SITTA. 193 



the ground in a thick trunk; the hole was closed up with a kind 

 of .stiff gummy substance, leaving only a circular entrance about an 

 inch in diameter, just as I have seen in nests of Sitta europcea. 

 The old birds were busily engaged in feeding the young. Another 

 nest containing young was found on the 28th April in an oak tree 

 at about 7000 feet elevation ; both birds were feeding the young, 

 and the nest was similar to the last except that in this case it was 

 so low down in the trunk that, sitting on the ground, I could put 

 my ear against the hole. From a third nest, found on the 2nd 

 May, the young had apparently just fled. My experience bears 

 out Mr. Hodgson's observations : I have often been up here in May 

 and June searching closely and never found a nest ; this year I 

 came up for the first time in April, and within a few days find 

 three nests with young. I may add that after the 10th May all 

 the Nuthatches I have seen were in small parties, apparently 

 parents with their young." 



316. Sitta cinnamomeiventris, Blyth. The Cinnamon-bellied 



Nuthatch. 

 Sitta cinnamomeoventris, Bl., Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 387. 



Writing from Sikhirn, Mr. Gammie says: "I lately took the 

 nest of Sitta cinnamomeiventris at 2000 feet. It was 20 feet from 

 the ground in a soft decaying bamboo on the edge of large jungle. 

 The birds had made a small hole just below an internode, and 

 from the next internode below had filled up the hollow of the 

 bamboo with alternate layers of green moss and pieces of tree- 

 bark of about an inch or more square to within a few inches of the 

 entrance-hole. Each layer of moss was about an inch thick, but 

 the bark layer not more than a quarter of an inch, the thickness of 

 the bark itself. On the top of this pile, which was a foot high, 

 was a pad three inches wide by two in depth, of fine moss, fur, 

 a feather or two, and a few insects' wings intermixed, for the 

 eggs to rest on. The fur looks like that of a rat. There were four 

 hard-set eggs, which, unfortunately, got broken in the taking. 

 One of them only was measurable, and it was 0*65 inch by 05. 

 I send the shell-fragments to show the coloration." 



317. Sitta neglecta, Walden. The Burmese Nuthatch. 

 Sitta neglecta, Wald., Hume, Cat. no. 250 bis. 



The Burmese Nuthatch probably breeds throughout Pegu and 

 Tenasserira. Of its mdification in the latter division Major 0. 

 T. Binghani writes : " On the 21st March, wandering about in a 

 deserted clearing, I saw a couple of Nuthatches (Sitta neglecta) 

 flying to and from a tree, carrying food apparently. Watching 

 them closely with a pair of binoculars, I saw them disappear near 

 a knot in a branch. The tree was a dead dry one and rather 

 difficult to climb, but a peon of mine went up and reported five 

 young ones unfledged, the nest-hole being 6 inches deep, and the 



VOL. i, 13 



