316 PICIDJE. 



bored a hole into the side of the tree. It was 3| inches in diameter, 

 extended for about a foot inwards, and then for about 8 inches 

 downwards, and contained on the 30th of April two fresh, rather 

 glossy white eggs, measuring 1-41 x l'llandl'41 x 1 -12 respectively. 

 There was no lining to the nest, the eggs resting on the bare wood. 



" The eggs are very broad ovals, but markedly pointed towards 

 the small end." 



The eggs are in shape very broad ovals, conspicuously pointed 

 towards the small end. The shell is extremely fine and compact 

 and has a conspicuous gloss. In colour they are, of course, pure 

 white when first laid, but become a little soiled and stained as 

 incubation proceeds. 



Subfamily 



Picumnus innominatus, Burt. The Speckled Piculet. 



Vivia innominata {Burton), Jerd. JB. Ind. i, p. 300 ; Hume, Rough 

 Draft N. fy E. no. 186. 



I have never found the nest of the Speckled Piculet. Mr. K. 

 Thompson says : " They breed in April and May, in small holes 

 in trees, usually in one of the thicker branches, which they excavate 

 themselves. 



" Very common at altitudes of 1500 to 3000 feet. This is a 

 very interesting species, because of the numbers of individuals 

 usually constituting a family ; there are sometimes as many as 

 seven young ones. I have seen as many. They are capital insect 

 hunters, and destroy vast quantities of the eggs and larvae of 

 xylophagous beetles." 



From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes : " This year I found two 

 nesting-holes of the Speckled Piculet, both in April, in the outer 

 edge of large forest, at 5000 feet elevation. They were in decaying 

 stumps of small trees, about three feet from the ground, and had 

 been made by the birds. The entrance was only an inch in 

 diameter, and the hole was 3| inches deep, and little more than an 

 inch wide. There was no nesting-material. Each contained three 

 fresh eggs." 



In length the eggs vary from 0'53 to 0*61, and in breadth from 

 0*45 to 0'51 ; but the average of six eggs is 0'58 nearly by 0*49 

 nearly. 



Colonel G. F. L. Marshall writes : " On the 20th April I found 

 a nest-hole inhabited by this species at Mungoli near Nairn Tal 

 at an elevation of about 4000 feet above the sea. It was a tiny 

 circular hole that had been cut out by the birds themselves in a 

 soft-wooded tree. The entrance was less than an inch in diameter ; 

 the chamber was about two inches in diameter and three inches 

 deep. The hole went straight into the centre of the tree, \diich 



