436 CERTHIID A. 
brown with the usual fulvous, black-edged band across all but the 
first four primaries ; most of the quills tipped with white and the 
later ones with a fulvous streak near the end of the outer web; 
lower plumage earthy-brown, paler and fulvescent on the posterior 
flanks and abdomen; under tail-coverts ferruginous ; a. cheek- 
stripe rufous or fulvous-rufous ; under wing-coverts and axillaries 
white. 
Fio. 84.—Head of C. d. discolor. 
ct 
Colours of soft parts. Iris dark brown to red-brown; bill 
above dark horny-brown, almost black on culmen, below pale 
horny ; legs and feet pale fleshy-brown or pale brown. 
Measurements. Wing 67 to 71 mm.; tail 75 to 77 mm.; tarsus 
about 18 mm.; culmen 13 to 15 mm. 
Distribution. The Himalayas from Nepal to E. Assam, both 
North and South of the Brahmaputra. 
Nidification. The only nests and eggs of this bird recorded 
appear to be those taken by inyself in North Cachar and the 
Khasia Hills. In these hills I found the bird very rare and 
breeding only in the stunted oak forest in the former district and 
in pine-woods in the latter. In neither case did they breed below 
5,000 feet. The nests are the usual pads of moss inside a broken 
piece of bark but in the few T saw all had fairly thick linings of 
fur either of the Bamboo-rat or of a shrew. They were placed 
between 12 and 30 feet from the ground and they contained from 
3 to deges. These are typical Tree-Creepers’ eggs and some are 
not separable from brightly coloured pink eggs of himalayana and 
familiaris but as a whole they are much redder eggs, the spots 
being almost a pure red or pinky-red. Twenty-four eggs average 
16°3 x 12°5 mm., and the extremes are 17°5 x 12:9 and 17°4 x 13:0 
mm. and 15°2x 12°38 and 154x110 mm. The birds are early 
breeders, commencing in early April and continuing until the 
second week in May. 
Habits. The Sikkim Tree-Creeper is found north of the 
Brahmaputra between 6,000 and 10,000 feet but on the south of 
that river between.5,000 and 8,000 feet or a little higher tian this 
in the Naga Hills. In its habits generally it is like all other Tree- 
Creepers but it seems to keep much to the interior of forests 
whether of pine or other trees and it is a very shy, quiet little 
bird, resenting observation more than most of the other members 
of the genus. 
