Letters, Announcements, ^c. 463 



the natives that the birds keep about the same spot, and return 

 again to their former nesting-place after the rains. This is 

 highly probable ; for one, at least, of the localities I hit upon 

 was mentioned by Dr. Jerdon — that on the Wurdu river, west of 

 Chanda. The birds appear never to go very far from their 

 nests, and generally keep close to the river, beating for about 

 half a mile or so up and down, not, however, keeping to the 

 river-bed itself as H. 7'uficeps, Licht., does when breeding. I 

 obtained the eggs, which are very similar in shape and colour to 

 those of H. ruficeps, being white, sparingly spotted with claret- 

 colour, or nearly pure white. I suspect the birds have two 

 broods in the year — one in February, the other in April. I 

 found many young birds in the nests at the beginning of March ; 

 while in the middle of April there were eggs in the nests, and 

 the young of the first brood, differing very little from their 

 parents, wei'e flying about. 



I also obtained the eggs of Cotyle concolor (Sykes), which 

 have not, I think, been described. They are much more oval 

 than those of Hirundo, white, thickly and minutely speckled with 

 brown, and three in number. The nests were under rocky 

 ledges on the banks of rivers ; and I am not quite sure that they 

 were not deserted nests of Hirundo ruficeps. I once found the 

 eggs in what appeared to be a deserted nest oi H. fluvicola. 



My other most valuable captures were two specimens of 

 Cyornis tickellia, Blyth (B. Ind. i. p. 467), one of them, a fe- 

 male, precisely similar in colouring to the male, and Cotyle 

 7-upestris, which, according to Dr. Jerdon [torn. cit. p. 166), is not 

 known to have been previously shot in the plains of India. I 

 found small companies of them around a rocky hill in February. 

 I also obtained the following birds, which had not previously 

 been found so far to the south : — 



Circus cyaneus ! ; a fine specimen, killed at Chanda. 



Pericrocotus erythropygius ; several specimens, Nagpoor. 



Muscicapula superciliaris ; one specimen, Chanda. 



Saxicola opistholeuca ; one specimen, Nagpoor. 



S. atrogularis ; three specimens, Nagpoor. 



Emberiza huttoni ; four specimens, two at Nagpoor, and two 

 west of Chanda. 



