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 over the entire surface. The two eggs measure 0·9 and 0·88 in length by 0·62 in breadth.]
Family SITTIDAE.
315. Sitta himalayensis, Jard. & Selby. The White-tailed Nuthatch.
Sitta himalayensis, J. & 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 0·72 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. R. Thompson says:—"In Kumaon the White-tailed Nuthatch breeds in May and June, laying five or six eggs, in holes in trees, especially in oaks."
Colonel G.F.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 the ground in a thick trunk; the hole was closed up with a kind of stiff gummy substance, leaving only a circular entrance about an inch in diameter, just as I have seen in nests of Sitta europaea. The old birds were busily engaged in feeding the young. Another nest containing young was found on the 28th April in an oak tree at about 7000 feet elevation; both birds were feeding the young, and the nest was similar to the last except that in this case it was so low down in the trunk that, sitting on the ground, I could put my ear against the hole. From a third nest, found on the 2nd May, the young had apparently just fled. My experience bears out Mr. Hodgson's observations: I have often been up here in May and June searching closely and never found a nest; this year I came up for the first time in April, and within a few days find three nests with young. I may add that after the 10th May all the Nuthatches I have seen were in small parties, apparently parents with their young."
316. Sitta cinnamomeiventris, Blyth. The Cinnamon-bellied Nuthatch.
Sitta cinnamomeoventris, Bl., Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 387.
Writing from Sikhim, Mr. Gammie says:—"I lately took the nest of Sitta cinnamomeiventris at 2000 feet. It was 20 feet from the ground in a soft decaying bamboo on the edge of large jungle. The birds had made a small hole just below an internode, and from the next internode below had filled up the hollow of the bamboo with alternate layers of green moss and pieces of tree-bark of about an inch or more square to within a few inches of the entrance-hole. Each layer of moss was about an inch thick, but the bark layer not more than a quarter of an inch, the thickness of the bark itself. On the top of this pile, which was a foot high, was a pad three inches wide by two in depth, of fine moss, fur, a feather or two, and a few insects' wings intermixed, for the eggs to rest on. The fur looks like that of a rat. There were four hard-set eggs, which, unfortunately, got broken in the taking. One of them only was measurable, and it was 0·65 inch by 0·5. I send the shell-fragments to show the coloration."