126 SITTID.^. 



little birds, aud will often repair and again lay iu a nest which has 

 been pillaged. In North Cachar I found them breeding in trees, 

 and iu these the nests were often very tlinisy and scanty, 

 consisting of leaves and rubbish and perhaps a little mo?s and a 

 few feathers or scraps of fur. They lay in April and May, but 

 an occasioual nest may be seen as early as JNIareh or as late as 

 June. The normal full complement of eggs is six, but sometimes 

 only four or live are laid and sometimes as many as eight. They 

 are of the usual white ground with red specks, but are more 

 strongly and numerously marked than those of the last bird and 

 in shape are much longer, narrower ovals. Sixty eggs average 

 19-8 X 14-1 mm. The maxima are 21-0 x 1-4-4 and 20-6 x 15 mm., 

 and the minima are 17'3 x 13-6 aud 18-8 x i;3-2 mm. 



Habits. This Nuthatch is most common between 4,000 and 

 7,000 feet and is not often fouud below 3,000 feet. It has much 

 the same habits as the rest of the genus, but I have often noticed 

 it on the ground feeding on ants and termites, and it seeuis very 

 partial to hunting walls, cliffs and banks as the Rock-Nuthatches 

 do. Its note is a continual cheep, very much like the squeak of a 

 mouse. It is a very sociable bird, and I have seen flocks of this 

 bird and Sitta frontalis hunting together in perfect amity. 



(112) Sitta castaneiventris neglecta. 



Tke Burmese Nuthatch. 



• Sitta negk'cta Wald., A. M. N. H., (4) v, p. 218 (1870) (Karen Hills) ; 

 Blaiif. & Gates, i, p. 301. 



Vernacular names. Pan-clie-Up (Kachin). 



Description Differs from the preceding iu being smaller aud in 

 having the throat and breast much paler than the abdomen aud 

 flanks, whilst the white of the sides of the head blends with the 

 rufous of the throat. The female differs iu the same way I'rom 

 the female of the Cinnamon-bellied Nuthatch. 



Colours of soft parts. Iris brown ; upper mandible bluish, 

 lipped black ; legs and feet dark plumbeous, claws horn-colour. 



Measurements. Length about 130 mm. ; wing 75 to 78 mm.; 

 tail about 38 to 42 mm. ; tarsus about 18 mm. ; culmen about 

 17 mm. 



Distribution. From Mulevit Mountain iu South Tenasserim, 

 through the eastern hill-ranges of Burma to the Bhamo Hills, 

 N. and N.W. Siam. 



Nidification. Similar to that of S. c. castaneiventris, but this is 

 a fores*^ bird and its nest is found in the natural hollows of trees 

 on the outskirts of forest or in dead trees in deserted clearings. 

 The eggs are of the usual short, blunt type and measure from 

 16-2 X 13-4 to 18-3 X 14-2 mm. 



They are apparently early breeders ; Bingham found the young 



