BIRD NOTES BY THE WAY IN KASHMIR. 1307 



it may be still better described as consisting of a series of very rapidly 

 repeated low flute like notes. No two males sing quite alike, although the 

 pitch or tone is the same in every case. For my own edification I syllabi- 

 fied many variations of the song, and so well acquainted did I become with 

 pairs of these birds that I was able to differentiate between them on hear- 

 ing the male sing. The impression received from the song of the male, 

 mentioned above, when not heard too close, may be well conveyed to the 

 ear by a rapid repetition of the words " Give the devil his due " — " Divil a 

 bit, " — ^This uncharitable sentiment, let us hope, was not really endorsed by 

 the bird ! 



The staple food in summer appears to be buds and catkins of the Hima- 

 layan Birch (ibid), but early in the season it was not uncommon to see 

 pairs hopping about on snow j)atches in forest picking up minute seeds left 

 on the surface of the melting snow. A curious feeding habit late in 

 summer was the pecking and swallowing of mouthfuls of a very finegrained 

 dry yellow clay which filled in the archways of the roots and the hollow 

 bases of individual old silver Fir trees. Within four yards of me I watched 

 a pair gorge themselves on this stufi"for fully ten minutes and then fly away 

 down hill to where I suspected there was a nest but which I never found. 

 If such there was then this nesting was well below 9,000 feet. The clay in 

 question probably contained food properties essential to the young which 

 were doubtless fed on it by regurgitation. A rough analysis however 

 failed to reveal any seeds, insects, or grit and to the taste it was insipid. 



I spent many days in forest and on hill side at various elevations search- 

 ing for the nest. Colonel Ward's description of the locality in which his. 

 collectors took these puzzled me considerably for it was only between 9,000 

 and 10,000 feet, rarely over, that I could be sure of meeting with this species. 

 Above 10,500 feet there was never a sign of the birds. They were in fact 

 left below. This was my experience both in the Liddar and Sind valleys 

 (ibid). I have little hesitation therefore in asserting that 11,000 feetisthe^ 

 maximum elevation at which the Orange Bullfinch will be found in Kashmir. 

 A very short acquaintance too with its habits suffices to shew that like its 

 European congener it is a woodland species. Searching for nests there- 

 fore on open bush clad hillsides at 12,000 feet and over which is above the 

 tree limit in these parts, was anything but profitable and 1 soon abandoned 

 it to confine my attentions to the forests below frequented by the birds. 

 My reward eventually followed in the discovery of a nest on 28th July. 



On the 27th I observed a pair of Bullfinches in a strip of forest at a spot 

 just about 10,000 feet above sea level. The action of the female clearly 

 indicated that she contemplated domesticity. But after hopping about in 

 the lower branches of a silver fir and occasionally giving a half-hearted tug 

 at a twig or piece of lichen she and her mate, to my chagrin at the time,, 

 disappeared into the forest, and although the notes sounded at intervals did 



