130 ^ly Indian Consignment. 



requires little description, and the attitude is very character- 

 istic. Eoughly described the top of the head is ruddy chest- 

 nut, the light parts about the face are wliite and the dark 

 parts black, the upper parts are bluish grey and the lower 

 parts are reddish-white. Size a little over four inches, of 

 which the tail takes two. The nest is much like that of 

 our Long-tailed Tit. 



They form a large proportion of the hunting parties 

 that to toy mind form the chief attraction of the deodar forest. 

 It is largely distributed, ranging throughout the Himalayas and 

 common at any rate in the parts I know. "When trapping 

 near Darjeeling, where I got most of my best birds, I found 

 it very hard to meat off: the season of the year may account 

 for this, but above Bakloh I had little difficulty after the 

 first day, but little and often is decidedly their motto as 

 regards live food. They took readily to very ripe wild 

 medlar (really, I believe, a sma'l round wild pear) 

 and mealworms broken into three or four pieces and 

 stuck about the crossbars of the wood -fronted cages I meated 

 them off in. From this to sponge cake and milk and then 

 on to insect food was only a matter of a few days, but I 

 never dropped the cut up mealworms or sponge cake. By 

 the way, talking of sponge cake, except perhaps for Sun- 

 birds and such like I do not believe in giving " sop " too 

 wet, nor do I break up the sponge cake. I simply break off 

 a chunk large enough to fill the dish almost, then I pour on 

 the milk (ov Mellin's mixture) over the sponge cake to do 

 little more than cover the bottom. Some birds require more, 

 but ] always let the cake stand up out of the milk. To some 

 birds, especially Hanging Parrakeets, I often give a dry 

 bit as well, and And it much appreciated. 



They ought to stand cold remarkably well as, above 

 Bakloh, I have never seen them below about 6,000 feet, even 

 in the hardest winter when their relative the Crested Black 

 Tit, a much stouter and hardier bird to look at, is easily 

 driven down by snow. I only saved two of my Darjeeling 

 birds out of more than I care to think, but these birds were 

 limed and brought to me ev^en after I had given up trying 

 them and had ordered no more to be caught. 1 detest the use 

 of lime, but more of that later. I caught ten on a 'four days' 



