748 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVI. 



The winter is very severe, snow lying on all the hills and falling in Quetta. 

 It also freezes hard. Spring and autumn are delightful. The summer is cool 

 compared with India, but the sun strikes one as uncommonly hot. Spring 

 is the breeding season. In a spot such as this, with so varied a climate, it can 

 be readily understood that nearly all the birds are migratory. Some come 

 here to b-eed, others to winter. 



As I did not arrive here till the end of March, the commencement of the 

 season, I was considerably handicapped both by having to settle in and to 

 learn the country and haunts of the birds. I hope next year to be in a better 

 position to do more. 



Coccothraustes humii (Hume's Hawfinch). I have found this bird very 

 common since I have been here, but I cannot say whetlier it winters. The 

 first nest I found was on the "24th April 1905. It was placed in the stoutish 

 fork of a small tree agiinst a small ston?, which had somehow got 

 wedged in, and was about 10 feet from the ground. The exterior of the 

 nest consisted of bents, grass, small twigs and sticks, rather flimsy, the interior 

 being lined with cotton, wool hair, etc., welded together, a'most to the consis- 

 tency of felt, forming a compact, deepish cup. It contained 5 fresh eggs of a 

 very light Cambridge blue, thinly speckled or spotted with blackish end dark 

 brown spots. When fi'3-h, the yolK can be seen distinctly through the shell, 

 which gives the eggs an opalescent tinge. When blown the blue is deeper. 

 After this I found several more nests similarly situated usually in roadside 

 trees, where they are easily seen, no attempt being made at concealment. 1 he 

 nests are rarely placed beyond hand reach. Five seems to be the complement . 

 though on one occasion I obtained six eggs from one nest. The bird I eing so 

 common here, it seems curious that it has never been found nesting before, or 

 rather reported 



Galerita cristata (The Crested Labk). Very plentiful here. On the "26th 

 April 1005, 1 found my first nest, after this I came on many. The birds seem tc 

 coop out a hollow first;, which they afterwards line with roots, grass, hair, etc v 

 the situation selected is very similar to those of all larks, viz., in a tussock 

 of grass, at the foot of a shrub, etc. In order to deceive one and lure one 

 away from their nests, they sometimes feign being wounded and flutter on the 

 ground before one. Four is the complement of eggs though I have taken five 

 in one clutch. 



SMi.cola uabel'ina (The Isabelline Chat). Plentiful and most obtrusive 

 round Quetta in the spring. This pretty little bird forces itself on one's notice 

 by its autics when love-making. The male becomes ecstatic. He rises in the 

 air a short distance, droops his wings, arches his back, spreads his tail, dis- 

 playing a large white patch over the rump and then flutters slowly to the 

 ground, uttering a most peculiar love song and alighting on a si*e usually raised 

 above its surroundings. I spent many an hour watching them before meeting 

 with success. They nest down, what look like, rat-hole3, there is nothing to 



