SAXICOLA. 53 



higher regions. A nest which I found in the rocks on the 10th of 

 July at an elevation of 5880 feet contained three very young quite 

 unfledged nestlings, which were probably not a week old. The 

 nest was a very loose structure, the component parts of which 

 (chiefly dried grass) were kept together by their position in a 

 sheltered cleft of rock. 



" 1 noticed that these birds had very much the habits of Cop- 

 sychus saularis. Towards evening they used to come about the 

 bungalow, perching on the verandah, and singing with a low twit- 

 tering note. Occasionally they would pick up insects off the 

 ground, and sometimes capture them while on the wing." 



Lieut. H. E. Barnes, writing from Chainan in Afghanistan, 

 says : " The Pied Stone-Chat arrives early in March. The first 

 nest was found on the 20th of that month ; it was built in a hole 

 in a tree, and was composed of dry grass, lined with feathers, and 

 contained four eggs of a very delicate greenish-blue tint, obsoletely 

 speckled with rusty brown or pale brownish red at the larger end, 

 where the markings form an irregular zone *. A few specks of 

 the same colour are scattered over the rest of the surface of the 

 egg. The average of twelve eggs is -81 by '56." 



He subsequently added the following note : " The Pied Stone - 

 Chat is very common and breeds, arriving at the end of February 

 and leaving in September." 



Colonel J. Biddulph remarks regarding this Chat's breeding in 

 Grilgit : "In the middle of June a nest was found deep in the 

 crevice of a stone wall of a ruined fort. After two eggs had been 

 laid the bird was apparently killed by some animal. One egg was 

 found broken and the ground strewn with feathers of the hen bird. 

 The egg is pale blue, thinly spotted all over with rusty red, more 

 thickly (but not very thickly) at the larger end." 



621. Saxicola pleschenka (Lepechin). The Siberian Chat. 

 Saxicola hendersoni, Hume ; Hume, Cat. no. 492 bis. 



Colonel J. Biddulph writes : " I took a nest of this Chat in 

 Astor on the 26th June, at an elevation of 7000 feet, containing 

 five hard-set eggs. It was placed, about a foot deep, in a wall of 

 loose stones supporting a built-up road on the mountain-side, over 

 which was constant traffic. The eggs were very pale blue, with 

 small dusky red freckles thinly scattered over the surface, slightly 

 tending towards a zone at the thicker end, and measured '725 inch 

 in length by '565 in diameter." 



Major "Wardlaw Eamsay says, writing of this species in Afghan- 

 istan : " The nest is very difficult to find, and I have sat some- 

 times for half an hour or more hoping that the birds would give 

 some indication of its whereabouts. The only nest secured con- 

 tained but one egg, of a pale unspotted blue, otherwise like a large 

 Stone-Chat's (Pratincola maurd) egg. The nest was placed under 

 a collection of small rocks piled up by the torrent in the then dried- 



* " I b;\ve taken eggs of Cercomela fusca at Aboo very similar to these." 

 II. E. B. 



