NESTING IN WESTERN INDIA. 101 



had to leave the hill a couple of days later, so that I cliduot succeed 

 iu getting the eggs. 



At Saugor in the Central Provinces, where the birds are very 

 plentiful, I have taken many eggs. 



As far as I know, the nests are invariably placed in holes in trees 

 at varying heights from the ground, a favourite place being- a hole 

 cut by a Coppersmith ( Xautholczma hcemacephala ), which has 

 already served the makers' purpose. Quite as often they choose a 

 natural hole, which is always small, and entails a great deal of 

 chopping and cutting before the contents can be appropriated. The 

 nests are mere pads, composed of hair and wool, differing in no respect 

 from those of the Indian Grey Tit. 



The eggs, from four to six in number, are usually broad ovals in 

 shape, averaging 0675 inches in length by nearly 0*52 in breadth, 

 but are subject to much variation, both in size and shape, as the 

 following measurement of three eggs, taken at random from three 

 separate clutches, will show : 0*67 by 053, 0-67 by 0*5, 0*62 by - 53 ; 

 this last appears almost spherical. 



All the eggs in a clutch are of the same type. In colour, they are 

 a glossless white (of a beautiful rosy-pink when fresh and unblown), 

 more or less thickly spotted and blotched with reddish and purplish 

 brown. These markings are occasionally more numerous at the 

 larger end, but there is no tendency to form the ring, zone or cap, 

 that is so prominent in eggs of the Indian Grey Tit. 



When the markings consist principally of blotches, they are much 

 redder and brighter than when they are composed of spots and 

 specks. 



If the hole is cut open before the eggs are all laid, and those 

 already laid taken, they do not forsake the nest, but continue to lay 

 until the full complement is completed, and I have taken an egg 

 out of a nest on four successive mornings. 



The breeding season extends from April to August : possibly they 

 have two broods, but I found more nests in July than in any other 

 month. 



Aboo, April (nest). H. E, Barnes. 



Saugor, C. P., April to August. Bo. 



Kkandeisk, May [nest), J. Davidson, C.S. 



