pale purplish markings. 



Wall Creeper (Tichodroma muroria).—! found a nest in a boulder cliff at 

 twelve thousand feet, but they were feeding young on June 12, and ihe young 

 birds left the nest on June "27, when I secured one of Ihem. The nest was 

 nearly two feet inside wedged between two boulders and was a pad of wool 

 and hair and grass. 



The Rkd-iiraded Bullfinch {^Pyrrlmla eri/tlirocephnla) — One nest was 

 taken at about twelve thousand feet, it was placed ten feet up in a small tree 

 and was made of thin twigs and beard moss (Usnea barbata) and lined with 

 rather coarse roots. There were four fresh eggs on August 28, they 

 measure -81 by "56 and are a very pale greenish white, marked chiefly at the 

 larger end with pale purple and dark reddish brown. These eggs di£er from 

 those of the European bullfinch in being very much paler in ground colour, 

 and eggs of PyrrhuJa auraiit/aca, Taken by Col. Ward in Kashmir, are pure 

 white in ground colour and are very sparingly marked •nith i eddish bitjwn. 



The Orange-barred Willow Warbler {^Phy'loscopus pulcher) —This bird 

 was fairly common at thirteen thousand feet, but many nests were desti-oyed by 

 some bird or animal and only two clutches were secured. In one of these 

 clutches three eggs were unspotted white and the fourth had one single blotch 

 of pale brown only, so it would seem that jmlcher occasionally lays white 

 eggs : all I have seen before were spotted with red. I have recorded this bird 

 as nesting before, up the Bhagirathi Valley. 



PiNK-BROWEn Rose-Finch. {Propasser rJiofJochroua). — Several nests were 

 taken at twelve thousand feet in the latter half of August ; they were placed 

 low down in bushes and made of moss and dry grass and lined with hair. The 

 eggs are rather a dark blue with a few black spots and occasional hair lines. I 

 found the Himalayan Ruby-throat {Calliope pectoraJh) and the Blue-fronted 

 Redstart (^Mtic«Wa /rojjtaii.s) breeding freely at twelve thousand feet and up- 

 wards in the Niti Valley, and saw numbers of their nests. In " Nests and 

 Eggs of Indian Birds " the eggs of these birds, both of which breed in 

 precisely similar localilies, appear to have got transposed ; it is Cdlliojje that lays 

 the greenish blue eggs and LutidUa frontalis the salmon-buff egg, Calliojie lays 

 sometimes unspotted eggs and sometimes faintly spotted with pale red, its nest 

 is usually domed and is made entirely of dry grass. I only once saw a few 

 burhel hairs used. Rutidlla builds with moss and grass and lines thickly with 

 hair and wool. I was unable to secure the eggs of Grundala caiicolor, though 

 I am inclined to think they were commencing lo pair towards the end of June. 

 They moved up to over sixteen thousand feet, and there we twice saw :t 

 female apparently prospecting under rocks, but I had to leave those parts. 



Jeolikote, 20th October 1909. S. L. WHYMPER, 



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