192 



Family SITTIDJE. 



315. Sitta himalayensis, Jard. & Selby. The White- 

 tailed Nuthatch. 

 Sitta himalayensis, J. fy S., Jerd. B. Ind, i, p. 385 ; Hume, Eowjk 



According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and drawings this species 

 begins to lay in April, constructing a shallow saucer-like nest of 

 moss lined with moss-roots, in holes of trees at no great elevation 

 from the ground. One such nest, the measurements of which are 

 recorded, was 3*25 inches in diameter and 2 in height externally ; 

 the cavity was 2-25 inches in diameter and 1*25 inch in depth. 

 They lay three or four pure white eggs slightly speckled with red, 

 which measure about 0*72 inch in length by O55 inch in width. 

 They breed once a year, and both sexes assist in incubating the 

 eggs and rearing the young. 



Mr. E. Thompson says : " In Kumaon the White-tailed Nut- 

 hatch breeds in May and June, laying five or six eggs, in holes in 

 trees, especially in oaks." 



Colonel Gr. E. L. Marshall writes : " This bird is an early breeder 

 in Nairn Tal ; a nest found on the 25th April contained half-fledged 

 young. It was in a natural hollow of a tree about 10 feet from 



end, at times slightly pyriform. The shell very fine, smooth and thin, but 

 strong, and generally with an appreciable though not at all conspicuous gloss. 



The ground-colour is pink or pinky white, and they are very thickly speckled 

 and spotted everywhere, but extremely densely so, and there blotched also in a 

 broad irregular zone, round the large end with rich reddish maroou and dull 

 greyish or inky purple the rich colour predominating in some eggs, the dull 

 colour in others ; and in some the markings being all extremely fine and speckly, 

 while in others they are rather bolder. Two eggs measure 09 by 0'66. 



PYCNONOTUS SIMPLEX, Less. Moore's Olive Bulbul. 

 Ixus brunneus (Bl.}> Hume, Cat. no. 452 oct. 



Mr. W. Davison says:" I took a nest of P. simplex in some rather thick 

 jungle at Klang. The nest, of the ordinary Bulbul type (in fact it might easily 

 have passed for a nest of Otocompsa), was placed in the fork of a small sapling 

 about 6 feet from the ground. The nest contained two eggs. The female was 

 shot from the nest." 



The eggs are moderately elongated, rather regular ovals, some specimens 

 having a slight pyriform tendency. The shell is fine and compact, and seems 

 to have generally an appreciable but not striking gloss. The ground-colour 

 appears to have been creamy pink, and it is very thickly freckled and speckled 

 all over with a rich maroon, in amongst which tiny clouds of pale purple may 

 be faintly discerned ; dense as are the markings everywhere, they are generally 

 most so in a zone round the large end. Yery possibly this species will be found 

 to exhibit somewhat different types of coloration, as the eggs of all Bulbuls vary 

 very much ; but certainly typically the markings of this species are much 

 more speckly than in most of the others, forming a universal stippling over the 

 entire surface. The two eggs measure 0'9 and O88 in length by 0'62 in breadth. 



