Birds ill and about the Statioji (^Bakloh.') 219 
and that the bird is not purely insectivorous, of which more 
later. I also think that the old pairs keep together in the flocks. 
They stay with us all the year round, but I fancy tlieir 
number is increased in the summer by visitors from lower down. 
I have never met them higher up among the deodars. They 
nest in May and June and I have seen quite young ones late in 
July ; in some cases they certainly rear two broods in ihe year. 
In winter, especially when snow is on the ground, their staple 
article of diet seems to be wild medlar. In fact I should say 
that all the year round their staple food is fruit; wild figs and 
cherries, grapes, peaches, plums, wild blackberries (which are 
yellow by the way) are all favourites. In their season there is 
hardly a tree in the compound which does not show White-eyes 
feeding on the ripe fruit. 
They are certainly suckers as may be seen by giving them 
bread and milk (sloppy). I have often seen them hard at work 
at the inside of certain shrub flowers where the eye could discern 
no insects, I am sure insects were not the attraction. They are 
also what one might call peck-and-swallowers " too. Give hiiu 
a bit of hardisli apple or cake and you will see large lumps being 
hammered ofi" by his sturdy little beak, subsequently to vanish 
down his diminutive red lane. Of course he is very fond of 
insects too, and it is marvellous to watch him dispose of a moth 
or gra.sshopper that would give a Liothrix some trouble. 
I first got White-eyes in Bombay in 1901 and brought them 
here. I had them nearly two years ; they vanished with many 
other birds during my absence in Chitral. They showed signs 
of nesting the second year, and were always uncommonly fit. 
Their staple diet was atta (course flour), and bread and milk. 
During my absences, which were frequent, they got nothing else 
except a few stray in.sects that were foolish enough to enter their 
aviary, which was in a verandah and not tempting to insects. 
In the winter insects are not given to straying and for certainly 
one period of two months they could have had none at all. 
When I was in the Station they had a liberal, if irregular, supply 
of both insects and fruit. I was then collecting butterflies and 
moths in an amateur way and did a bit of breeding. Many a fat 
pupa of atlas, moon, and hawk moth was sacrificed to them. 
