cock is black all over, save for
a white patch on the rump and a bar of white in the wing. He delights
to sit on a telegraph wire or a stem of elephant grass and there make
cheerful melody. The hen is a dull reddish-grey bird. The nest is
usually placed in a hole in the ground or a bank or a wall, sometimes
it is wedged into a tussock of grass.

Allied to the magpie-robin and the pied bush-chat is the familiar
Indian robin (_Thamnobia cambayensis_), which, like its relatives, is
now engaged in nesting operations. This species constructs its
cup-shaped nest in all manner of strange places. Spaces in stacks of
bricks, holes in the ground or in buildings, and window-sills are held
in high esteem as nesting sites. The eggs are not easy to describe
because they display great variation. The commonest type has a pale
green shell, speckled with reddish-brown spots, which are most densely
distributed at the thick end of the egg.

Many of the grey partridges (_Francolinus pondicerianus_) are now
nesting. This species is somewhat erratic in respect of its breeding
season. Eggs have been taken in February, March, April, May, June,
September, October, and November. The April eggs, however, outnumber
those of all the other months put together. The nest is a shallow
depression in the ground, lined with grass, usually under a bush. From
six to nine cream-coloured eggs are laid.

Another bird which is now incubating eggs on the ground is the
did-he-do-it or red-wattled lapwing (_Sarcogrammus indicus_). The
curious call, from which this plover derives its popular name, is
familiar to every resident in India. This species nests between March
and August. The 122 eggs in the possession of Hume were taken, 12 in
March, 46 in April, 24 in May, 26 in June, 4 in July, and 8 in August.
Generally in a slight depression on the ground, occasionally on the
ballast of a rail-road, four pegtop-shaped eggs are laid; these are,
invariably, placed in the form of a cross, so that they touch each
other at their thin ends. They are coloured like those of the common
plover. The yellow-wattled lapwing (_Sarciophorus malabaricus_), which
resembles its cousin in manners and appearance, nests in April, May
and June.

The nesting season of the various species of sand-grouse that breed in
India is now beginning. These birds, like lapwings, lay their eggs on
the ground.

In April one may come across an occasional nest of the pied starling,
the king-crow, th