54 



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-Chat. 



Cercomela fusca (Blytli), Jerd. B. Ind. ii ; p. 134 ; Hume, Rough 

 Draft N. # E. no. 494. 



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

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

 western Pro\inces, and the eastern and central parts of the Punjab 

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

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

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

 nidifioation. 



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 Etawah, and they often build about native huts. Deep 

 ravines and earthy cliffs 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 to Calpee. Others 

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

 bourhood of Puttehpoor Sikri. 



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 part, 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. Barely 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 I have repeatedly 

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



Major C. T. Bingham writes : " Very common 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, Jhausi, and the Delhi 

 divisions, from all of which localities he sent me eggs, Mr. F. B. 

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

 July. The nest, if it can be so called, I have found in holes 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. 



* SAXICOLA ISABELLINA, Cretzschm. 



The nest of this species lias not yet been found in or near India, and the 

 following note by Dr. Scully will be of interest : " In the neighbourhood of 

 Yarkaud it breeds in April and May ; three quite young birds were obtained 

 there during the latter month.' 



