near Nynee Tal and Almorah. 53 



song is a most agreeable one, poured forth from the topmost 

 spray of some tree for hours together, in an impassioned manner- 

 It possesses considerable variety, but the same strain is repeated 

 numbers of times before the bird changes to another. I some- 

 times thought that some of the musical ideas of the natives were 

 derived from the song of this species; it is a great favourite 

 with them as a cage-bird. The nest is formed of the materials 

 described by Dr. Jerdon ; but in the hills moss is freely used. 

 Eggs generally five in number, '925 in. by '583 in., greenish- 

 white, spotted and blotched, principally at the larger end, with 

 reddish-brown, the markings being sometimes intermixed with 

 blotches of purplish-grey, so as somewhat to resemble those of 

 the English Blackbird's in miniature. They are laid about the 

 middle of May. In one instance a Cuckoo's egg was found in 

 the nest of this bird. 



481. Pratincola caprata. Common on all open hill-sides. 

 The song is pretty, and much superior to that of the next spe- 

 cies. The nest is placed in a hole in the side of a low steep 

 bank. In the plains I have always found the nest down disused 

 wells, a small hole in the clayey side being chosen. It is com- 

 posed of fine grass, roots, and fibres, and lined with hair. I 

 have seen one thickly lined with human hair, the produce of 

 some native hair-dresser's performance. The eggs are four or 

 five in number, measuring '708 in. by '583 in., and ai'e of a 

 pale whitish-green, spotted and blotched with reddish brown, 

 sometimes in a zone, near the larger end. They are the prettiest 

 Saxicoline eggs I have seen, and are much more boldly marked 

 than those of the next species. I found the bird sometimes 

 breeding on open hill-sides, or slopes covered with stunted 

 bushes ; and what the situation of the nest could have been I do 

 not know. The bird lays from the end of March or beginniug 

 of April to the end of May. 



483. Pratincola indica. This is the commonest bird of the 

 hills where the country is sparingly wooded or quite open. The 

 specific name should be abandoned, as it does not in any respect 

 differ from the European P. rubicola. Its notes and song, nest 

 and eggs, are precisely the same. Out of a number I have shot, 



