These eggs vary much in size and in density of marking. The ordinary dimensions are about 0·61 by 0·47, but in a large series they vary in length from 0·57 to 0·72, and in breadth from 0·43 to 0·54. The very large eggs, however, indicated by these maxima are rare and abnormal.
47. Lophophanes rufinuchalis (Bl.). The Simla Black Tit.
Lophophanes rufinuchalis (Bl.). Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 274.
Mr. Brooks informs us that this Tit is common at Derali and other places of similar elevation. "I found a nest under a large stone in the middle of a hill foot-path, up and down which people and cattle were constantly passing; the nest contained newly-hatched young. This was the middle of May."
Dr. Scully, writing of the Gilgit district, tells us that this Tit is a denizen of the pine-forests, where it breeds.
Finally Captain Wardlaw Ramsay, writing in the 'Ibis,' states that this Tit was breeding in Afghanistan in May.
Subfamily PARADOXORNITHINAE.
50. Conostoma aemodium, Hodgs. The Red-billed Crow-Tit.
Conostoma aemodium. Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 10; Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E. no. 381.
A nest of the Red-billed Crow-Tit was sent me from Native Sikhim, where it was found at an elevation of about 10,000 feet, in a cluster of the small Ringal bamboo. It contained three eggs, two of which were broken in blowing them.