Letters, Announcements, S^c. 139 



chloris, and in size is intermediate between it and the English 

 Siskin ; but its habits and notes generally are very similar to 

 the Greenfinch's during its breeding-season. It has much the 

 same kind of call, both in flight and when seated on the top of 

 a tree, uttering in the latter instance the peculiar " bzee-ee " so 

 characteristic a part of the Greenfinch's song. Both Col. Tytler 

 and myself are very anxious to get some live specimens; and 

 doubtless we shall succeed later in the year, as I hear that the 

 soldiers at Subathoo manage to catch them in the winter months, 

 at which time they probably descend to the lower elevation 

 (about 4500 feet) of that station, driven down by snow. The 

 song of our Siskin is a very sweet one; and I can only describe 

 it by comparing it to that of the Greenfinch, interspersed with 

 many of the notes of the Goldfinch — ^judging, that is, as well as I 

 can from recollection. It is of course peculiar of its kind, and 

 is continued for some length of time without intermission. 



I am inclined to think that this species breeds about the 

 beginning of this month ; for during a two days' trip to a staging 

 bungalow called Fagoo, distant some fifteen miles on the Hima- 

 laya and Thibet road, I came across large numbers, all, however, 

 in pairs, frequenting the umbrageous pine {Pinus excelsa) and 

 holly [Ilex] trees, which, except where partially cleared away for 

 the cultivation of the potato, form a high and thick forest, and 

 I shot a female in the act of collecting moss in its bill. 



At the same place I procured several other interesting birds, 

 which, though at such a short distance off, I had not previously 

 obtained in the vicinity of Simla. 



Two species of Trochalopterum not previously seen here were 

 abundant, T. ei-ythrocephalum and T. variegatum, but, like all 

 the rest of their tribe, such intense skulkers amongst the low 

 brushwood that I had some difficulty in procuring specimens. 

 Several were seen of that rare Nutcracker, Nucifraya hemispila, 

 which also were in pairs, and so excessively wary that I only 

 succeeded in securing one, which I came upon suddenly. I 

 fancy they are not nearly so rare on these hills, from what Col. 

 Tytler tells me, as on the Darjeeling ranges, where in 186.2 I 

 only saw a single example of the species. It has a harsh, un- 

 pleasant, grating scream, which may be heard a long way off", 



