Part 6

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.

They lay from six to eight eggs, but I once found only four eggs in a nest, and these fully incubated.

From Murree, Colonel C.H.T. Marshall notes that this species "builds a globular nest of moss and hair and feathers in thorny bushes. The eggs we found were pinkish white, with a ring of obsolete brown spots at the larger end. Size 0·55 by 0·43. Lays in May."

Captain Hutton tells us that the Red-cap Tit is "common at Mussoorie and in the hills generally, throughout the year. It breeds in April and May. The situation chosen is various, as one taken in the former month at Mussoorie, at 7000 feet elevation, was placed on the side of a bank among overhanging coarse grass, while another taken in the latter month, at 5000 feet, was built among some ivy twining round a tree, and at least 14 feet from the ground. The nest is in shape a round ball with a small lateral entrance, and is composed of green mosses warmly lined with feathers. The eggs are five in number, white with a pinkish tinge, and sparingly sprinkled with lilac spots or specks, and having a well-defined lilac ring at the larger end."

From Nynee Tal, Colonel G.F.L. Marshall writes:--"This species makes a beautifully neat nest of fine moss and lichens, globular, with side entrance, and thickly lined with soft feathers. A nest found on Cheena, above Nynee Tal, on the 24th May, 1873, at an elevation of about 7000 feet, was wedged into a fork at the end of a bough of a cypress tree, about 10 feet from the ground, the entrance turned inwards towards the trunk of the tree. It contained one tiny egg, white, with a dark cloudy zone round the larger end.

"About the 10th of May, at Naini Tal, I was watching one of these little birds, which kept hanging about a small rhododendron stump about 2 feet high, with very few leaves on it, but I could see no nest. A few days later I saw the bird carry a big caterpillar to the same stump and come away shortly without it; so I looked more closely and found the nest, containing nearly full-fledged young, so beautifully wedged into the stump that it appeared to be part of it, and nothing but the tiny circular entrance revealed that the nest was there. It was the best-concealed nest for that style of position that I have ever seen."

These tiny eggs, almost smaller than those of any European bird that I know, are broad ovals, sometimes almost globular, but generally somewhat compressed towards one end, so as to assume something of a pyriform shape. They are almost entirely glossless, have a pinkish or at times creamy-white ground, and exhibit a conspicuous reddish or purple zone towards the large end, composed of multitudes of minute spots almost confluent, and interspaced with a purplish cloud. Faint traces of similar excessively minute purple or red points extend more or less above and below the zone. The eggs vary from 0·53 to 0·58 in length, and from 0·43 to 0·46 in breadth; but the average of twenty-five is 0·56 nearly by 0·45 nearly.

41. Machlolophus spilonotus (Bl.). _The Blade-spotted Yellow Tit_.

Machlolophus spilonotus (_Bl._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 281.

Mr. Mandelli found a nest of this species at Lebong in Sikhim on the 15th June in a hole in a dead tree, about 5 feet from the ground. The nest was a mere pad of the soft fur of some animal, in which a little of the brown silky down from fern-stems and a little moss was intermingled. It contained three hard-set eggs.

One of these eggs is a very regular oval, scarcely, if at all, pointed towards the lesser end; the ground-colour is a pure dead white, and the markings, spots, and specks of pale reddish brown, and underlying spots of pale purple, are evenly scattered all over the egg; it measures 0·78 by 0·55.

42. Machlolophus xanthogenys (Vig.). _The Yellow-cheeked Tit_.

Machlolophus xanthogenys (_Vig._) _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 279; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 647.

The Yellow-cheeked Tit is one of the commonest birds in the neighbourhood of Simla, yet curiously enough I have never found a nest.

I have had eggs and nest sent me, and I know it breeds throughout the Western Himalayas, at elevations of from 4000 to 7000 feet; and that it lays during April and May (and probably other months), making a soft pad-like nest, composed of hair and fur, in boles in trees and walls; but I can give no further particulars.

Captain Hutton tells us that it is "common in the hills throughout the year. It breeds in April, in which month a nest containing four fledged young ones was found at 5000 feet elevation; it was constructed of moss, hair, and feathers, and placed at the bottom of a deep hole in a stump at the foot of an oak tree."

Writing from Dhurmsala, Captain Cock says:--"Towards the end of April this bird made its nest in a hole of a tree just below the terrace of my house. Before the nest was quite finished a pair of _Passer cinnamomeus_ bullied the old birds out of the place, which they deserted. After they had left it I cut the nest out and found it nearly ready to lay in, lined with soft goat-hair and that same dark fur noticed in the nest of _Parus monticola_."

