210 MOTACILLID.E. 



(almost wet) ground, and it was a large massive structure of green 

 moss lined internally with fine grass-stems. The bird, during the 

 time I was engaged in examining the nest and eggs, stood motion- 

 less on the grassy slope, not more than ten yards from where she 

 had been flushed, eyeing me all the while with outstretched neck, 

 and remained in that position till I shot her. 



" These eggs are very large for the size of the bird, much more 

 so than the usual run of the eggs of kindred species (Anthus arbo- 

 reus and A. pratensis), and larger than a second sitting of fresh 

 eggs which I obtained later on. On the same day several more 

 old birds and two fully-fledged young ones, while in the act of 

 being fed by their parents, were brought to bag. 



" I next encountered the same species in great abundance at 

 Furkia, on the banks of the Pindar, close under the glacier, at an 

 elevation of 12,000 feet. My camp here was pitched on solid ice, 

 and it snowed heavily during the night : it was indeed an ' abode 

 of snow.' Here I saw Aquila chrysaetus, gyrating over the snow- 

 capped peaks, and Pyrrhocorax alpinus for the first and only time. 

 Chaimarrornis leucocephala, Ruticilla fuliginosa, Enicurus scouleri, 

 and Hydrobata asiatica were my constant companions, and were to 

 be seen enjoying themselves on the spray-covered boulders in the 

 foaming torrent; while my paharees shared the same cave with 

 Columba leuconota, and amused themselves by catching marmots 

 (Arctomys hemachalanus). 



" Here, with the snow lying several feet deep on the ground, I 

 found my second nest of Anthus maculatus : it contained three 

 callow young ; but as the nest-architecture differed very materially 

 from the first one, and as the parent birds were so terribly wild, 

 I was necessitated to have the sitting bird noosed on the nest ; 

 shooting it was quite out of the question. This nest was composed 

 entirely of grass-bents, a very shallow saucer-like affair without 

 the addition of any moss or warm materials, as in the first one. 



" The third and last nest, containing four beautiful fresh eggs of 

 the same dark type as the first clutch, was taken atBepulla on the 

 14th of June. This one, as regards position, size, and materials, 

 was exactly similar to the second one above described. 



" To sum up. Anthus maculatus affects by preference the more 

 open grassy mountain-slopes in the immediate vicinity of woods, 

 at elevations from 7000 to 12,000 feet ; these open glades in 

 Northern Kumaon are thinly covered with trees and overgrown 

 with beautilul thick, soft, velvety grass, about a foot high, with 

 occasional IUSSOCKS, especially in the neighbourhood of sheep-pens, 

 sufficiently dense and ^igh to afford cover to a hare. This, at any 

 rate during the breeding-season, is par excellence the abode of both 

 Anthus maculatus and A. rosaceus, which are the only two species 

 of Pipits to be met with at so high an elevation. 



" The birds on these undulating meadows, at limes stretching 

 away for miles, and covering the crest of some of the highest spurs, 

 are extremely lively and very difficult to approach. You have fre- 

 quently to go on * all fours,' taking advantage of every hollow and 



