50 TUBDIDJS. 



purpose of watching them. I have no doubt, however, that in 

 these sort of places, without broken banks or walls, the situation 

 would be upon the ground at the bottom of a stunted bush a foot 

 or 18 inches high, as in England we find the nest at the bottom of 

 a stunted whin-bush, and rather at one side of the bush, the 

 entrance being from above, not from the side of the bush, the latter 

 being the situation sometimes chosen by the Whin-Chat. They 

 lay in Kumaon from the end of March to June." 



Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall writes : " I found a single nest of 

 this bird on the 28th May near the village of Jaroundah, on the 

 southern border of the Saharunpoor district. It was in a thick 

 karounda (Carissa carounda) bush in a small patch of jungle on 

 the banks of the Kullurpoor branch of the Eastern Jumna Canal. 

 The nest was deeply cup-shaped, made entirely of grass, the coarser 

 bits outside and the finer and softer pieces neatly woven inside. 

 There were two fresh eggs." 



Dr. Scully informs us, writing from Nepal, that " two nests of 

 this species were found in the valley in June, placed on the ground 

 and well sheltered by grass and wormwood-bushe 



s. 



The eggs of our Indian form are somewhat smaller than those of 

 its English representative. The largest egg that I possess, and I 

 have numbers from Almorah, the Dhoon, and Kotegurh, is smaller 

 than the egg figured by Mr. Hewitson, and several are so much 

 smaller as to be if anything less than his figure of the Chiffchaff's 

 egg. In shape, too, they are possibly somewhat more elongated, 

 being typically I think, to judge from numerous examples, a rather 

 elongated but obtuse-ended oval. In colour and character of 

 markings they are, however, apparently identical, or, if they differ, 

 differ less so even than those of P. caprata and P. atrata. The 

 ground-colour is dull pale green or greenish white, and they are 

 very finely and faintly freckled with pale brownish red, the mark- 

 ings, which are very delicate, being always most numerous at the 

 large end, to which they are often confined as a feeble cloudy zone 

 or cap, but at times extend over nearly the whole surface. 



In length the eggs vary from 0-62 to 0*77, and in breadth from 

 0*48 to 0-6 ; but the average of sixty-three eggs measured is 0'7 by 

 0-55 nearly. 



615. Oreicola ferrea (Hodgs.). The Dark-grey Bash-Chat. 



Pratincola ferrea ( Hodgs.}, Jerd. S. Ind. ii, p. 127; Hume, Rough 

 Draft N.$E. no. 486. 



The Dark-grey Bush-Chat breeds throughout the Himalayas, at 

 any rate from Murree to Bhootan, along the hills south of the first 

 snowy ranges (and in some cases, where these are broken through 

 by large rivers, up the valleys of these latter, far beyond these 

 ranges), at elevations of from 4000 to 8000 feet. 



The breeding-season lasts from the commencement of April to 

 the end of July, during which they often, to my certain knowledge, 



