90 PARID®. 
Description. Forehead, lores, a broad supercilium, a nape- 
patch, sides of the head and neck bright yellow; crown, crest, a 
patch on either side the nape, chin, throat and a broad mesial line 
down to the vent black; the longer feathers of the crest tipped 
with yellow ; sides of the breast yellow; remainder of the lower 
plumage olive-yellow, purer next the black band; under tail- 
coverts mixed grey and white ; under wing-coverts and axillaries 
yellowish white; back and scapulars yellow, each feather laterally 
margined with yellow; rump yellowish green ; upper tail-coverts 
dark bluish grey; tail black, broadly edged with bluish grey and 
tipped with white, the outer web of the outermost feather entirely 
white; lesser wing-coverts black, tipped with bluish grey; median 
and greater coverts and inner secondaries black with broad white 
tips; primaries white at base, the outer ones edged with white, 
the others and the outer secondaries edged with bluish grey and 
the latter narrowly tipped white. 
Colours of soft parts. Irides brown or red-brown; legs and 
feet bluish plumbeous or dark blue-slate ; bill black. 
Measurements. Length about 140 mm.; wing 72 to 78 mm. 
tail about 58 mm.; tarsus about 22 mm.; culmen about 10 to 
11 mm. 
The young have no black margins to the feathers of the back 
and the throat, breast and ventral band are tinged with green. 
Distribution. Nepal to Miri Hills north of the Brahmaputra, 
hills south of Brahmaputra to Looshai and Lakhimpur and 
? Chin Hills. 
Nidification. Breeds very commonly in the Khasia Hills in 
April, May and June, a few birds nesting both earlier and later. 
The eggs are laid in holes of trees, stone walls and, very rarely, 
banks. The nest is a pad of moss, grass and bits of bracken 
mixed with fur, wool or hair and with a layer entirely composed 
of the three latter on the top. The eggs number from four to six 
and are white boldly spotted, blotched and speckled with hght 
reddish brown with a few underlying of pale neutral tint or grey. 
The average of 100 eggs is 17°6X14:1 mm. Like most Tits 
these birds are very close and fearless sitters, often allowing 
themselves to be caught on the nest rather than leave their eggs 
or young. 
Habits. North of the Brahmaputra this fine Tit is confined 
to elevations of 5,000 feet upwards but in the Khasia Hills, 
Manipur, etc., it is common at 4,000 feet and descends in winter 
even lower. It may be found either in small parties of halt-a- 
dozen or so, or in pairs. It is a bold familiar bird entering 
compounds freely and with little fear of watchers. Less restless 
than the Grey-Tits it is still an active, energetic bird and when 
hunting for insects assumes the same curious attitudes. It is a 
much stronger flier than the Grey-Tits and keeps more exclusively 
to the higher trees but I have seen it hunting low down in 
Mimosa trees when they are in flower. 
