Reguloides chloronotus (Hodgs.), Jerd.  B.I. ii, p. 197.  Reguloides proregulus (Pall.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 566.

Captain Cock has the honour of being the first to take, and, I believe, up to date the only oologist who has ever taken, the nest and eggs of Pallas’s Willow-Warbler.  Mr. Brooks tried hard for the prize, but he searched on the ground and so missed the nest.  He wrote to me from Cashmere, just about the time (June 1871) that Captain Cock found the nest he obtained:—­“I have been utterly unable to do anything with P. proregulus.  I shot a female, with an egg nearly ready to lay, when I first went to Goolmerg, but though I often heard the males singing, I never could find any indication of the nesting female.  The feeble song, like that of P. sibilatrix, alluded to by Blyth as being that of P. superciliosus, is not that of this latter bird, but of P. proregulus”.

Later, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, he noted that “Captain Cock took the nest and eggs at Sonamerg.  It builds, like the Golden-crested Regulus, up a fir-tree, at from 6 to 40 feet elevation, on the outer ends of the branches.  The nest is of moss, wool and fibres, and profusely lined with feathers.  Eggs, four or five, pure white, profusely spotted with red and a few spots of purple grey.  Size, 0.53 by 0.43.”

Later still he added in ’The Ibis:’—­“Captain Cock writes from Sonamerg:  ’The second day I found my first nest with eggs.  It was the nest of P. proregulus.  I shot the old bird.  Three eggs.  These nests are often placed on a bough high up in a pine-tree, and are domed or roofed, made of moss and lined with feathers.  I took another one to day with five eggs, and shot the bird just as it was entering its nest.  This was on a bough of a pine, but low down.  I know of two more nests of P. proregulus, all on pine-trees, from which I hope to take eggs.’

“After describing the nest of P. humii, and saying that it was lined with the hair of the musk-deer, he adds:  ’In this the nest differs from that of P. proregulus, which lines its nest with feathers and bits of thin birch-bark; and the nest of P. proregulus is only partly domed.’

“I measured four eggs of P. proregulus which Captain Cock kindly gave me, and the dimensions are as follows:  .55 by .44, .53 by .43, .53 by .43, and .54 by .43.  They are pure white, richly marked with dark brownish red, particularly at the larger end, forming there a fine zone on most of the eggs.  Intermingled with these spots, and especially on the zone, are some spots and blotches of deep purple-grey.  The egg is very handsome, and reminds one strongly of those of Parus cristatus on a smaller scale.  The dates when the eggs were taken are 30th May and 2nd June, and the place Sonamerg, which is four marches up the valley of the Sindh River.”