54: TUBDID.E. 



up bed of a mountain-stream. A considerable number of huge 

 stones had to be removed before the nest could be got at"*. 



629. Cercomela fusca (Blyth). The Brown Rock-Ghat. 



Cercomela fasca {Blyth), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p, 134; Hume, liour/h 

 Draft N. ^' E. \w. 494. 



The Brown Rock-Chat breeds in the northern portions of the 

 Central Provinces, the western and northern districts of the North- 

 western Pi-o\inces, and the eastern and central parts of the Punjab 

 and Eajpootana, from about the middle of March to nearly the end 

 of July. It may occur and breed elsewhere, bnt it is only within 

 these limits that I have any certain knowledge in regard to its 

 niditication. 



During the breeding-season it lays regularly twice, at times 

 thrice. 



It is a great frequenter of old buildings, and all the grand 

 Mahomedan and Hindoo ruins, forts, and palaces, mosques, and 

 temples afford nesting-sites for one or more pairs of this species. 

 They are tame and fearless, A pair built for years regularly in 

 my house at Etaw ah, and they often build about native huts. Deep 

 raviucs and earthy cliii's also attract them, and thousands of pairs 

 build yearly in that vast network of ravines that fringe the courses 

 of the Jumna and Chambul from opposite Agra toCalpee. Others 

 nest in quarries, and I got sca eral nests from those in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Futtehpoor ISikri. 



Holes in walls, whether mud or stone, and in earthen cliffs and 

 banks, ledges and chinks in rocks and quarries, and the like, are 

 the sites chosen, and in these they build, for the most pari, a loose 

 pad-like nest with a feeble central depression, composed of grass 

 stems and roots, the hollow scantily lined with finer roots, horse- 

 hair, and a little wool. Earely they construct a regular and fairly 

 neat, but still shallow, cup-shaped nest, using the same materials. 



Three is the usual complement of eggs, but 1 have repeatedly 

 (say in five cases out of fifty) taken four. 



Major C. T. Bingham writes : — " Very cominon at Delhi among 

 the ruins around. Breeds from March to August in holes in walls 

 lined with grass and feathers. Eggs usually four in number, pale 

 green, blotched and spotted with reddish." 



Writing of his experience in the Saughor, Jhansi, and the Delhi 

 divisions, from all of v\hich localities he sent me eggs, Mr. E. li. 

 Blewitt says that this species " breeds from the middle of INIay to 

 July. The nest, if it can be so called, 1 have found in hohs of 

 old walls, under ledges of rocks, on the ground, and on one occa- 

 sion at the base of a thick growing bush. Occasionally, too, it 

 makes its nest in the roofs of outhouses. 



* Saxm wi.A isABKLi.iNA, CVetzsoliiii. 

 The nest of this species lui.s not yet been found in or near In(]i:i, and liio 

 following note bj Dr. Seiilly will be of interest : — "In tlie neigbbourbdod of 

 Yarkaud it breeds in April and IVlay ; three quite young birds \^ere r)btnined 

 there during tiie laltiT uioiiih.' 



