MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 817 



more interest to learn their geographical distribution. You have a few specie 

 in India that as far as known are endemic. The most of your plants, as i3 the 

 case in every country, will prove to be species that occur in other countries. 

 But from the few scanty collections of the " Puff-balls " of India that have 

 reached Europe, we can form no opinion of what your common species are. 

 I am working now a Monograph of the " Bird Nest " Fungi, and although I 

 have studied all the material that has reached Europe, I will only feel justified 

 in recording two species from India. You may have a dozen. In fact there are 

 not a few others but the material is so scanty. I would express no opinion as 

 to their identity. 



It may seem selfish on my part to ask those who I have not even the pleasure 

 of a personal acquaintance to trouble in picking up " Puff-balls," but I feel that 

 the permanent addition to knowledge will result, justifies the request." Here 

 end Mr. Lloyd's remarks and here ends this note of mine. 



K. R. KIRTIKAR, Lt.-Col„ i.m.s. (retd.), e.l.s. 

 Andheri, Salsette, 8t7i August 1906. 



No. XI.— SOME NOTES ON BIRDS' NESTING IN TEHRI-GARHWAL. 



The following notes on some nests and eggs that have not, I believe, been 

 hitherto described may be of some interest. They were all taken in Tehri- 

 Garhwal this year, mostly at an elevation of from 11 to 13,000 feet. 



Nucifraga hemispila. — The Himalayan Nutcracker. 

 The nest of this bird has of course been described before, but I have not 

 seen a description of the eggs. I obtained one very hard-set egg on May 16th 

 in a rather curious way ; seeing some crows rifling a nest and a pair of 

 Nutcrackers protesting against the outrage, I sent up a man and he found one 

 egg had slipped beneath the lining of the nest and had so escaped the crows' 

 notice, though their bills had made two holes in it. It measured 1*44 x '99 

 inches and was very pale green spotted and speckled with olive brown and pale 

 ashy purple ; the markings were well distributed but most numerous at the 

 larger end. The bird was quite common, but all other broods appeared 

 to have hatched out by this date. 



JEgithaliscus niveigularis. — The White-throated Tit. 

 This Tit I found by no means uncommon at about 11,000 to 12,000 feet. 

 Several parties of young were about and three nests with young were found, 

 and I was inclined to think it was too late for eggs, but on June 14th one was 

 seen carrying a feather, and the nest was soon discovered. It was placed in 

 the fork of a willow about six feet up, a globular nest resembling that of the 

 Red-headed Tit but larger ; it was profusely lined with monal feathers, many 

 of them quite large ones, over three inches long, with hard stiff quills ; not at 

 all a comfortable lining one would have thought for such a small bird. I took 

 four fresh eggs from it on June 26th ; they are white, rather feebly spotted at 

 the larger end with brownish red, and show no trace of the zone of colour that 



