: SITTA, 123 
sparse and confined to the larger end. They measure about 
18°3 x 14:0 mm. 
Both parents, according to Hodgson, assist in incubation and in 
looking after the young. 
Habits. The habits of most Nuthatches are very similar. In 
the non-breeding season they are to be found in family parties, 
sometimes in greater numbers, hunting all over the trunks and 
branches of trees for insects ; scuttling about upwards and down- 
wards, now under, now over, peering into every cranny and every 
broken bit of bark as they restlessly work their way from the 
trunk of the tree to the highest branches, whence they take flight 
to the nearest tree likely to prove a profitable hunting-ground. 
They also feed on nuts, including the hardest, boring holes 
into them and extracting their contents, and they sometimes eat 
seeds and fruits. Their note when feeding is singularly like the 
cheep of a mouse and is frequently uttered. The flight is fairly 
strong and direct. 
(109) Sitta victorie. 
Tar Chin Hints NorHatron. 
Sitta victorie Rippon, Bull. B. O. C., xiv, p. 84 (1904) (Mt. 
Victoria). 
Vernacular names. Hiet-pya-chouk (Burmese). 
Description. Similar to the last bird, but has the chin, throat, 
upper breast and centre of the abdomen white; the sides of the 
face and neck pure white, the latter marked with golden chestnut. 
Colours of soft parts. [ris red-brown ; bill slaty-grey, black at 
the tip; legs dull yellowish brown. 
Measurements. Wing 68 to72 mm.; tail about 40 mm. ; culmen 
14 mm. 
Female is apparently similar to the male. 
Distribution. Chin Hills. Mt. Victoria. 
Nidification and Habits. Nothing recorded, found at 9,060 feet. 
This bird should probably be placed as a subspecies of S. 
himalayensis, but until some connecting forms are discovered 
it must rank as a species. 
(110) Sitta castaneiventris castaneiventris. 
THE CHESTNUT-BELLIED NUTHATCH. 
Sittu castanejventris Frank., P. Z. S., 1831, p. 121 (Vindhyan Hills) 
Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 304. 
Vernacular names. Siri (Hind.); Chor-parki (Beng.). 
Description.—Adult male. A black streak from the nostril 
