172 FEINGILLID^E. 



not very densely freckled with brown; a sort of reddish olive- 

 brown in two, rather more of umber in the third. Small clouds, 

 blotches, and streaks of the same colour and of a pale purple were 

 intermingled with the finer markings. In two of the eggs the 

 markings were far most numerous towards the large end, where in 

 one they are partially confluent ; on the third they are pretty 

 evenly distributed over the whole surface, being, however, rather 

 denser in a broad irregular zone round the middle of the egg. 



" These eggs remind one no little of those of Emberiza eleyans 

 figured by E/adde (Reisen im Siiden von Ost-Sibirien, Taf. v.), but 

 are not nearly so broad. They are not very unlike the egg of 

 E. pusilla as figured by Bree, but they are narrower and more 

 oval. 



" On the 16th, near the base of Taragurh Hill, I found another 

 nest, precisely similar to that already described, containing two 

 fresh eggs. These were of the same general type as those already 

 described, but were much more strongly marked. They were 

 richly freckled and mottled with a fine umber-brown on a pale 

 greenish-white ground, the markings being in both most dense at 

 the large end (where there was a conspicuous confluent zone), and 

 almost wanting at the smaller end. The purple spots, well marked 

 on the first three eggs, were entirely wanting in these. As usual, 

 we captured the female bird without the slightest difficulty. 



'* These five eggs (all I have as yet obtained) have varied from 

 0-75 to 0-8 in length, and from 0-55 to 0-58 in breadth. 



" The nests from which these eggs were taken were all at an 

 elevation of about 2000 feet above the sea-level ; but we found 

 others later (empty or containing young ones) from 1500 to 

 2600 feet. Early on the morning of the 19th November I climbed 

 up the Mudar Shah Range (on the opposite side of the Ajmere 

 Plain to the Taragurh Hill), which is very nearly, if not quite, 

 2600 feet high. On the highest pinnacle of the long knife-like ridge 

 a tiny square temple is perched, at one season of the year a place 

 much resorted to by pilgrims. Inside the temple the whole upper 

 portion of the domed roof is thickly encrusted with what I may 

 term, confluent nests of our Common Swift (Cypselus affinis) a 

 mass of feathers, straw, wool, and the like, cemented together with 

 inspissated saliva. All over the exterior of the temple are little 

 arched recesses sunk about 8 inches in the masonry; and in one of 

 these, about 5 feet above the plinth, one of my people discovered a 

 female E. striolata sitting on her nest. Going to the spot, I stood 

 with my eyes within two feet of the bird. She, however, never 

 moved, but sat calmly eyeing me with her bright dark eye. She 

 looked so nice and sleek and cosy that I hesitated to disturb her; 

 but the eggs of this species were almost, if not entirely, unknown 

 in European collections, and I thought it only right to secure all I 

 could : so I emptied a cap-box into my pocket and lined it with 

 some soft rags torn to shreds, and then put my hand out gently to 

 the nest. Away flitted the old bird, disclosing, alas ! three fluffy 

 nestlings. I drew back my hand, and that very instant the female 



