on the Cinnamon Tree-Sparrow. 203


where the aviculturist can do more than the cabinet or field

naturalist. I have met the bird in Chitral as low down as 4,500

feet in winter, and Captain Fulton met it there even lower. In

Chamba I have never seen it below 6,000 ft. in summer. Bakloh

is nearly 5,000 ft., but I have never seen it there, summer or

winter. In and about Dalhousie it is quite common, practically

taking the place of the Common House Sparrow.


In the summer of 1907 I took a month’s leave to try

trapping. I spent a most enjoyable June at Kajiar, a little cup

in the hills a march beyond Dalhousie. There is a diminutive

lake in the middle of a large open maidan of splendid turf, round

which are gloriously wooded hills, abounding in birdy nullahs.

H. H. Sir Bhuri Singh, the Rajah of Chamba, had very kindly

placed his bungalow at our disposal and we had a lovely time,

though trapping results were practically nil. I was very poorly

equipped, which was just as well, as it is a bad season of the year

for meating off, and it seems a shame to trap in the breeding

season.


I had seen these Sparrows the year before in this place,

and, without bothering much about them, had put them down as

Cinnamon Tree-Sparrows. O11 closer examination through

field glasses I was rather disgusted to find no trace of yellow

about them. I took three young out of a nest just by our camp,

two others escaped out of my pocket as I was coming down the

tree and got away altogether. I put these three in a small cage

and let the old ones finish rearing them. I did not like to catch

the old pair as I feared they would discontinue feeding the

young. I also caught another half-fledged youngster, but the

old ones apparently spotted the smaller size and the intruder did

not live long. The others soon began to pick up cake, but it was

a long time before they took to soft food and seed.


The camp colony had become very wary, and I nearly had

to go without any more. Seed and cake were no use as a lure,

the birds used to frequent the bushes bordering the grazing, and

hawk insects, or get them off the ground near animals’ droppings,

which swarmed with flies and gnats. All the nests I saw were in

holes in trees, in little colonies along the edge of the forest

where suitable trees existed. Young were beginning to leave



