MACHLOLOPHUS. 



43. Machlolophns haplonotus (BL). The Southern Yellow Tit. 

 Machlolophus jerdoni (l.) } Jerd. B. Lid. ii, p. 280. 



Col. E. A. Butler writes : " Belgaum, 12th Sept., 1879. Found 

 a nest of the Southern Yellow Tit in a hole of a small tree about 

 1 feet from the ground. My attention was first attracted to it by 

 seeing the hen-bird with her wings spread and feathers erect angrily 

 mobbing a palm-squirrel that had incautiously ascended the tree, 

 and thinking there must be a nest close by, I watched the sequel, 

 and in a few seconds the squirrel descended the tree and the Tit 

 disappeared in a small hole about halfway up. I then put 

 a net over the hole and tapped the bough to drive her out, but 

 this was no easy matter, for although the nest was only about | 

 foot from the entrance, and I made as much noise as a thick stick 

 could well make against a hollow bough, nothing would induce her 

 to leave the nest until I had cut a large wedge out of the branch, with 

 a saw and chisel, close to the nest, when she flew out into the net. 

 " The nest, which contained, to my great disappointment, five 

 young birds about a week old, was very massively built, and com- 

 pletely choked up the hollow passage in which it was placed. The 

 foundation consisted of a quantity of dry green moss, of the kind that 

 natives bring in from the jungles in the rains, and sell for ornamenting 

 flower vases, &c. Xext came a thick layer of coir, mixed with a 

 few dry skeleton-leaves and some short ends of old rope and a 

 scrap or two of paper, and finally a substantial pad of blackish 

 hair, principally human, but with cow- and horse-hair intermixed, 

 forming a snug little bed for the young ones. The total depth of 

 the nest exteriorly was at least 7 inches. 



" The bough, about 8 inches in diameter, was partly rotten and 

 hollow the whole way down, having a small hole at the side above 

 by which the birds entered, and another rather larger about a foot 

 below the nest all choked up with moss that had fallen from the 

 base of the nest. It is strange that it should have escaped my 

 eye previously, as the tree overhung my gateway, through which I 

 passed constantly during the day. Immediately below the nest a 

 large black board bearing my name was nailed to the tree. 



"At Belgaum, on the 10th July, 1880, I observed a pair of 

 Yellow- Tits building in a crevice of a large banian tree about 

 9 feet from the ground. The two birds were flying to and from the 

 nest in company, the hen carrying building-materials in her beak. 

 I watched the nest constantly for several days, but never saw the 

 birds near it again until the 18th inst., when the hen flew out of 

 the hole as I passed the tree. I visited the spot on the 19th and 

 20th inst., tapping the tree loudly with a stick as I passed, but 

 without any result, as the bird did not fly off the nest. 



" On the 21st, thinking the nest must either be forsaken or 

 contain eggs, I got up and looked into the hole, and to my surprise 

 found the hen bird comfortably seated on the nest, notwithstanding 

 the noise I had been making to try and put her off. As the crevice 



