e, with minute scattered specks of rufous, chiefly at the
larger end. Diameter 0.62 by 0.5."

The late Mr. A. Anderson wrote the following note:--"On the fifth
day after leaving Naini Tal--ever mindful of my friend Mr. Brooks's
parting advice to me (in reference to the part of the country which
required to be investigated), 'avoid the lower hills as the plague'--I
reached Takula, which is the first march beyond Almora on the road to
the Pindari glacier, late on the evening of the 10th of May. It rained
heavily all that night, so that I was obliged to halt the next day,
my tents being far too wet to be struck, and the distance to the next
halting-place necessitating a start the first thing in the morning.

"Takula is at an elevation between 5000 and 6000 feet; it is
beautifully wooded, with a small mountain-stream flowing right
under the camping-ground, and the climate is delightful. All things
considered, I was not sorry at having an opportunity of exploring such
productive-looking ground; and before it was fairly daylight the next
morning operations were commenced in right earnest. To each of my
collectors I apportioned off a well-wooded mountain-slope, reserving
for my own hunting-ground (as I had not yet got my _hill-legs_) the
water-courses and ravines in the immediate vicinity of my camp.

"Not more than 20 yards from where my tent stood, there is a deep
ravine clothed on both banks with a dense jungle of the larger kind of
nettle (_Girardinia heterophylla_: such nettles too!), the hilldock
(_Rumea nepalensis_), and wild-rose trees. Wending my way through this
dark, damp, and muggy nullah to the best of my ability, I came upon
the nest of this interesting little bird; it was placed in the centre
of a rose-bush, at an elevation of some two feet above the bank and
about four feet from where I stood, but yet in a most tantalizing
situation, inasmuch as it was necessary to remove several thorny
branches before an examination of the nest was possible.

"The act of cutting away the branches alarmed my sombre little
friend (I knew that the nest was tenanted, as the bill and head were
distinctly visible through the lateral entrance), and out she darted
with such a '_whir_' that anything like satisfactory identification
for a bird of this sort was utterly hopeless. The nest contained four
beautiful little eggs, so that to bag the parent bird was a matter of
the first importance; all my attempts, however, first to capture