l 1 6 THE WATER-WAGTAILS, PIPITS AND TITS. 



arrangement which Jerdon adopted they were widely 

 separated on account of their stouter bills and more 

 vegetarian habits. Of the soft-billed, insect-eating, 

 birds, there is only one family left, that of the Tits, 

 and in that family there is only one bird which Bom- 

 bay can claim. That is the White-eyed Tit (Zoste- 

 rops palpebrosus), a bright little creature scarcely 

 larger than an Amadavat, of a clear green colour 

 passing into canary-yellow on the breast. " It gets 

 its name from a narrow ring of white round each eye, 

 which gives a peculiar expression to its face. In the 

 cold season flocks of these birds wander about the 

 trees, uttering a soft cheeping note, and, though I 

 cannot say I have actually seen them in Bombay, 

 they are so often seen just across the harbour that they 

 cannot possibly pass us by. In the rains the flocks 

 break up into pairs and make their neat little nests 

 and lay their pretty blue eggs, but not on the coast. 

 I suppose the rainfall is too heavy here. 



The Indian Gray Tit, that dapper little bird, with 

 black head and white cheeks, which makes itself so 

 familiar in our gardens in Poona, does not appear 

 to come below the Ghauts. The pretty Yellow Tit, 

 easily recognised by its foppish little black-and-yellow 

 crest, is not very rare on the coast, but I have not 

 seen it in Bombay. 



