192 SITTID^E.

Family SITTID^.

315. Sitta Mmalayensis, Jard. & Selby. The White-
tailed Nuthatch.

Sitta Iiimalayensis, J. fy S.} Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 385; Hume, Rough
Draft N. $ E. no. 248.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and drawings this species
begins to lay in April, constructing a shallow saucer-like nest of
moss lined with moss-roots, in holes of trees at no great elevation
from the ground. One such nest, the measurements of which are
recorded, was 3*25 inches in diameter and 2 in height externally ;
the cavity was 2-25 inches in diameter and 1*25 inch in depth.
They lay three or four pure white eggs slightly speckled with red,
which measure about O72 inch in length by 0'55 inch in width.
They breed once a year, and both sexes assist in incubating the
eggs and rearing the young.

Mr. E. Thompson says :—" In Kumaon the White-tailed Nut-
hatch breeds in May and June, laying five or six eggs, in holes in
trees, especially in oaks/'

Colonel Gr. IT. L. Marshall writes :—" This bird is an early breeder
in Naini Tal; a nest found on the 25th April contained half-fledged
young. It was in a natural hollow of a tree about 10 feet from

end, at times slightly pyriform. The shell very fine, smooth and thin, but
strong, and generally -with an appreciable though not at all conspicuous gloss.

The ground-colour is pink or pinky white, and they are very thickly speckled
and spotted everywhere, but extremely densely so, and there blotched also in a
broad irregular zone, round the large end with rich reddish maroon and dull
greyish or inky purple—the rich colour predominating in some eggs, the dull
colour in others; and in some the markings being all extremely fine and spockly,
while in others they are rather bolder. Two eggs measure O9 by O66.

PYCNONOTUS SIMPLEX, Less. Moore's Olive Bulbtd.
Jxus brunneus (Bl.}, Hume, Cat. no. 452 oct.

Mr. W. Davison says:—" I took a nest of P. simplex in some rather thick
jungle at Klang. The nest, of the ordinary Bulbul type (in fact it might easily
have passed for a nest of Otocompsa), was placed in the fork of a small sapling
about 6 feet from the ground. The nest contained two eggs. The female was
shot from the nest."

The eggs are moderately elongated, rather regular ovals, some specimens
having a slight pyriform tendency. The shell is fine and compact, and seems
to have generally an appreciable but not striking gloss. The ground-colour
appears to have been creamy pink, and it is very thickly freckled and speckled
all over with a rich maroon, in amongst which tiny clouds of pale purple may
be faintly discerned ; dense as are the markings everywhere, they are generally
most so in a zone round the large end. Very possibly this species will be found
to exhibit somewhat different types of coloration, as the eggs of all Bulbuls vary
very much; but certainly typically the markings of this species are much
more speckly than in most of the others, forming a universal stippling orer the
entire surface. The two eggs measure O9 and OSS in length by 0*62 in breadth.