4 Major H. H. Harington on the 



The eggs are like those of other raemhers of the family, 

 and vary greatly in size and colour^ some being a pale green, 

 uniformly covered all over with minute dark olive-brown 

 specksj these often forming a darker zone round the larger 

 end, others are again distinctly spotted with the same colour ; 

 many also have black hair-like streaks, but these are very 

 liable to wash off unless one is careful. 



Average of fourteen eggs = 1*3 X "95. 



Largest = 1-43 x '97. 



Smallest = 1-2 x '92. 



Parus major commixtus. 



Pans minor Temm. & Schleg. ; Oates, Fauna^ i. 1889, 

 p. 48 ; Harington, Bombay Journ, xix. 1909, p. 109, xx. 

 191], p. 1005. 



Parus major commixtus Swinhoe ; Hartert, Vog. pal. 

 Fauna, i. 1903, p. 346. 



The Chinese Grey Tit is the common Tit of the hills on 

 the eastern side of Burma. I have never met with it in the 

 plains, where P. atriceps occurs sparingly. 



It has all the notes and habits of the English Great Tit, 

 and is especially common in the oak forests and round the 

 station oE Maymyo itself. At Sinlum in the Bhamo Hills I 

 found it nesting in holes in banks along the roadside, but at 

 Maymyo always in holes of trees. Although such a common 

 little bird^ its nest, unless one watches it while building, is 

 very difficult to find. Onceout riding I spotted a Tit hurriedly 

 leave a stump^ Avhich on investigation disclosed a nest 

 containing six eggs. As I was unable to take it then, I 

 thought I would make matters safe by stopping up the hole 

 with leaves, as I had found by bitter experience that a nest 

 once examined was very often robbed and destroyed before 

 my next visit : whether this is the work of magpies and 

 jays_, or squirrels, I have never discovered. So on this 

 occasion I thought I had thoroughly protected the eggs, but 

 on returning next day and cutting into the nest, I found that 

 I had been again forestalled, this time by a swarm of large 

 black ants, which had destroyed all the eggs, barely leaving 

 any shells behind. 



