THE BROWN ROCK-CHAT 19 



the saint's burying-place might not be defiled by the 

 dust that fell from the boots of the infidel, and a ladder 

 was taken inside. Let into the walls of the tomb were 

 a number of large niches. In one of these, of which the 

 base was some ten feet above the level of the ground, 

 was the nest of the brown rock-chats, containing three 

 beautiful pale blue eggs, blotched with light yellow 

 at the broad end. The ledge on which the nest was 

 built was covered with dust and pieces of fallen plaster, 

 which had evidently been accumulating there for 

 generations. The fallen plaster served as a foundation 

 for the little nursery, which was composed entirely of 

 fine dried grass. This had the appearance of being 

 woven into a shallow cup, but I am inclined to think 

 that the material had been merely piled on to the ledge, 

 and that the cavity had resulted from the sitting of the 

 bird. The nest was bounded on two sides by the wall, 

 and the part of it next to the wall was deeper than the 

 remainder. There was no attempt at weaving or 

 cementing, and the whole was so loosely put together 

 that it could have been removed only by inserting a 

 piece of cardboard under it, and thus lifting it bodily 

 away. In other niches were three disused nests, 

 one of which I appropriated ; they had probably been 

 made in previous years by the same pair of birds. 

 I subsequently came across another nest inside an 

 inhabited bungalow at Lahore, and another on the 

 inner ledge of the window of an outhouse. Hume 

 stated that a pair of brown rock-chats built regularly 

 for years in his house at Etawah. They do not in- 

 variably construct the nest inside buildings. Hume 



