near Ntjnee Tal and Almurah. 55 



low retaining walls of dry rubble- stone are used. In course of 

 time these low walls, generally only three or four feet high, be- 

 come rather broken and overgrown with vegetation. It is in 

 holes or hollows in these walls that the Stone-Chat delights to 

 build, the situation of the nest being generally near the top of 

 the wall. The nest is always more or less hidden by the plants 

 which grow in all the crevices. It is generally composed of 

 moss, grass, fibres, and fine roots, and lined with hairs and some- 

 times feathers — in fact, just the nest of the English Stone-Chat. 

 The eggs are five in number, and in size and colour exactly re- 

 semble those of the English bird. They are laid from the end 

 of March to June. In addition to the terraced hill-sides, the 

 bird breeds on open uncultivated slopes where the ground is 

 pretty well overgrown with stunted bushes which resemble the 

 English blackthorn. In these places I never succeeded in find- 

 ing the nest ; for the birds watched me more successfully than I 

 watched them, and found me out wherever I had hidden myself. 

 I have no doubt, however, that in this sort of places, without 

 any broken walls or banks, the situation would be on the ground 

 at the bottom of a stunted bush a foot or eighteen inches high, — 

 as in England we find the nest at the bottom of a whin-bush, 

 and rather at one side of the bush, the entrance being from 

 above, not from the side, as in the case of the Whin-Chat. The 

 bush-covered land was well frequented by Stone Chats ; but the 

 majority preferred the cultivated hill-sides. The eggs vary much 

 in size, and are not so handsomely marked as some of the English 



486. Pratincola ferrea. I saw a few between Almorah 

 and Nynee Tal, but did not succeed in shooting one. 



517. AcROCEPHALUS AGRicoLUs. I procurcd several speci- 

 mens at Almorah in April and May, but apparently they had not 

 begun to breed. 



547. SuYA CRiNiGER. Commou on hill -sides where low 

 bushes were numerous. One nest, found on the 19th of May, 

 was suspended in a low bush, and was a very neat purse-shaped 

 structure, with an opening near the top and rather at one side, 

 composed of fine soft grass, of a kind which had dried green, in- 



