40 



was too small to admit my hand, I commenced to enlarge the 

 entrance with a chisel, the old bird sitting closer than ever the 

 whole time. Finding all attempts to drive her off the eggs fruitless, 

 I tried to poke her off with a piece of stick, whereupon she stuck 

 her head into one of the far corners and sulked. I then inserted 

 my hand with some difficulty and drew her gently out of the hole, 

 but as soon as she caught sight of me, she commenced fighting in 

 the most pugnacious manner, digging her claws and beak into my 

 hand, and finally breaking loose, flying, not away as might have been 

 expected, but straight back into the hole again, to commence sulking 

 once more. Again I drew her out, keeping a firm hold of one leg 

 until I got her well away from the hole, when I released her. I 

 then extracted five fresh eggs from the hole by means of a small 

 round net attached to the loop end of a short piece of wire. The 

 nest was a simple pad of human and cows' hair, with a few horse- 

 hairs interwoven, and one or two bits of snake's skin in the lining, 

 having a thin layer of green moss and thin strips of inner bark 

 below as a foundation in fact a regular Tit's nest. The eggs, of 

 the usual parine type, were considerably larger than the eggs of 

 P. atriceps, broad ovals, slightly smaller at one end than the other, 

 having a white ground spotted moderately thickly all over with 

 reddish chestnut ; no zone or cap, but in some eggs more freely 

 marked at one end (either small or large end) than the other, some 

 of the markings almost amounting to blotches and the spots as a 

 rule rather large." 



Messrs. Davidson and Wenden remark of this bird in the 

 Deccan : " Specimens of this Tit were procured at Lanoli in 

 August and at Egutpoora in March. They certainly breed at these 

 places, as in September, at the latter place, W. observed two parent 

 birds with four young ones capable of flying out very short 

 distances." 



And Mr. Davidson further states that it is "common through- 

 out the district of Western Kandeish. I saw a pair building in 

 the hole of a large mango tree at Malpur in Pimpalnir in the end 

 of May." 



44. Lophophanes melanolophus (Vig.). The Crested Blade Tit. 



Lophophanes melanolophus ( Vig.}, Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 273 : Hume, 

 Rough Draft N. 8? E. no. 638. 



The Crested Black Tit breeds throughout the Lower Himalayas 

 \\est of Nepal, at elevations of from 6000 to 8000 feet. 



The breeding-season lasts from March to June, but the majority 

 have laid, I think, for the first hatch by the end of the first week 

 in April, unless the season has been a very backward one. They 

 usually rear two broods. 



They build, so far as I know, always in holes, in trees, rocks, 

 and walls, preferentially in the latter. Their nests involve gener- 

 ally two different kinds of work the working up of the true nests 



