imarily affected.

The female Lophophorus has been living on nothing for at least a week;
its voice is various, sometimes not unlike that of a large hawk, at
others a cackle, or low chuckle; occasionally it runs forward, erecting
its crest, and spreading out its tail like a fan, the _tail being_
_depressed_. I fancy it roosts in trees not unlike certain pigeons,
Haematornis one species come in, this genus I think represents Parus: it
has the same fluttering clinging habits, it often sallies forth like
Merops after insects, the genus is remarkable for the yellow or red
colour of the under tail-covers, it is a noisy bird, and not wary until
so taught by experience. I doubt its power of singing. The so called
Bulbul, _hazari dastar_, the famous songster, is not a real _bulbul_,
but either Alaudina or a stonechat.

With Haematornis has appeared a fine Merops, of which I have not yet got
a specimen; its habits were quite those of Merops, and it made the same
noise: it occurred with Haematornis.

Chugur is a large extent of ruins, traces of paths are visible leading to
the houses, mere huts built of slabs of slate. There is one square part
remaining much like the base of one of the topes to which it assimilates;
the building, is of slabs of wood and stone, intervening. What could
have induced the Mussulmans to build on such horridly hard barren and hot
places, with no water near? or did they occupy places taken from the
_Kafirs_. The latter I should think most likely from the names, which
are evidently _Kafir_.

_20th_.--The bird alluded to yesterday, was again seen to-day. I
remember shooting the same species at elevations of 8,000 feet in Bootan,
in oak forests. It has the habits of Merops, with its voice or chirp,
and is very gregarious, so that one part of the flock will not separate
from the rest. It perches in a very erect manner making swoops and
sallies after insects precisely as Merops. Plumage sombre, general
colour slaty, quills and crest blackish, bill and feet orange, tail
forked.

Is this bird of the sub-family Brachypodinae, or is it a Fissirostral
bird; the wings, although graduated as to the two first quills (the first
being half spurious) are still long, and may be called pointed. It
obviously has much analogy? with the Drongo shrikes in habits, and in
forked tail: as well as in lengthened body? Both it and Haematornes are
very local, none being found here but just around a village called
P