MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 1157 



country. The Smew, Mergus albellus was present on this tank, too, in big 

 flocks, and I shot two of them and found them not bad eating after being 

 kept several days. 



I see it says in Stuart Baker's book that it is exceptional to find the 

 Smew in large flocks. I noticed one big flight of over a 100 birds one 

 evening. 



Kohat, W. M. LOGAN HOME, 



January 1911. 112th Infantry. 



No. XX.— BIRDS NESTING IN THE NILA VALLEY (GARHWAL). 



The following notes may be of interest as some of the nests and eggs, 

 I believe, have not been described before. The Nila stream joins the 

 Bhaghirathi at Searsic at about 8,000 feet elevation and the valley runs 

 up to the Nila Pass, on crossing which one descends into the Sutlej drainage : 

 the valley being at the back of the first snowy range is protected from the 

 full force of the monsoon, and although there was plenty of rain and mist, 

 the atmosphere was fairly dry, even at the end of July. 



Graculus eremita. — Red-billed Chough. — I found a nest in a crevice of a 

 cliff at an elevation of 8,800 feet on April 25th, made of deodar twigs and 

 thickly lined with wool ; it contained four fresh eggs of a whitish ground 

 colour, thickly spotted with yellowish brown and purplish grey. It being 

 at rather a low elevation for the Chough to build. I secured the female and 

 within 48 hours the male had brought another mate, who actually sat in 

 the nest for some hours ; they ultimately, however, abandoned it. There 

 were two other pairs breeding not far off, but in an inaccessible place. 



Lophophanes rufinuchalis. — Simla Black Tit. — These birds I found very 

 common from 8,000 up to 11,000 feet ; they appear to build invariably in 

 a hole in the ground, usually under a stone or root, and except when 

 building it is practically impossible to find the nests, as they are usually in 

 most unlikely looking holes. It is also not easy to hit off the right time 

 to get a full clutch of fresh eggs, as they have an exasperating habit of 

 carrying in wool long after the eggs have been laid, and I lost two clutches 

 by their being hard-set when dug out, however five nests with fresh eggs 

 were secured, and many were seen with young in May. The nest is a 

 mere pad of wool with a little moss and is placed sometimes two feet from 

 the entrance ; the eggs seen were much less spotted than most tits and four 

 seems the full clutch, at least I never saw more, either of eggs or young. 



Tribura thoracia. — Spotted Bush Warbler. — This bird breeds fairly com- 

 monly in the Valley at about 12,000 feet, and a good many nests were seen 

 in June and July : they are domed and placed on the ground in a tuft of 

 grass or among thick herbage, and are made entirely of dry grass with 

 usually a single feather as a lining, I only twice saw two feathers used and 

 never more. The full clutch seems to be four, but commonly three only are 

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