MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 237 



and afterwards secured the eggs ten or twelve feet up, the nest being placed liko 

 a fly-catcher's against the trunk of some fairly large tree near the water's edge. 

 At one camp there was a bird sitting on a nest placed on a ledge of rock as they 

 ordinarily are, and within twenty yards there was another pair building fully 

 fifteen feet up the trunk of a large tree. 



Chimarrhornis leucocephalus (The White-capped Redstart) occasionally builds 

 in cavities in fallen trees. I saw two nests with young in such positions. They 

 are early breeders, the young were ready to leave, and in some cases had left the 

 nest by June 1 5th. I got some clutches later which were probably second broods, 

 as I saw one pair repairing an old nest on July 30. The nest is usually in a rocky 

 bank and is very thickly lined with hair and wool. 



Cinclus kashmiriends (The White-breasted Asiatic Dipper) appears to build 

 two fairly distinct types of nests : one kind is placed on the ground among short 

 grass by the water's edge, an oven-shaped nest thatched with grass and with the 

 entrance very low down, looking like a tiny Kaffir hut ; the other kind is a round 

 ball (much rounder than any of Cinclus asiaticus 1 nests that I have seen) as big 

 as a football and placed on a boulder in midstream without any attempt at con- 

 cealment although sometimes the boulder can be easily got at ; it is made of grass 

 and leaves and has the entrance in the middle. I saw several of both kinds, but 

 only got eggs from one nest. 



Calliope pectoralis (The Himalayan Ruby-throat) occasionally builds a domed 

 nest; the first clutch of eggs I got was from such a nest after seeing many ordinary 

 undomed nests with young. It was a ball of dry grass placed among short grass 

 and quite in the open, i.e., without any rocks or bushes about it, and although the 

 bird flew out at my feet I was so puzzled with the nest that I had to shoot the 

 bird to make quite certain. Afterwards I saw two nests with a sort of half- 

 dome. They use nothing but grass for their nests. 



i- ( Fringillauda sordida (Stoliczka's Mountain Finch) seems to build indifferently 

 in a crevice of rock, a hole in the ground like a rat-hole and fully two feet inside, 

 on a sheltered ledge of rock or under the shelter of a bank. The nest is of dry 

 grass lined with hair and wool, the full clutch appears to be four eggs. 



S. L. WHYMPER, 



Naini Tal, 4th November 1905. 



No. XIV— NOTE OF THE BURMESE BUTTON QUAIL. 



Sitting in the P. W. D. bungalow here, on August 12, I was watching three 

 Button Quail, a male and two females, feeding under some trees within about 

 twelve yards of the bungalow. The male commenced " booming " (the only 

 word I can express it by) ; it stopped feeding, placed its head near the ground, 

 inflated itself, or appeared to do so to a certain extent, and " boomed " eight or 

 nine times at intervals of about five or six minutes. The sound was very much 

 like that made by a bittern on a small scale, and very deep for sc small a bird 

 I ccntinued watching them for nearly half an hour, and also heard others 

 during the afternoon, a short distance away, making a similar noise. I do not 



