LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 519 
The place was eminently one for ducks to breed in—retired, 
plenty of cover, and a deep fringe of grass all round the Tal 
covering a large space of ground. 
The ducks would hardly have been there as late as the end 
of May unless they intended stopping there to breed, and I 
can positively assert they were Pink-headed Duck. 
MavRicE TWEEDIE, Lt.-Col. 
KHEERI, OUDH, 30th September, 1883. 
SIR, 
Asin your “ Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds” you have 
very little information regarding the nidification of Pitta 
coronata (845), perhaps the following account may inter- 
est you :-— 
While walking through one of our reserved forests in this 
district on the 30th ultimo, I observed a bird which 
appeared tome like a Nourang fly out of a tree a little 
in front of me. 
As I had never before seen this Ground Thrush on a tree it 
struck me as curious, and I therefore went up to the tree and 
had a good look at it. 
Some twenty feet from the ground I thought I saw a nest 
in a fork, and on going up to look found such was the case. 
The nest was by no means a large one, such as found by Mr. 
Blewitt. It was a domed-shaped nest, built chiefly of small 
twigs and contained very young birds—how many I could not 
tell, for I did not like disturbing them. 
While on the tree the parent birds kept flying about at a 
respectful distance, but quite near enough for me to identify 
them. 
This Ground Thrush is to me a very familiar bird, but I have 
never before found their nests, chiefly, I fancy, because I have 
looked for them on the ground. On mentioning this matter 
to Mr. R. Thompson the other day, he told me that he had 
often found this bird nesting on trees. 
The same day I founda nest of Zurnix taigoor with four 
eggs in the same forest. 
The nest which was at the foot of a small clump of bamboos 
was, I think, rather a remarkable one for this bird. It was 
the usual little pad in a small hollow in the ground, but in 
addition had a little hood over it made of fine grass. The 
nest seemed to me to be a_ perfectly new one, and not 
an old one of some other birds used for the occasion. 
| IvER MAcPHERSON, 
Cuanpa, C. P., 5th July, 1883. = Dy. Consr. of Forests. 
