Triji to Kashmir. 23 



47. Pratincola maura (Pall.). 



This bird was common everywhere we went in Kashmir, 

 but was less common south of the Pir Panjal range and north 

 of Sonamurg. We got nests half built at Srinugger in April, 

 and in the Sind Valley, which we left at the end of June, 

 many pairs were laying for the second time, while lots of 

 young birds were on the wing, and we could have taken many 

 clutches every day between these dates had we wished to 

 do so. 



48. Henicurus maculatus Vig. 



We were surprised to see so little of this bird ; we only 

 came across it twice on small streams in the neighbourhood 

 of Gund : once in May and once in June. 



49. Chimarrhornis leucocephalus (Vig.). 



Birds of this attractive species were found in numbers along 

 the Sind River, when we marched up it the first week in 

 May, but they almost immediately deserted the lower por- 

 tions of the river, and two individuals we saw in May, one 

 at Gund on a tributary and one at Kulan, were evidently 

 merely late passengers. It was not till we reached the gorge 

 below Sonamurg on the 1st June that we again came on the 

 bird in pairs ; on that day we found three nests, two in the 

 gorge and one on a tributary of the Sind River. The first 

 few nests were found in a few minutes by watching the birds 

 from the road, the first being in a large crevice in the rock 

 overhanging the road and some fifteen feet above it ; it con- 

 sisted of a huge mass of moss lined with some soft fibre from 

 the river-bank, and contained three eggs, quite fresh. The 

 second was on the opposite side of the river, on a grassy bank, 

 about ten feet from the water; it was, however, unaj^proach- 

 able, as the river was unfordable, while a rocky spur prevented 

 anyone crossing the bridge a mile or two further up and 

 coming down the bank. The third nest was fifty yards from 

 the river in a hole in an old stump. The hole was quite the 

 place for a Tit^s nest, and was about ten feet from the ground. 

 A boy sent up announced eggs, and not knowing their size 

 and colour I spent a long time in the dusk watching, and. 



