188 
ORNITHOLOGY. 
Except amongst the Bhuteas and Lepchas_, whose names 
no one can be expected to know properly, the Hill people 
usually call this bird Kastoora, but at a little distance it looks 
perfectly black, and the Kashmiris call it Kao Kooliu, which, 
for the benefit of etymologists, I venture to suggest, can 
only signify " The Crow of illustrious descent/'' \_A. O. //.] 
347. Hydrobata asiatica (Swainson). 
The Indian Dipper was noticed to be very common on 
the return journey all the way from Kargil in Ladak to 
Punch at the foot of the Hills, leading from the plains of the 
Panjab into Kashmir by the Haji Pir Pass. Curiously 
enough, none were noticed on the upward route, but the 
bird in May and June is usually much higher up than in 
the autumn and winter. It is generally seen in pairs flying 
rapidly along the stream close to the water, every now and 
then halting on some stone, and plunging into clear pools 
behind rocks in the very centre of the rapids. It is often 
difficult to obtain specimens, as the birds always fall into 
the water and can rarely be retrieved. [G. H.~\ 
This species breeds at very diJfferent times, according 
apparently to the elevation of the locality it happens to 
frequent. Captain Hutton found a nest in a hole in a 
rock over which a rapid stream fell curtain-like, hiding it 
from view, containing one egg, on the 12th of January, and 
on the 18th the nest contained three eggs. This was at 
E-ajpoor, below Massuri, at the foot of the Himalayas, at 
perhaps 2000 feet elevation. Captain Cock took two nests 
on the 12th and 20th of March, near Dharmsal, at an 
elevation of about 4000 feet. I took a nest in an affluent 
of the Sutlej above Kotgurh, early in May, at an elevation 
of about 5500 feet. The nests that I have seen were 
huge globular masses of interwoven moss, nearly a foot 
in diameter and fully 8 inches high, something like a 
gigantic wren-'s nest, with a neatly worked circular aperture 
on one side and an internal cavity, about 4 5 in diameter 
and 3 high, lined with dry leaves and fern and fine moss- 
roots. I have never known more than five eggs in a nest. 
