near Nynee Tal and Almorah. 49 



two colours, but each of a darker tint ; others are white, marked 

 sparingly with spots and blotches of dark purple-brown and 

 reddish-brown and intermixed with larger blotches of deep 

 purple- grey, the markings principally forming a zone at the 

 larger end ; others, again, are pale purplish-white, spotted with 

 dark and light purple-brown, intermixed with spots and blotches 

 of purple-grey. The shape of the egg varies as much as the 

 colouring, some being of a fine oval form, while others are quite 

 pyriform. 



288. TcHiTREA PARADisi. Common in the valleys about 

 Almorah, seldom coming up to the elevation of the town itself. 

 I have two mules, shot off the nest, in the chestnut plumage. 

 The nest is a neat cup-shaped one, fixed to a thin branch of a 

 tree by means of fine grass and spiders' webs. It is composed 

 of moss, fibres, and grass, and covered thickly outside with 

 spiders' web. The internal diameter of the nest is about two 

 inches ; and it is lined with fine grass. The bottom of that 

 now described rests on a small twig growing out of the thin 

 branch to which it is bound. The eggs are three in number, 

 measuring '755 in. by "625 in., bufi^, sparingly spotted with 

 reddish-brown and purplish-grey, tending to form a zone at the 

 larger end in nearly every instance. They are laid about the 

 third week in May. 



295. Cryptolopha cinereocapilla. Numerous at Nynee 

 Tal and Almorah in April and beginning of May ; after that 

 time scarce, but I saw the bird occasionally near Nynee Tal and 

 at Binsur. It was breeding ; but where, I never discovered. I 

 once saw the parents feeding their fully grown young. 



301, EuMYiAS MELANOPs. The nest is usually placed in a 

 hole in a steep bank-side at a tree-root, or hole in the wall of 

 some unfrequented building, under the rafters of the verandah 

 of a dwelling-house, or under the eaves of a house-roof. Once 

 I found one in a small niche inside a small building (some six feet 

 square) which formed a cover over a well. The floor was water 

 about three feet deep ; and directly opposite the door was the small 

 niche in the wall, about eight inches wide. Here the bird sat on its 

 nest in full view of every native who came to draw water. The nest 



N. S. VOL. V. £ 



