70 A BIRD CALENDAR 



large building. They often breed in colonies. 

 At Dig in Rajputana, where they are sacred 

 in the eyes of Hindus, thousands of them nest in 

 the fort, and, as Hume remarks, a gun fired 

 in the moat towards evening raises a dense 

 cloud of pigeons, " obscuring utterly the wan- 

 ing day and deafening one with the mighty 

 rushing sound of countless strong and rapidly- 

 plied pinions." According to Hume the breed- 

 ing season for these birds in Upper India lasts 

 from Christmas to May day. The experience 

 of the writer is that April, May and June are 

 the months in which to look for their nests. 

 However, in justice to Hume, it must be said 

 that recently Mr. A. J. Currie found a nest, 

 containing eggs, in February. 



In April the green pigeons pair and build 

 slender cradles, high up in mango trees, in 

 which two white eggs are laid. 



The songster of the house-top the brown 

 rock-chat (Cercomela fusca) makes sweet 

 music throughout the month for the benefit 

 of his spouse, who is incubating four pretty 

 pale-blue eggs in a nest built on a ledge in an 

 outhouse or on the sill of a clerestory window. 

 This bird, which is thought by some to be a 

 near relative of the sparrow of the Scriptures, 



