684 Notes on the Nidification of Indian Birds. [Dec. 



sides ashy tinged with fulvous ; belly, vent and lower tail-coverts white ; 

 under-wing coverts bright ferruginous ; ear-coverts ashy with pale shafts.* 



The nestling is above like the female, but beneath the throat and 

 chin are purer white in some ; — in others with a rufous tinge, but no 

 spots between the stripes descending from the base of lower mandible, 

 and the breast much spotted with brown ; — scapularies and greater 

 wing-coverts tipped with triangular fulvous spots ascending through the 

 shafts of the feathers. This during the summer months is one of the 

 commonest birds in the hills, especially about 5,000 feet, where their 

 nests are numerous. 



No. 25. — " Myojphonus Temminckii." (Vigors. Gould.) 

 M. metallicus. (Hodg.) 



On the 1 6th June, I took two nests of this bird, each containing 

 3 eggs, — and another one containing three nearly fledged young ones. 

 The nest bears a strong resemblance to that of the Geocichlce above no- 

 ticed, but is much more solid, being composed of a thick bed of green 

 moss externally, lined first with long black fibrous lichens, and then 

 with fine roots. Externally the nest is 3^ inches deep, but within only 

 2\ inches ; the diameter about 4f inches, and the thickness of the outer 

 or exposed side is 2 ins. 



The eggs are 3 in number, of a greenish ashy, freckled with minute 

 roseate specks, which become confluent and form a patch at the larger end; 

 shape ordinarily, and rather gracefully, ovate ; diameter 1 T 6 g * yf in. 



The elevation at which the nests were found was from 4,000 to 4,500 

 ft., but the bird is common, except during the breeding season, at all 

 elevations up to the snows, and in the winter it extends its range down 

 into the Doon. In the breeding season it is found chiefly in the glens, 

 in the retired depths of which it constructs its nest ; — it never, like the 

 Thrushes and Geocichlae, builds in trees or bushes, but selects some 

 high towering and almost inaccessible rock forming the side of a deep 

 glen, on the projecting ledges of which, or in the holes from which small 

 boulders have fallen ; it constructs its nest, and where, unless when as- 

 sailed by man, it rears its young in safety, secure alike from the howling 

 blast and the attacks of wild animals. It is known to the natives by 

 the name of " Kuljet" and to Europeans as the " Hill Black bird." 



* The female of this race is utterly undistinguishable from that of G. dissimilis, 

 nobis, J. A. S., XVI, 144.— E. B. 





