280 
ORNITHOLOGY. 
almost entirely devoid of gloss. The ground is white, or 
occasionally a delicate pinkish white, in some richly and 
profusely spotted and blotched, in others more or less 
thickly speckled and spotted with darker or lighter shades, of 
blood-, brick-, slightly purplish-, or brownish-red, as the case 
may be. The markings are much denser towards the 
large end where, in some eggs, tiiey form an imperfect and 
irregular cap. In size they vary from 0 68 to 0 74 in 
length, and from 0'5 to 0*50 in breadth. [A. O. H.~\ 
645. Parus cinereus, Vieillot. 
This species was common in Kashmir, and several speci- 
mens were obtained there in the Sind Valley, both in June 
and October. [G. H.] 
As usual the males obtained were considerably larger 
than the females. This species extends over the whole of 
India. Dr. Jerdon is wrong in saying that " it does not 
occur in Bengal nor to the eastward," as I have several 
specimens from Cornellah in Tipper ah. 
In the Himalayas it breeds in April, May, June, and 
July, in holes in banks, terrace walls of fields, and even 
outhouses of dwellings. Occasionally it builds on a branch 
of a tree, and my friend Mr. Buck found a nest thus 
situated on the 19th of June at Gowra. The nest is usually 
a shapeless mass of downy fur, cattle-hair, and wool, but 
when on a branch is strengthened exteriorly with moss. 
The only nest that I have myself seen in such a situation 
was a pretty large pad of soft moss, about four inches in 
diameter, with a slight depression on the upper surface, 
which was everywhere thinly coated with sheep^s wool and the 
fine white silky hair of some animal. I have a large series 
of eggs from various localities in the Himalayas and Niel- 
gherries. The eggs resemble in their different character 
those of many of our English Tits, and though I think 
typically slightly longer, they appear to me to be very close 
to those of P. palustris. In shape they are a broad oval, 
but somewhat elongated and pointed towards the small end. 
The ground colour is pinkish white, and round the large 
end there is a conspicuous, though irregular and imperfect. 
