JANUARY. 
January is in all parts of the country the month for the larger 
birds of prey. Of the fifty-six kinds of birds known to breed at this 
time, twenty-eight belong to this order (Raptores). 
In the Himazayas, with the exception of a solitary instance of a 
nest of the brown water ouzel ([ydrobata asiatica), none but the nests 
of raptores have been found. Vultures, eagles, falcons, and kites are 
either building or laying, and as these birds are comparatively few in 
numbers, with great powers of flight, it is necessary to explore over a 
large extent of country to get many eggs; both birds and nests are 
conspicuous. Eyries can generally be marked down in the course of 
the morning’s ride, and arrangements made afterwards for obtaining the 
eggs; a matter often of no small difficulty, as, whether the nest is on 
a ledge of the rock itself or ina tree, it is generally on the face of a 
precipice, which it requires both skill and nerve to surmount. 
In the Punsan, besides the birds of prey, the raven, the striated 
bush babbler, and the dusky sand martin have eggs. Watch should be 
kept on all the large birds of prey, and every large solitary tree should 
be scanned, as it is on such trees that nests of eagles, vultures, &c., will 
be found. These nests are conspicuous from a distance. I have often seen 
and noted them while passing along on a railway journey, returning 
when opportunity offered to examine the nest. 
In the Nortn-West Provinces the Indian hoopoe, the sand martin, 
the pin-tailed munia, the blue rock pigeon, the common sand grouse, and 
the doves have eggs, as well as the vultures and eagles, and falcons and 
some of the owls. 
In Boencat, the sand martin is the only bird now breeding in any 
quantities, besides the birds of prey. 
In Cenrrat Inpra, the dusky crag martin, the munias and amada- 
vats, and doves have eggs, besides the birds of prey which lay everywhere 
at this period. 
In Sours Inpt, the large birds of prey are few in number, but the 
egos of many other kinds may now be sought for. Some species of 
woodpeckers, martins, honey suckers, flower peckers, quaker thrushes, 
bulbuls, bluebirds, wagtails, finch larks, doves, quail, and water 
birds are already known to breed there at this season, and it is probable 
