176 PEINGILLIDJE. 



In Kumaon Mr. Brooks found this species laying in the middle 

 of May. He says : " This bird is common in the open country. 

 The nest is placed in the broken terrace- walls, at the foot of 

 a small bush or tuft of grass. I found one in a small bank about 

 3 feet high. The nest was placed about 2 feet from the ground, 

 at the roots of a scrubby bush. It was composed of roots, fibres, 

 and grass, and lined with hair. There were four eggs ; another 

 nest had three only. The ground-colour was a dull white, with a 

 shade of green, thickly speckled and spotted with reddish brown 

 and purplish grey. The egg is not lined like a Bunting's. I shot 

 the old birds in each instance. The song of the male is a mono- 

 tonous one of two or three notes only, constantly repeated. The 

 dark-chestnut plumage is not assumed till the second year, and 

 young males breed in their first plumage, which exactly resembles 

 that of the female." 



Mr. Hodgson has the following note on the nidification of the 

 Crested Black Bunting : 



"April I5th, Jalia Powah. Wild uplands of level and partial 

 cultivation. Found a nest in a cultivated field, laid amongst clods 

 like a Lark's nest ; is small and shallow 7 , but still of decided shape 

 and firm make, composed of hard thin grass, fibres, and hairs ; 

 circular, the cavity 2*5 in diameter and 0'6 deep. Three eggs, 

 bluish ground like milk and water, spotted with dark reddish 

 brown, chiefly at the large end." 



The notes add that this species generally make their nests on 

 the ground under the shelter of some clod or tuft of grass. The 

 bird scratches a small depression, and then twists together a small, 

 fiat, circular nest of roots and grass. 



From Sikhim Mr. Gammie remarks : " With us the Crested 

 Black-and- Chestnut Bunting breeds in May ; it breeds at low 

 elevations from 2000 to 4000 feet ; it chooses open and cleared 

 land, and builds its nest on the ground, often under the shelter 

 of fallen trunks of trees or in banks by the sides of roads. The 

 nest is cup-shaped but shallow as a rule, composed of dry grass 

 and lined with a few root-fibres. One I measured had an external 

 diameter of 4 inches and was 2 inches high. The cavity was 2| 

 inches across by a little over an inch in depth. They lay four to 

 five eggs ; at any rate I have never found more." 



The eggs of this species vary a good deal in shape, but typically 

 are rather broad ovals somewhat obtuse at the small end ; speci- 

 mens, however, often occur very pointed at this end. The ground- 

 colour is a pale greenish white in some, and pinkish or brownish 

 white in others ; and they are thickly speckled and spotted, and 

 in some more or less freckled and mottled, with red, purple, and 

 reddish or purplish brown, the markings of any one egg being 

 usually unicolorous. They are always most dense at the large 

 end, where in the majority of eggs they form a more or less con- 

 spicuous but ill-defined and irregularly mottled cap ; they have 

 little or no gloss. The markings entirely want the bold jagged 

 line character so characteristic of the eggs of many Buntings. In 



