192 SITTlBiE. 



Family SITTlUiE. 



315. Sitta himalayensis, Jard. & Selby. The White- 

 tailed Nuthatch. 



Sitta liimalayensis, J. Sf S., Jenh B. Ind, \, p. 385 ; Humt;, Roiujli 

 Draft N. ^ E. no. 248, 



According to Mi*. Hodgson's notes and drawings this species 

 begins to lay in April, constructing a shallow saucei"-like nest of 

 moss lined with moss-roots, in holes of trees at no great elevation 

 from the ground. Ojie such nest, the measurements of which are 

 recorded, was 3-25 inches in diameter and 2 in height externally ; 

 the cavity was 2-25 inches in diameter and 1'25 inch in deptli. 

 They lay three or four pure white eggs slightly speckled with red, 

 which measure about 0-72 inch in length by 0-55 inch in width. 

 They breed once a year, and both sexes assist in iucubating the 

 eggs and rearing the young. 



Mr. R. Thompson says : — " In Kumaou the White-tailed Nut- 

 hatch breeds in May and June, laying five or six eggs, in holes in 

 trees, especially in oaks." 



Colonel G. 1\ L. Marshall writes : — " This bird is an early breeder 

 in Naini Tal ; a nest found on the 25th April contained half-fledged 

 young. It was in a natural hollow of a tree about 10 feet from 



end, at times slightly pyriform. The shell very fine, smooth and thin, but 

 strong, and genei-ally with an appreciable though not at all conspieuous gloss. 



The ground-c.ilour is pink or pinky white, and they are very thickly speckled 

 and spotted evci-ywhere, but extremely densely so, and there blotched also in a 

 broad irregular zone, round the large end with rich reddish maroou and dull 

 greyish or inky purple — the rich colour predominating in some eggs, the dull 

 colour in others ; and in some the markings being all extremely fine and speckly, 

 while in others they are rather bolder. Two eggs measure U 9 by 0G6. 



Pycnonotus simplex, Less. Moore's Olive Bulbul. 

 Ixus brunneus {BL), Hume, Cat. no. 452 oct. 



Mr. W. Davison says: — " I took a nest of P. simplex in some rather thick 

 jungle at Klang. The nest, of the ordinary Bulbul type (in lact it might easily 

 have passed for a nest of Otoeompaa), was placed in the fork of a small sapling 

 about 6 feet from the ground. The nest contained two eggs. The female was 

 shot from the nest." 



The eggs are moderately elongated, rather regular ovals, some specimens 

 having a slight pyriform tendency. The shell is fine and compact, and seems 

 to have generally an appi'cciable but not striking gloss. The ground-colour 

 appears to have been creamy pink, and it is yery thickly freckled and sjjeckled 

 all over with a rich maroon, in amongst which tiny clouds of ]iale purple may 

 be faintly discerned ; dense as are the markings everywhere, they are gonei-ally 

 most so in a zone roimd the large end. Very possibly this species will be found 

 to exhibit somewhat different tyjies of coloration, as the eggs of all Uulbuls vary 

 very much ; but certainly tyi)ically the markings of this species are much 

 more speckly than in most of the others, forming a universal stii)pling over the 

 entire surface. The two eggs measui-e O'J and OSS in length by OGUin breadth. 



