PARTIS. 35

34. Parus mouticola, Vig. The Green-lacked Tit.

Parua monticolus, Viy,} Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 277; Hume, Hough Draft
N. fy E. no. 644.

The Green-backed Tit breeds through the Himalayas, at eleva-
tions of from 4000 to 7000 or 8000 feet.

The breeding-season lasts from March to June, and some birds
at any rate must have two broods, since I found three fresh eggs
in the wall of the Pownda dak bungalow about the 20th June.
More eggs are, however, to be got in April than in any other
month.

They build in holes, in trees, bamboos, walls, and even banks,
but walls receive, I think, the preference.

The nests are loose dense masses of soft downy fur or feathers,
with more or less moss, according to the situation.

The eggs vary from six to eight, and I have repeatedly found
seven and eight young ones ; but Captain Beavan has found only
five of these latter, and although I consider from six to eight the
normal complement, I believe they very often fail to complete the
full number.

Captain Beavan says :—" At Simla, on May 4th, 1866,1 found
a nest of this species in the wall of one of my servant's houses.
It contained five young ones, and was composed of fine grey pushm
or wool resting on an understructure of moss."

At Murree Colonel 0. H. T. Marshall notes that this species
u breeds early in May in holes in walls and trees, laying white
eggs covered with red spots."

Speaking of a nest he took at Dhurmsala, Captain Cock says :—
" The nest was in a cavity of a rhododendron tree, and was a large
mass of down of some animal; it looked like rabbit's fur, which of
course it was not, but it was some dark, soft, dense fur. The nest
contained seven eggs, and was foun'd on the 28th April, 1869.
The eggs were all fresh."

Mr. Qammie says :—" I got one nest of this Tit here on the
14th May in the Chinchona reserves (Sikhim), at an elevation of
about 4500 feet. It was in partially cleared country, in a natural
hole of a stump, about 5 feet from the ground. The nest was
made of moss and lined with soft matted hair; but I pulled it out
of the hole carelessly and cannot say whether it had originally
any defined shape. It contained four hard-set eggs."

The eggs are very like those of Parus atriceps; but they are
somewhat longer and more slender, and as a rule are rather more
thickly and richly marked.

They are moderately broad ovals, sometimes almost perfectly
symmetrical, at times slightly pointed towards one end, and 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