10 BREEDING SEASONS. 
of surkerry grass, when a little wren warbler (Prinia stewarti) flew 
up with a straw in its mouth, suddenly caught sight of me and 
alighting on a twig close by, looked at me in evident astonishment 
without moving for two or three seconds, then opening its bill and 
dropping the straw it gave a most melancholy chee-e-ep. Ilooked round, 
and just at my back, fortunately uninjured, was the nest neatly 
woven in among the stalks of the grass about a foot above the ground ; 
if was unfinished, and I left it in peace and moved away. ‘Tapping the 
trunks of trees with a stick in passing is a good plan, as it will generally 
puta bird up off a nest that would otherwise sit close and escape 
observation ; but even with those species that lay in deep holes in trees, 
a sound of approaching footsteps is often enough to rouse the bird. I 
once found the nest of a speckled piculet (Vivia innominata), in this way, 
seating myself on a bauk to rest for a few moments under a tree, and 
looking up among the branches, a head of a little bird protruded from 
atiny hole caught my eye. The bird had been roused by the sound of 
my approaching footsteps, and was looking out to see the cause. The 
hole which was pierced in the wood of an old- trunk at some distance 
from the ground was so small that I could only put one finger into the 
entrance, and was almost invisible until the eye was guided to it. To 
find nests of this description, such as woodpeckers and barbets, the 
easiest way is by listening carefully in the woods in the early part of 
the breeding season when the tapping noise made by the birds in dig- 
ging out the holes with their bills guides the eye to their position. 
To find nests in bushes and trees when the birds are close sitters, it 
is sometimes a good plan to disturb the birds by beating the foliage ; 
but by far the best way is to select the most likely localities where 
birds are most numerous and carefully search every bush. In open 
country, with scanty jungle and few trees, every bush and tree should 
be searched, especially where birds are abundant. Large isolated trees 
which are so marked a feature in the plains are very favorite resorts, and 
most of them are more or less tenanted in the season. If the country 
is quite open, or if the jungle is like the common “beri” thorn 
jungle, too low and thick to search systematically, better results will 
be got on horseback than on foot, and in such situations many nests 
may be found while cantering about on a sure-footed pony. When the 
country is quite bare of vegetation, as in some plains and fallow lands, 
or even low stubble, a look-out should be kept well ahead for plovers or 
sandgrouse and other birds which creep quietly away from their eggs 
