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NESTING IN KASHMIR.* 

 By Lieut. N. F. T. Wilson, R.I.M. 



{Read before the Bombay Natural History Society, on 18th SepU 1899). 

 Having but lately returned from a visit to the dominions of His 

 Highness the Maharajah of Kashmir, I think it may perhaps be of 

 interest to your readers if I give a short account of some of the birds 

 whose nesting habits we were able to observe there. At the outset, I 

 must plead guilty to having unwittingly committed a breach of the 

 local game laws, as we, on three occasions, took clutches of the eggs of 

 birds protected under those laws ; but, inasmuch as they are presum- 

 ably framed to prevent the wholesale destruction of eggs, of which the 

 natives were, till lately, guilty, we felt that only the letter and not the 

 spirit of the law had been broken, and anyhow, it was too late to repair 

 the mischief. But it would be as well to warn any collector who pro- 

 posed to follow our example, that such laws exist, and that a permit 

 from the State Council is necessary to enable any one to take the eggs 

 of game birds between the 15th March and 15th September. 



A few birds whose nesting habits have not previously been recorded 

 will be found amongst our list, otherwise it contains nothing new, and 

 is chiefly interesting from the way our notes corroborate the remarks 

 of observers who have worked the country befora. The period of ob- 

 servation extended from early in May to the 13th August, but nothing 

 was done by us after 12th July, on which date we heard that stringent 

 orders had been issued to the village headmen to prevent any eggs from 

 being taken. The numbers and names are those used by Gates and 

 Blanford in the Fauna of British India. 



9. Corvus monedula. — The Jackdaw. — Very common, nesting in 

 holes in high banks of the Jhelum and also in the walls of old forts at 

 Sopur and Uri. Eggs during the early part of May. 



99. Trochalopteram Ureatum. — Himalayan Streaked Laughing- 

 Thrush. — Common in the low bushes and jungle which cloth emany of 

 the sides of the hills. Eggs during May, June and July. 



187. Myophoneus temmincki. — The Himalayan Whistling Thrush. — 

 Birds common, but nests hard to find. Nest and 2 fresh eggs 

 wei*e taken from underneath an enormous boulder in the bed of 



* Note. — This article was written before I saw Mr. Davidson's description of a 

 similar expedition in the " Ibis." 



