754 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



capistrata) has an alarm note like the Thrushes {Mertila) only more rapidly 

 repeated and not so loud. 



505. The note used by the Dark-grey Cuckoo-shrike {Campophaga melanoschi- 

 sta) in the breeding season, I can now confirm, is as described in this Journal in 

 " Bird Notes from Murree and The Galis," Vol. XIX. No. 1. It also sometimes 

 utters a small magpie-like chatter. The nest is such a tiny cup, or rather 

 saucer, that the sitting bird almost entirely conceals it. 



6£8. The song of The Small-billed Mountain Thrush (Oreocincla clauma) is 

 loud and rather like that of The Missel Thrush, but more disconnected, a long 

 pause coming between each note. It is something as follows : — " Chirrup," 

 " Chewee," " Ohiieii," " Wiow," " We ep," " Chirrol," " Chup," 



" Chewee," " Wiop,". 



741. To illustrate how highly insectivorous even the most typical of the 

 finch family become in the breeding season, I may mention the case of a 

 female Black and yellow Grosbeak {^Pycnorhampus icteroides) which on the 

 5th of July I saw devouring a fair-sized slug! 



744. The spotted-winged Grosbeak, Myceroban melanoxanthus, utters at 

 times a variety of parrot like note in addition to the note described (op cit). 

 Possibly in captivity it would surpass many of the paroquets in talking capacity. 

 The distant sound of the call note or note of communication, mostly used 

 when flying, can be fairly well represented by shaking an ordinary match box 

 containing a few matches. This Grosbeak is shy and difficult to observe as it 

 keeps to the tops of high trees and does not move about the branches much. 

 Even when in some numbers its presence can rarely be detected except by the 

 loud oriole-like song-note of the male already described. When paired and 

 nesting it is still more wary. 



The colour of the lower parts of the male is of a paler yellow than in the 

 last species. In flight also it is more rapid and, as a rule, flies higher. 



1072.— On the 13th July I came across near Changla Gali at about 7,600 feet 

 a breeding colony of Blyth's White-rumped swifts (^Cypselus leuconyx.) A 

 flock of swifts playing about a cliff face attracted my attention. On nearer 

 approach the parent birds flying in with food amid a continuous tittering 

 clamour of nestlings at once revealed the nest-holes. 



The kind of cliff apparently normally selected for nesting sites by this 

 species is one where there is a rock strata with a downward slant towards the 

 cliff face, the nests being built in horizontal intei'stices between the strata 

 where the upper projects over the lower. Vertical fissures do not appear to be 

 considered suitable sites. 



1105. A female Himalayan Cuckoo (Cucuhis saturatus,) which was shot, 

 evidently in the attempt to lay an egg, was brought to me on the 7th of June. 

 I took the fragments of the egg (which was broken by the fall) from the 

 oviduct. They were pure white and without any markings whatever. 



The bird most commonly victimised by this CucUoo in these hills is " The 

 Large-crowned Willow Warbler (Acanthopueusta occipitalis). 



