58 TURDID.I:. 



From Alrnorah Mr. Brooks remarks : " Common in all moun- 

 tain-streams. Mr. Home found the nest near Bheem Tal, which 

 was placed in the side of a rocky watercourse, and was a large one 

 composed of moss and fibres. Eggs three or four; ground-colour 

 white, with a faint shade of green, speckled rather sparingly with 

 rusty brown ; lays in Kumaon in May." 



Captain Cock informs me that this species " breeds in May and 

 June near Dhurmsala and in Cashmere. It makes a large solid 

 nest of moss, placed on a shelf of a bank overhanging a bill-stream, 

 but always well overlapped by the top of the bank, so that the 

 nest is not observable. The nest is large for the bird, of a deep 

 cup-shape, lined with dry leaves and grass-roots. The birds 

 usually lay four eggs, of which there are two distinct types of 

 coloration, or, I should say, of the ground-colour one having 

 a greenish ground covered with rusty spots, and the other a dirty 

 pink covered with similar spots." 



Colonel C. H. T. Marshall writes : " The Spotted Fork tail is 

 common about every stream in Cbamba. In April it commences 

 breeding, and does not seem particular as to the elevation at 

 which it builds. I have found a nest in the root of a fallen 

 deodar tree, near where snow was lying in a ravine, about 

 7000 feet up, and several pairs remain all the summer in their 

 winter-quarters between 2000 and 3000 feet up." 



The eggs are oval, in shape resembling those of the "Wagtail, 

 but differing from them in the comparative sparseness and clearness 

 of the markings. The ground-colour is generally a pale clear 

 greenish white, rarely a dingy carneous, and they are thinly 

 spotted, speckled, and even streaked with yellowish or reddish 

 brown. Where several of the spots occur close together, a 

 nimbus of the some colour, but paler, more or less unites them, 

 and a few somewhat faint brownish-purple spots and clouds, or an 

 indistinct mottling of this colour, are here and there occasionally 

 observable. The eggs vary much in size and shape : some are a 

 good deal elongated, and some conspicuously pyriform. They have 

 very little, if any, gloss. In size they vary from 0*9 to 1*03 in 

 length, and from 0*68 to 0'75 in breadth. 



631. Henicurus guttatus, Gould. The Eastern Spotted Forktail. 

 Enicurus guttatus, Gould, Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 584 bis. 



When speaking of the previous species, Dr. Jerdon remarks : 

 " The nest and eggs of this bird have been brought me more than 

 once, made of roots, fibres, and a little moss, with three or four 

 eggs, greenish white, with a few rusty-brown spots." 



This, however, as he told me, occurred at Darjeeling, where only 

 the present species, the Eastern Spotted Forktail, and not the 

 preceding one, is found, and his remarks therefore apply to this 

 species. 



From Sikhim Mr. Gammie sends me the following : " Heni- 

 curus guttatus makes a similar nest to that of H. schistacevg, 



