NATURAL HISTORY AND SPORT IN THE HIMALAYAS. 443 
this stage would sit motionless with a bit of plantain or other 
fruit held fast in their bills. One of them perished in a fit; the 
other, I believe, was injured by my servant, as I found it lying on 
the floor moribund, after having been chased about the room by 
the stupid lout in his attempts to capture it and replace it 
in the cage. 
I got a fine Spilornis cheela, the Crested Serpent Eagle, this 
morning, and ought to have secured another, but fired the wrong 
barrel, which was charged with dust-shot. This is a very 
handsome bird, common on the plains as well as on the hills, 
where it breeds in April. Is said to be very destructive to 
poultry and pigeons. ‘The best bird obtained to-day was the 
first specimen I ever got in India of Regulus cristatus. As I was 
not sure of it I sent it to Calcutta for identification, and Blyth, 
who had not got it before, showed his appreciation of it by 
keeping the specimen for the Museum. I believe he at first 
considered it distinct from the British Goldcrest, and named it 
R. Himalayanus, but subsequently held it to be identical. 
Jerdon, too, believed them to be distinct. It is a rare bird. 
Another acceptable acquisition, and also the first I had ever seen, 
was Pnoépaga squamata, the smaller Hill Wren. Being a little 
bird of skulking habits, it is seldom seen. I had no idea what it 
was, till after I had retrieved it from the tangled thorny jungle 
into which it had dropped. I got five species of Titmouse to-day, 
viz., Parus cinereus, P. xanthogenys, P. monticolus, P. melano- 
lophus, and P. erythrocephalus. Of these the first-named is the 
_ most generally distributed. I have found it all over the North- 
west Himalayas, from Murree to Mussoorie, on the Western 
Ghats, and on the Nilgherries. The others are all about 
equally common, and several species may often be seen on the 
same tree insect hunting; and the busy assemblage is constantly 
associated with other Insectivore, such as Certhia, Sitta, and 
Dendrophila, and one or two kinds of small Woodpecker. 
Besides these Pari of the West Himalayas, there is P. rufo- 
nuchalis, whereof Jerdon thus remarks:—‘“ The Simla Black 
Tit was procured by Hutton near Simla, high up towards the 
snow-line.’” As a matter of fact, Hutton’s specimens were 
procured by me on the top of Nagteeba, a mountain a couple of 
long marches beyond Landour, in March, 1861, and given to 
Hutton in exchange for some pickings from his collection. 
