446 sylviidj:. 



In Asia all that we can at present be sure of is, that 

 Canon Tristram obtained a few specimens at Jericho but never 

 saw it elsewhere, that Mr. Swinhoe gives it as found gene- 

 rally throughout China and in Formosa, while as above 

 stated it is known to be a regular and pretty frequent visitor 

 in India during the winter, arriving from the countries lying 

 to the northward, where the perseverance of two earnest in- 

 vestigators has at last been rewarded by the discovery of its 

 nests and the opportunity of observing its habits while breed- 

 ing — which had for long been among the things most eagerly 

 wished for by British ornithologists. 



Mr. W. E. Brooks, well aware of the interest taken in the 

 subject, undertook an expedition for the express purpose of 

 satisfying it, and having most prudently laid his plans 

 met with remarkable success. From the interesting paper 

 on the breeding of this and some other allied species con- 

 tributed by him to ' The Ibis ' for 1872 (p. 24) only brief 

 extracts can here be given. He reached Gulmerg in Cash- 

 mere on the morning of May 31st, 1871, and by the afternoon 

 had three nests, each containing five eggs, of this species in 

 his possession ; while singularly enough on the very same 

 day his friend, Capt. Cock, also took its eggs at Sonamerg 

 in tlie same country. Gulmerg is described as being a tract 

 of extensive pasture-land more than 8,000 feet above the 

 sea-level, surrounded by pine-clad slopes on one side of which 

 rise snowy mountains. The whole hillside is intersected by 

 small ravines, each having its stream of water. In such places 

 as where there were water and old pines this bird was very 

 abundant, every few yards forming the domain of a pair. 

 The males were very noisy, continually uttering a loud 

 double-note, while the cry of the female when off her nest 

 was like the sound of "tiss-yip." The nest, Mr. Brooks 

 says, "is always, so far as my observation goes, placed on 

 the ground, on some sloping bank or ravine-side. The 

 situation preferred is the lower slope near the edge of the 

 Avood, and at the root of some very small bush or tree — often, 

 however, on quite open ground, where the newly growing 

 herbage was so short that it only partially concealed it. In 



