ey SITTIDA. 
Colours of soft parts. Iris red-brown or dark brown; bill black 
with base and gonys black; legs greenish horny (Jerdon) or 
yellowish brown. 
Measurements. Length about 185 mm.; wing 114to118mm.; 
tail about 58 to 60 mm.; tarsus about 21 mm.; culmen about 
17 mm. 
Distribution. Himalayas from Sikkim to the Miri and Arbor 
Hills in Eastern Assam. Also hill-ranges in South Assam as 
far East as Lakhimpur. The Salween-Mekong watershed in the 
N.E. Shan States. 
Nidification. The few nests found by me in the Khasia and North 
Cachar Hills were all on the highest ranges from 56,000 feet 
upwards. They were placed in trees at considerable heights from 
the ground and contained from four to six eggs or young. The 
eggs only vary from those of S. ¢. ctnnamoventris in being larger 
and broader ovals. Sixteen eggs average 20°6 x 15-2 mm. and 
vary between 18:0 x 14:7 and 22°6 x 15:8 mm. 
Habits. The Beautiful Nuthatch, well named from its lovely 
colouring, seems to be a rare bird everywhere. I never saw it 
but in pairs or in family parties after the young had hatched, and 
it is the most shy and elusive of all the Nuthatches found in 
Assam. Its actions when on trees, rather slow and deliberate for 
this genus, reminded one of Woodpeckers and its note also 
differed from all other Nuthatches in its low, rather sweet tone. 
On the wing it was exceptionally swift, and its beauty when the 
sun caught it in flight could only be likened to that of the Ruddy 
Kingfisher under similar circumstances. 
(119) Sitta frontalis frontalis. 
Tur VELVET-FRONTED NUTHATCH. 
Sitta frontalis Horsf., Trans. Linn. Soc., xiii, p. 162 (1821) (Java); 
Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 307. ae ; 
Vernacular names. Dao-mojo-buku-gajao (Cachari). 
Description. Forehead and supercilium black; whole upper 
plumage and exposed parts of wings and tail purplish blue; inner 
webs of all primaries, outer webs of the first two and concealed 
portions of rectrices blackish brown; ear-coverts lilac; chin and 
throat whitish; lower plumage greyish, more or less suffused with. 
dull lilae. : 
Colours of soft parts. Iris yellow, brown in the young and 
sometimes in the adult female; eyelids plumbeous; bill coral-red,, 
black in the quite young with a pinkish gape and base; legs 
fleshy-brown or reddish brown, never red. 
Measurements. Total length about 125 to 130 mm.; wing 
70 to 75 mm.; tail about 40 mm.; tarsus 17 to 18 mm.; culmen 
12 to 13 mm. 
