TUAHNOB1A. 73 



and many others at intermediate times. The breeding-season 

 may be said to extend from March to June. The nest is usually 

 made of grass and lined with horsehair. 



" I have found nests of this bird in very curious positions. One 

 was built between two bricks in a native brick-kiln in course of 

 preparation. The hen bird was sitting on the nest with the people 

 working within a few feet of her. The nest would have been 

 destroyed in the progress of the kiln long before the eggs would 

 have been hatched. There were three eggs when I found it. An- 

 other nest was on the sill of a blind window in one of the canal 

 chokis without an attempt at concealment of any kind ; and a 

 third was in the hole for the punkah rope to pass through the 

 wall." 



Professor Valentine Ball writes : " The Brown-backed Indian 

 Robin is very common in Chota Nagpur. With regard to its 

 nidification I have the following note : 25th April. Found the nest 

 of this bird with three eggs in a hole in a bank by the side of a 

 much-frequented road. Eggs greenish white with olive-brown 

 spots. The nest consisted merely of a few pieces of grass, &c. 

 lining the bottom of the hole/' 



Mr. A. Anderson notes that this species " builds almost exclu- 

 sively in holes of walls and banks. The nest is composed of grass, 

 fibres, &c., and is generally lined with hair, not unfrequently with 

 the addition of pieces of snakes' skins. It lays generally three 

 and occasionally four eggs of a dirty greenish-white colour, speckled 

 all over with reddish-brown spots, most thickly distributed, how- 

 ever, at the thick end. Some varieties are exceedingly pretty, 

 especially those which have a purplish-red zone at the obtuse end 

 instead of being freckled. 



" Two pairs of these Robins built close to the Futtehgurh church 

 three years ago : one pair took up their abode inside of a tin 

 watering-pot which had been placed in a slanting direction in a 

 bush ; the other pair took possession of an old piece of cloth that 

 had been thrown over the bough of a tree, and which formed a sort 

 of loop or bag at the bottom, inside of which the nest was built. 

 They both laid the usual complement of eggs, viz. three, but these 

 fell a prey to the voracity of the so-called Blood-sucker (Calotes 

 versicolor)" 



Major C. T. Bingham writes : " A common bird both at Alla- 

 habad and at Delhi. It breeds in holes in walls, sometimes making 

 a large shapeless nest of bits of straw, cotton, feathers, &c., and 

 sometimes barely lining the hole chosen with grass-roots, but in- 

 variably, whatever sort of nest it may build, having portions of 

 cast-off snake-skin as part of the lining. It lays from March to 

 the end of June. Four is the usual number of eggs, but I have 

 found six." 



Colonel A. C. McMaster informs us " that three pairs of these 

 birds built about the roof of my house at Kamptee. One nest was 

 composed of coir-matting stolen from me and lined with the red 

 wool which had dropped from an old carpet daily beaten near the 



