18 Mr. J. Davidson—^ Sliort 



adjoining tlie large nuUali which enters the Sind River at 

 that place. We devoted several hours to looking for nests, 

 and examined every place we thought possible — hole, tree, 

 bank, and rock, — but without the slightest success, though the 

 birds, or rather one of the pair, came constantly singing 

 around. It is possible that, as this was a late arrival, the 

 species may not have bred by the time we left. We never 

 saw or heard the bird anywhere but in the immediate 

 vicinity of water. 



32. ACANTHOPNEUSTE OCCIPITALIS (Jcrd.). 



A very common bird everywhere in the Sind Valley where 

 there was any forest, and one whose harsh note makes its 

 existence very apparent whenever it occurs. We found many 

 nests in May and June, and certainly did not perceive any 

 shyness on the part of any of the numerous pairs we dis- 

 covered breeding. The nests were found in all sorts of 

 places, often in holes of trees, both dead and growing, up to, 

 in one case, a height of 20 feet from the ground ; in holes 

 also in rocks, banks, and even in the ground and under 

 stones. They were small cups of green moss, and the number 

 of eggs varied from four to six ; they were in all cases pure 

 white. We found the egg of Cuculiis poliocephalus in the 

 nests of this bird and of Phylloscopus humii. 



33. HoRORNis PALLiDUS (Brooks). 



This bird appeared in Gund early in May, and we found 

 it along the bare side of the river up to 7000 feet among the 

 scrub, and also a short distance up the wooded hills. It has 

 a wonderfully clear cry of four or five notes, which, once 

 heard, cannot be mistaken, and this we also heard occasionally 

 in the Jhelum Valley down to 3000 feet, and also at Murree. 

 It is rather a late breeder, as we did not get a nest with eggs 

 till the 27th May. Between that date and the 31st we got 

 several more. The nests were untidy and spherical, of coarse 

 grass, resembling those of a Munia, but with an entrance 

 near the top, and lined with feathers. They were placed in 

 thick bushes, generally about two feet from the ground. The 

 eggs in every case were four in number, and were of a 

 uniform purplish-red colour and extremely fragile. 



