All Right.'^ Reserved. July, 1914. 
BIRD NOTES: 
THE 
JOURNAL OF THE FOREIGN BIRD CLUB 
The Rufous-bellied Niltava (Niltava sundava) Hodgs 
By Hvan Whistler, I. P., M.B.O.U. 
This beautiful species has lately teen mentioued on 
two or three occasions in our magazine, fo members may care 
for a short note on the species in its wild state. Niltkvva, 
sundava is common in the Murree Hills, N.W. Himalayas, at 
the altitude of about 7,000 feet (but how much hi,gher or 
lower I do not know) and is met with in heavy jungle, where 
it frequents the undei-growth. It u.sually perches only a foot 
or two above the gi'ound and is inclined to be shy. In the 
jungle the bright tints do not catch one's eye, the cx)ck merely 
appeai-ing as a dark hivd with rufous underparts. 
I have only met the bird during the breeding season, 
and have usually had my attention drawn to it by the anxious 
long-drawn squeak which is uttered at intervals when one is 
in the neighbourhood of the nest. The cock is then seen sitting 
still on a branch near by, an:viOusly regarding the intruder; 
when the nest appears in danger a harsh and grating alarm 
uote is uttered and the tail occasionally " flirted " and spread. 
While one is actually engaged in examining the nest both 
birds come very close and are then very bold. 
t have taken only two nests: the first was on tlie .'Wth 
(May, 1911, when I took four slightly incubated eggs from a 
hollow portion of the trunk of a small tree. The nest was 
a cup of moss lined with black roots and was placed only 
a f(!w inches above the ground: the 'hollow in which the nest 
was placed was screened by a tangle of bushes growing over 
a small stream bed, at the extreme edge of which stood the 
tree. 
The second nest was found a few days later on the 
3rd June: it contained four slightly incubated eggs. The 
nest was a cup composed of moss and the like, lined with the 
