32 CORVID^E. 



The nests are placed in holes in banks, in walls of buildings or 

 of terraced fields, in outhouses of dwellings or deserted huts and 

 houses, and in holes in trees, and very frequently in those cut in 

 some previous year for their own nests by Barbets and Wood- 

 peckers. 



Occasionally it builds on a branch of a tree, and my friend Sir 

 E. C. Buck, C.S., found a nest containing six half-set eggs thus 

 situated on the 19th June at Gowra. It was on a " Banj " tree 

 10 feet from the ground. 



The only nest that I have myself seen in such a situation was a 

 pretty large pad of soft moss, slightly saucer-shaped, about 4 inches 

 in diameter, with a slight depression on the upper surface, which 

 was everywhere thinly coated with sheep's wool and the fine white 

 silky hair of some animal. The nest is usually a shapeless mass 

 of downy fur, cattle-hair, and even feathers and wool, but when 

 on a branch is strengthened exteriorly with moss. Even when in 

 holes, they sometimes round the nest into a more or less regular 

 though shallow cup, and use a good deal of moss or a little grass 

 or grass-roots j but as a rule the hairs of soft and downy fur con- 

 stitute the chief material, and this is picked out by the birds, I 

 believe, from the dung of the various cats, polecats, and ferrets so 

 common in all our hills. 



I have never found more than six eggs, and often smaller 

 numbers, more or less incubated. 



Mr. Brooks tells us that the Indian Grey Tit is " common at 

 Aliuorah. In April and May I found the nest two or three times 

 in holes in terrace-walls. It was composed of grass-roots and 

 feathers, and contained in each case nearly fully-grown young, 

 five in number." 



From Dhurmsala Captain Cock wrote : " Farm dnereus built 

 in the walls of Dr. C.'s stables this year. When I found the nest 

 it contained young ones. I watched the parents flying in and out, 

 but to make sure put my ear to the wall and could hear the young 

 ones chirrupping. The nest was found in the early part of May 

 1869." 



Colonel Butler writes : " Belgaum, 12th June, 1879. A nest 

 built in a hollow bamboo which supported the roof of a house in 

 the native infantry lines. I did not see the nest myself, as un- 

 fortunately the old bird was captured on it, and the nest and eggs 

 destroyed ; however, the hen bird was brought to me alive by the 

 man who caught her, and I saw at once, by the bare breast, that 

 she had been sitting, and on making enquiries the above facts were 

 elicited. The broken egg-shells were white thickly spotted w T ith 

 rusty red. 



"Belgaum, 8th June, 1880. A nest in a hole of a tree about 

 7 feet from the ground, containing five fresh eggs. The nest con- 

 sisted of a dense pad of fur (goat-hair, cow-hair, human hair, and 

 hare's fur mixed) with a few feathers intermixed, laid on the top 

 of a small quantity of dry grass and moss, which formed the 

 foundation." 



