34 COBYIDjE. 



the bank. The poor parent birds appeared to be perfectly aware 

 that their nest would soon be reached, and after trying in vain to 

 persuade the young one to come out, they pushed it down into 

 the road but could get it no further, though they did their utmost 

 to take it out of the reach of danger. I placed it among the bushes 

 above the road, and then the parents seemed to be immediately 

 conscious of its safety." 



Mr. H. E. P. Carter notes that he " found a nest of the Grey Tit 

 at Coonoor, on the Nilgiris, on the 15th May. It was placed in a 

 hole in a bank by the roadside. It was a flat pad, composed of 

 the fur of the hill-hare, hairs of cattle, &c.> and was fluffy and 

 without consistence. It contained three half-set eggs." 



Mr. J. Darling, Jun., says : " I have found the nests at Ooty, 

 Coonoor, Neddivattam, and Kartary, at all heights from 5000 to 

 nearly 8000 feet above the sea, on various dates between 17th 

 February and 10th May. 



" It builds in banks, or holes in trees, at all heights from, the 

 ground, from 3 to 30 feet. It is fond of taking possession of the 

 old nest-holes of the Green Woodpecker. The nest is built of fur 

 or fur and moss, and always lined with fine fur, generally that of 

 hares. Its shape depends upon that of the hole in which it is 

 placed, but the egg-cavity or depression is about 3 inches in diameter 

 and an inch in depth. 



" It lays four, five, and sometimes six eggs, but I think more 

 commonly only four." 



Dr. Jerdon remarks : " I once found its nest in a deserted 

 bungalow at Kallia, in the corner of the house. It was made 

 chiefly of the down of hares (Lepus niyricollis), mixed with feathers, 

 and contained six eggs, white spotted with rusty red." 



The eggs resemble in their general character those of many of 

 our English Tits, and though, I think, typically slightly longer, 

 they appear to me to be very close to those of Parus palustris. In 

 shape they are a broad oval, but somewhat elongated and pointed 

 towards the small end. The ground-colour is pinkish white, and 

 round the large end there is a conspicuous, though irregular and 

 imperfect, zone of red blotches, spots, and streaks. Spots and 

 specks of the same colour, or occasionally of a pale purple, are 

 scantily sprinkled over the rest of the surface of the egg, and are 

 most numerous in the neighbourhood of the zone. The eggs have 

 a faint gloss. Some eggs do not exhibit the zone above referred to, 

 but even in these the markings are much more numerous and dense 

 towards the large end. 



In length the eggs vary from 0*65 to 0*78, and in breadth from 

 0-5 to 0-58 ; but the average of thirty-eight is 071 by 0-54, so 

 that they are really, as indeed they look as a body, a shade shorter 

 and decidedly broader than those of P. monticola. 



