Trip to Kashmir. 13 



Sonamurg and at Gnnd, generally keeping pretty high on 

 the hills, above 7000 feet. It is shy, and usually seen flitting 

 about the tops of the trees and difficult to trace to its nest. 

 We were very unlucky in getting its nests. Of four which 

 we found, the first, discovered on the 12th May, was empty; 

 another, discovered on the 23rd, contained three young ones, 

 just hatched, and a rotten egg ; a third, seen at Sonamurg 

 on the 10th June, had three large young ones, while a 

 fourth nest, apparently containing young, was quite un- 

 approachable. All the nests were in holes in rotten boughs 

 or thin dead trees, from twenty to forty feet from the ground. 

 There was little in the way of a nest. The rotten e^^ and 

 the fragments of the shells were of a uniform pale blue 

 devoid of markings, much of the same shade of blue as those 

 of Zoster ops palpehrosa. 



17. Hypsipetbs psaroides Vig. 



This Bulbul was common along the Jhelum Valley from 

 near Kohala to Murree, and again up the Sind Valley, from 

 the neighbourhood of Kagan to Gangadgir. It does not 

 seem to come higher up the river, nor did we find it in any 

 case high up the hills. We took two nests at Kagan on the 

 20th and 21st June with three fresh eggs and three young 

 respectively. They were ordinary Bulbuls' nests, about 

 fifteen feet up small trees. 



18. MoLPASTEs LEUCOGENYS (Gray). 



This is a very common and familiar bird along the Jhelura 

 Valley and in the Valley of Kashmir. It was common in 

 the Sind Valley at Gandarbal ; a few pairs were noticed near 

 the river at Kagan, and a pair was seen on one occasion at 

 Gund. We got nests in small bushes at Gandarbal in the 

 third week of June. 



19. SiTTA LEUcopsis Gould. 



This was the only Nuthatch noticed in Kashmir. It was 

 common at Sonamurg, and less so on the higher hills above 

 Gund, but did not seem there to come within a thousand 

 feet of the river. It has a wailing cry, more like that of a 

 mammal than of a bird, and this cry it was incessantly 



