the Sutlej and Beas Valleys myself. They lay in the last
week of March, and throughout April and May, constructing a large
globular nest of moss, more or less mingled exteriorly with dry grass
and lined thinly with goat's hair, and then inside this thickly with
the softest wool or, in one nest that I found, with the inner downy
fur of hares. The entrance to the nest is sometimes on one side,
sometimes almost at the top, and is rather large for the size of the
bird. The nest is almost without exception placed on a grassy bank, at
the foot of some small bush, and usually contains four eggs.

Talking of this species, and writing from Almorah on the 17th May, Mr.
Brooks said:--"I have just taken a nest. It was placed on a sloping
bank-side near the foot of a small bush. The bank was overgrown with
grass. The nest, which was on the ground, was a large ball-shaped one,
composed of very coarse grass, moss-roots, and wool, and lined with
hair and wool. It contained four pure white glossy eggs, which were
much pointed at the small end. I shot the bird off the nest. I had
already frequently met with fully-grown young birds of this species."

Writing from Dhurmsala, Captain Cock remarked:--"On the 8th April I
found a nest of this species containing four white eggs; it was placed
on the ground, under a bush, on a steep bank. The nest was globular,
with rather a large entrance-hole, and was made of moss, with dry
grass outside, then black hair of goats, and thickly lined with the
softest of wool: _no feathers_ in the nest. I caught the bird on the
nest; it is common here."

Colonel G.F.L. Marshall tells us:--"A nest found on the 22nd May at
Naini Tal, about 7000 feet above the sea, contained three hard-set
eggs. The eggs were pure white. The nest was a most beautiful little
structure of moss, lined with wool; it was globular, with the entrance
at one side, and placed on a bank among some ground-ivy, the outer
part of the nest having a few broad grass-blades interwoven so as to
assimilate the appearance of the nest to that of the bank against
which it lay. It was at the side of a narrow glen with a northern
aspect, and about four feet above the pathway, close to the spring
from which my _bhisti_ daily draws water, the bird sitting fearlessly
while passed and repassed by people going down the glen within a foot
or two of the nest."

The eggs are pure white, and generally fairly glossy. In texture the
shells are very fine and compa