620 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIV. 



8. A detailed account of the salt-bushes will be found in Sir Ferdinand 

 Mueller's "Iconography of Australian Salsolaceous Plants," and "Pelect Extra- 

 Tropical Plants;" also in Mr. F. Turner's monograph on " The Forage Plants 

 of Australia." The subject of drought-resisting forage plants has also been 

 enquired into recently by Mr. Robert H. Elliot, who has made experiments at 

 Clifton Park, Kelso, in Scotland. 



W. WEDDEKBURN. 

 Indian Famine Union, 



Palace Chambers, 



Westminster, S. W, 

 30i/« December 1901. 



{From the "Indian Famine Union Leaflet" No, 5.) 



No. XXVIII.— BIRDS' NESTING AT OOTACAMDND. 



Having obtained 90 days' leave, I decided visiting Ooty, the climate being 

 ideal and many birds are found there which are local to the place and unobtain- 

 able elsewhere. On the whole I was fairly successful though I should have 

 liked to have obtained the eggs of the Nilgiri Wood-Pigeon {Alsocomus 

 elphinsionii) , the Black-backed Pied Shrike {^Hemipus picatus), the Velvet- 

 fronted Blue Nuthatch {Sitta frontalis) and the Indian Blue Chat {Larvivora 

 brimnea'), all of which I saw. At Ooty one only desires to be out all day, &o 

 that lovers of nature cannot but enjoy themselves I got there towards the 

 end of March, which is about the best time for birds' nesting, 

 - The Nilgiri Ladghing-Thrdsh — {Trochalopterum eacMnnans). Very 

 common, fond of thick jungle but nesting, as a rule, on the outskirts or 

 in small trees more or less in the open : a merry joker always on the laugh. 

 The nests are neat and cup-shaped, placed firmly in the fork of a small tree or 

 sapling within reach of hand, composed of twigs, leaves, grass and moss on the 

 outside, neatly lined and finished off with a few of the bird's own feathers to 

 give the finishing touches. Though a shy bird, it does not bother about 

 concealing its nests. On several occasions, I came on nests just inside thick 

 shnlas, quite low down on bare forks, so that one could not but see them. 

 When built in more exposed places more care seemed to be taken in selecting 

 leafy sites. Two eggs, bluish-green, speckled and streaked with reddish brown, 

 is the complement. April and early May is the best time to look for eggs. 



The RuFUS-BELLiED Short- WING — {Brachypteryx rufiventris') is fairly 

 common but requires looking for, it is of a retiring nature -and loves deep 

 shade but not thick jungle. I obtained 3 nests, viz., on the 4th, 15th and 29lh 

 May, the two first contained callow young (two) and the last two fresh eggs., 

 Ro that two would seem to be the full complement of eggs. The sites chosen 

 ,yere natural holes or hollows in trees, a few feet from the ground, these are 

 filled up with a mass of green moss and finished off in a neat cup lined with 

 fiae black moss roots and are very pretty. The nests were not difficult to 

 see as no attempt is made to conceal them and the trees selected were free 



