EMBERIZA. 171 



in, all the bare stony hills of Rajpootana and Northern and 

 Western Punjab. It is found, but rarely, in the hills dividing 

 Sindh and Khelat, and very likely breeds there also. 



I myself have only taken the eggs near Ajmere, on the slopes 

 of the Aravalli ; and I can add nothing to my account of their 

 nidification written on the spot, which has been already published 

 and which I reproduce here : 



" The breeding-season appears to be November and December. 

 The natives say that they also lay early in July, at the commence- 

 ment of the rains ; but as to this I can say nothing. The very first 

 birds that I shot on the 2nd November, the day after I arrived 

 here, proved on dissection to be breeding ; and out of the oviduct 

 of a female shot on the 3rd I took a nearly perfect, though colour- 

 less, egg. For several days we hunted without success, finding 

 many nests that I believed to belong to this species, and seeing 

 everywhere females about, straws in mouth, but meeting with no 

 eggs. At last, on the 12th November, I myself accidentally 

 stumbled upon two nests. I was walking slowly and (if it must 

 be confessed) footsore and somewhat despondent amongst the 

 loose blocks and rocky shingles of the southern flanks of the 

 Taragurh Hill, when a female suddenly sprang up and darted off 

 from within 2 inches of my foot. I looked down, and there, on 

 the sloping hillside, half-overhung by a moderate-sized block of 

 greyish quartz, was a little nest from which the bird had risen, and 

 which I had been within an ace of stepping on. Close at hand were 

 two or three small tufts of yellow withered grass, but these were 

 several inches distant from the nest. This latter (which, laid on 

 the hillside, was some 3 or 4 inches thick 011 the valley side and 

 barely three-fourths of an inch towards the hill) was composed at 

 the base and everywhere externally of small thorny acacia-twigs and 

 very coarse roots of grass. This, however, was a mere foundation 

 and casing, 011 and in which the true nest was constructed of fine 

 grass-stems somewhat loosely put together, the bottom being lined 

 with soft white feathers. The egg-cavity was circular and cup- 

 shaped, about 2-25 in diameter and 1*25 in depth, and contained 

 two tiny yellow-gaped, dusky bluish, fluffy chicks apparently just 

 hatched, and one (as it proved) rotten egg. 



" Scarcely twenty yards further, on a slightly sloping slab of 

 stone, partly overhung by a huge block, between two tufts of dry 

 grass springing from the line of junction of the slab and block, I 

 found a second precisely similar nest, containing two fresh eggs, 

 round which both parents flitted closely all the time I was occupied 

 in examining and securing the eggs and nest, exhibiting no apparent 

 signs of fear. 



" The three eggs thus obtained were regular, moderately broad 

 ovals, slightly compressed towards one end, but somewhat obtuse 

 at both. The shells were very delicate, and had a slight gloss. 

 The ground-colour differed somewhat in all three : in one it was 

 pale greenish-, in another pale bluish-, and in the third faintly 

 brownish-, white. All were spotted, speckled, and minutely but 



