300 STTTID.T;. 



d*. Jjower plumage darker ; size 



finall, wing under 3 8. castaneiventris, p. 304. 



b' 1 . Lateral tail-feathers without white 



spots ; marked with rufous 8. tephronota, p. 305. 



b. Upper plumage slaty blue ; crown black. . S. leucopsis, p. 300. 



c. Crown and back black, streaked with bril- 



liant blue S.formosa, p. 306. 



d. Upper plumage uniform purplish blue ; 



forehead black S.frontalis, p. 307. 



315. Sitta himalayensis. The White-tailed Nuthatch. 



Sitta himalayensis, Jard. fy Selby, III. Orn. iii, pi. 144 (1835) ; Horsf. 

 $ M. Cat. ii, p. 720 ; Jerd. B. I. i, p. 385 ; Blanf. J. A. 8. B. xli, 

 pt. ii, p. 56 ; Hume, N. $ E. p. 161 ; Hume, Cat. no. 248 j Scully, 

 8. F. viii, p. 262 ; Gadow, Cat. B. M. viii, p. 349 ; Oates in Hume's 

 N.$E.2nded. i, p. 392. 



Sitta nipalensis, Hcd(/s. J. A. 8. B. v, p. 779. 



Sitta himalayana (Jard. 8f Selby), Blyth, Cat. p. 190. 



Siddyi-phip, Lepch. 



Coloration. Male. The forehead, lores, and a streak behind 

 the eye, produced down the side of the neck to the shoulders, 

 black ; an indistinct eyebrow fulvous-white ; upper plumage and 

 wing-coverts dark slaty blue, somewhat paler on the head; pri- 

 maries and secondaries dark brown, edged with slaty blue ; tertiaries 

 wholly of this colour; middle pair of tail-feathers slaty blue, the 

 basal half of the inner web and a band next the shaft on the outer 

 web white ; the next two pairs wholly black ; the next black, with 

 an ashy tip ; the next black, with an oblique white band and an 

 ashy tip; the outermost similar, but with more white; sides of the 

 face below the black streak and the chin pale fulvous ; the lower 

 plumage from the chin downwards chestnut, gradually getting 

 darker and becoming rich chestnut on the flanks and under tail- 

 coverts ; under wing-coverts black, followed by a white patch on 

 the primaries visible only from below. 



Female. Resembles the male, but is somewhat paler beneath. 



Legs and feet olive-brown ; soles olive-yellow ; iris pale brown ; 

 bill black, the gape and part of the lower mandible bluish white 

 (Hume). 



Length nearly 5 ; tail 1*5 ; wing 2'9 ; tarsus -7 ; bill from gape 

 75. 



Distribution. Throughout the Himalayas from Kangra to Bhutan 

 at elevations of from 5000 to about 10,000 feet, occasionally 11,000 

 feet, at which altitude Blanford procured a specimen in Sikhim. 

 Godwin- Austen also procured this species at Aiinul in the Mani- 

 pur hills. 



Habits, fyc. Breeds in the Himalayas from April to June, making 

 a nest of moss in a hole of a tree at no great height from the 

 ground, and laying five or six eggs, which are white marked with 

 red, and measure '72 by '55. 



