354 ON LITTIsE OR UNKNOWN HIMALAYAN 



slope, not more than ten yards from where she had been flushed, 

 eyeino- me all the while with out-stretched neck, and remained 

 iii 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 

 arboreus 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 beiug fed by their parents, were brought to bay. 



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 chryscetits, gyrating 

 over the snow-capped peaks, and Pi/rrhocorax alpinus for the 

 first and only time : Chaimarrornis leucocephala, Ruticilla full- 

 ginosu, Enicurus Scouleri and Eydrobata asiatica were my con- 

 stant companions, and were to be seen enjojang 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 Ziemachalanus.) 



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 mate- 

 rially 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 

 saucerlike 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 at Bepulla 

 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 7,000 to 12,000 feet; these open 

 glades in Northern Kumaon are thinly covered with trees, and 

 overgrown with beautiful, thick, soft, velvetty grass about a 

 foot high, with occasional tussocks, especially in the neighbour- 

 hood of sheep pens, sufficiently dense and high 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. f 



* This account entirely confirms mine, see Nests and Eggs, llough draft, p. 383. 

 — En. 



f I procured a very fine series of Anthus rosaceus; they were about to breed, but 

 I must have been too early for them. 



