anch and even from tree to tree.

The breeding season lasts from March to June. The nest is globular
in shape, made of moss or coarse grass, and lined with some soft
material, such as wool. The entrance is usually at one side. The nest
is placed on a sloping bank at the foot of a bush, so that it is likely
to escape observation unless one sees the bird flying to it. Three
or four glossy white eggs are laid. Many years ago Colonel Marshall
recorded the case of a nest at Naini Tal "at the side of a narrow
glen with a northern aspect and about four feet above the pathway,
close to a 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." At the same station I
recently had a very different experience. Some weeks ago I noticed
one of these warblers fly with a straw in its beak to a place on a
steep bank under a small bush. I could not see what it was doing there,
but in a few seconds it emerged with the bill empty. Shortly afterwards
it returned with another straw. Having seen several pieces of building
material carried to the spot, I descended the bank to try to find
the nest. I could find nothing; the nest was evidently only just
commenced. I then went back to the spot from which I had been watching
the birds, but they did not return again. I had frightened them away.
Individual birds of the same species sometimes differ considerably
in their behaviour at the nesting season. Some will desert the nest
on the slightest provocation, while others will cling to it in the
most quixotic manner. It is never safe to dogmatise regarding the
behaviour of birds. No sooner does an ornithologist lay down a law
than some bird proceeds to break it.

_THE SPOTTED FORKTAIL_

"Striking" is, in my opinion, the correct adjective to apply to the
spotted forktail (_Henicurus maculatus_). Like the paradise
flycatcher, it is a bird which cannot fail to obtrude itself upon
the most unobservant person, and, once seen, it is never likely to
be forgotten. I well remember the first occasion on which I saw a
spotted forktail; I was walking down a Himalayan path, alongside of
which a brook was flowing, when suddenly from a rock in mid-stream
there arose a black-and-white apparition, that flitted away,
displaying a long tail fluttering behind it. The plumage of this
magnificent bird has already been described.

As was stated above,