PARUS. 183 



Forehead and crown to the nape, also the chin, throat, and a large patch 

 on the breast, continued as a mesial abdominal line to the vent black ; sides 

 of the neck black, connecting the black of the nape and breast ; under 

 surface of the body pale rufescent ashy ; upper tail coverts, and lesser and 

 median wing coverts ashy blue ; greater coverts black, tipped with whitish ; 

 primary coverts and quills blackish, edged externally with ashy blue ; outer tail 

 feathers white, brown at the base : the next pair bluish on the outer web 

 and white terminally, the inner webs blackish with a white stripe, the third 

 outer pair with a small white tip ; the remainder blackish on the inner 

 and bluish on the outer webs. Bill black j iris brown ; legs and feet 

 plumbeous. 



Length. -5-5 inches; wing 2'6; tail 2 -6 to 2-8; tarsus 0-65 ; culmen 0-46. 



Hab. Nearly all over India from the Himalayas to Ceylon, also in Affghan- 

 istan. Extends to the southern half of China as well as to Java and Lombock. 

 It is found in Nepaul, Bhootan, Assam and through Central India to 

 the Neilgherries. It extends all along the range of western ghauts north to 

 Khandeish. Occurs also in the hilly regions of Nagpore and at Saugor. Gilgit, 

 Cashmere, Peshawur, Mussoorie, Simla, Kumaon, Nepaul, Behar, Khandeish, 

 Madras, Travancore, Bhootan, Upper Assam and Bhamo, are "given as 

 localities. Gates says it is irregularly distributed over Pegu. He found 

 it at Thayetmyo, and again met with it west of the Irrawaddy, towards 

 the foot of the Arrakan hills. In Tenasserim it is rare. It is a familiar 

 bird wherever found. It is known to breed in the Himalayas and on 

 the Neilgherry hills. Hume says, throughout the more wooded mountains of 

 the Empire, wherever these attain an altitude of S,OOO feet to even 9,000 feet. 

 In the Neilgherries the breeding season is from February * to May, and 

 in the Himalayas from March to June. The nests are placed in holes 

 in banks, in walls of buildings or of terraced fields, in outhouses of dwellings 

 or deserted huts and houses, and in holes in trees, and, very frequently, 

 in deserted nests of Woodpeckers and Barbels. The eggs are a broad oval, 

 but somewhat elongated and pointed towards the smaller end. Colour pinkish 

 white, sprinkled with pale purplish, thickly so towards the large end, where 

 they form a heavy zone of red blotches, spots and streaks. Size 0*65 to o"j 

 in length, and in breadth from 0*5 to 0*58. 



The North-Western race (Affghanistan and Turkestan) is named P. boccha- 

 riensis. It is said to be a larger and paler race, being pale or french grey 

 above. 



689. Pams montiCOlUS, Vigors, P. Z. S. 1830, p. 22 ; Gould, 

 Cent. Him. B. pi. 29, fig. 2; Jerd., B. Ind. ii. p. 277, No. 644; Brooks, Sir. 

 F. 1875, p. 253; id., 1879, P- 487; Scully, op. cit. 1879, p. 323, Gadow, 

 Cat. B. Br. Mus. viii. p. 21. The GREEN -BACKED TIT. 



