"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 found on the 28th April, 1869. The eggs were all fresh."
Mr. Gammie 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 brownish-red, as the case may be. The markings are much denser towards the large end, where in some eggs they form an imperfect and irregular cap. In size they vary from 0·68 to 0·76 in length, and from 0·49 to 0·54 in breadth; but the average of thirty-two eggs is 0·72 by 0·52 nearly.
35. Aegithaliscus erythrocephalus (Vig.). Red-headed Tit.
Aegithaliscus erythrocephalus (Vig.) Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 270; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 634.
The Red-headed Tit breeds throughout the Himalayas from Murree to
Bhootan, at elevations of from 6000 to 9000 or perhaps 10,000 feet.
They commence breeding very early. I have known nests to be taken quite at the beginning of March, and they continue laying till the end of May.
The nest is, I think, most commonly placed in low stunted hill-oak bushes, either suspended between several twigs, to all of which it is more or less attached, or wedged into a fork. I have found the nest in a deodar tree, laid on a horizontal bough. I have seen them in tufts of grass, in banks and other unusual situations; but the great bulk build in low bushes, and of these the hill-oak is, I think, their favourite.
The nests closely resemble those of the Long-tailed Tit (Acredula rosea). They are large ovoidal masses of moss, lichen, and moss-roots, often tacked together a good deal outside with cotton-wool, down of different descriptions, and cobwebs. They average about 4½ inches in height or length, and about 3½ inches in diameter. The aperture is on one side near the top. The egg-cavity, which may average about 2¼ inches in diameter and about the same in depth below the lower edge of the aperture, is densely lined with very soft down or feathers.