Fortunately for the tree-pie the kites and crows do not worry it. The shikra (_Astur badius_) and the white-eyed buzzard (_Butastur teesa_), which are now engaged in nest-building, are not so fortunate. The crows regard them as fair game, hence their nest-building season is a time of _sturm und drang_. They, in common with all diurnal birds of prey, build untidy nests in trees--mere conglomerations of sticks, devoid of any kind of architectural merit. The blue rock-pigeons (_Columba intermedia_) are busily prospecting for nesting sites. In some parts of India, especially in the Muttra and Fatehgarh districts, these birds nest chiefly in holes in wells. More often than not a stone thrown into a well in such a locality causes at least one pigeon to fly out of the well. In other places in India these birds build by preference on a ledge or a cornice inside some large building. They often breed in colonies. At Dig in Rajputana, where they are sacred in the eyes of Hindus, thousands of them nest in the fort, and, as Hume remarks, a gun fired in the moat towards evening raises a dense cloud of pigeons, "obscuring utterly the waning day and deafening one with the mighty rushing sound of countless strong and rapidly-plied pinions." According to Hume the breeding season for these birds in Upper India lasts from Christmas to May day. The experience of the writer is that April, May and June are the months in which to look for their nests. However, in justice to Hume, it must be said that recently Mr. A. J. Currie found a nest, containing eggs, in February. In April the green pigeons pair and build slender cradles, high up in mango trees, in which two white eggs are laid. The songster of the house-top--the brown rock-chat (_Cercomela fusca_)--makes sweet music throughout the month for the benefit of his spouse, who is incubating four pretty pale-blue eggs in a nest built on a ledge in an outhouse or on the sill of a clerestory window. This bird, which is thought by some to be a near relative of the sparrow of the Scriptures, is clothed in plain brown and seems to suffer from St. Vitus' dance in the tail. Doubtless it is often mistaken for a hen robin. For this mistake there is no excuse, because the rock-chat lacks the brick-red patch under the tail.