Later he wrote to me that this species "breeds up at Dhurmsala in April and May. It chooses an old cleft or natural cavity in a tree, usually the hill-oak, and makes a nest of wool and fur at the bottom of the cavity, upon which it lays five eggs much like the eggs of _Parus monticola_. Perhaps the blotches are a little larger, otherwise I can see no difference. I noticed on one occasion the male bird carry wool to the nest, which, when I cut it out the same day, I found contained hard-set eggs. I used to nail a sheepskin up in a hill-oak, and watch it with glasses, during April and May, and many a nest have I found by its help. _Parus atriceps, P. monticola, Machlolophus xanthogenys, Abrornis albisuperciliaris_, and many others used to visit it and pull off flocks of wool for their nests. Following up a little bird with wool in its bill through jungle requires sharp eyes and is no easy matter at first, but one soon becomes practised at it."

The eggs are regular, somewhat elongated ovals, in some cases slightly compressed towards one end. The ground is white or reddish white, and they are thickly speckled, spotted, and even blotched with brick-dust red; they have little or no gloss.

They vary in length from 0·7 to 0·78, and in breadth from 0·52 to 0·55; but I have only measured six eggs.

43. Machlolophus haplonotus (Bl.). _The Southern Yellow Tit_.

_Machlolophus jerdoni (Bl.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 280.

Col. E.A. Butler writes:--"Belgaum, 12th Sept., 1879.--Found a nest of the Southern Yellow Tit in a hole of a small tree about 10 feet from the ground. My attention was first attracted to it by seeing the hen-bird with her wings spread and feathers erect angrily mobbing a palm-squirrel that had incautiously ascended the tree, and thinking there must be a nest close by, I watched the sequel, and in a few seconds the squirrel descended the tree and the Tit disappeared in a small hole about halfway up. I then put a net over the hole and tapped the bough to drive her out, but this was no easy matter, for although the nest was only about ¾ foot from the entrance, and I made as much noise as a thick stick could well make against a hollow bough, nothing would induce her to leave the nest until I had cut a large wedge out of the branch, with a saw and chisel, close to the nest, when she flew out into the net.

"The nest, which contained, to my great disappointment, five young birds about a week old, was very massively built, and completely choked up the hollow passage in which it was placed. The foundation consisted of a quantity of dry green moss, of the kind that natives bring in from the jungles in the rains, and sell for ornamenting flower vases, &c. Next came a thick layer of coir, mixed with a few dry skeleton-leaves and some short ends of old rope and a scrap or two of paper, and finally a substantial pad of blackish hair, principally human, but with cow- and horse-hair intermixed, forming a snug little bed for the young ones. The total depth of the nest exteriorly was at least 7 inches.

"The bough, about 8 inches in diameter, was partly rotten and hollow the whole way down, having a small hole at the side above by which the birds entered, and another rather larger about a foot below the nest all choked up with moss that had fallen from the base of the nest. It is strange that it should have escaped my eye previously, as the tree overhung my gateway, through which I passed constantly during the day. Immediately below the nest a large black board bearing my name was nailed to the tree.

"At Belgaum, on the 10th July, 1880, I observed a pair of Yellow Tits building in a crevice of a large banian tree about 9 feet from the ground. The two birds were flying to and from the nest in company, the hen carrying building-materials in her beak. I watched the nest constantly for several days, but never saw the birds near it again until the 18th inst., when the hen flew out of the hole as I passed the tree. I visited the spot on the 19th and 20th inst., tapping the tree loudly with a stick as I passed, but without any result, as the bird did not fly off the nest.

"On the 21st, thinking the nest must either be forsaken or contain eggs, I got up and looked into the hole, and to my surprise found the hen bird comfortably seated on the nest, notwithstanding the noise I had been making to try and put her off. As the crevice was too small to admit my hand, I commenced to enlarge the entrance with a chisel, the old bird sitting closer than ever the whole time. Finding all attempts to drive her off the eggs fruitless, I tried to poke her off: with a piece of stick, whereupon she stuck her head into one of the far corners and sulked. I then inserted my hand with some difficulty and drew her gently out of the hole, but as soon as she caught sight of me, she commenced fighting in the most pugnacious manner, digging her claws and beak into my hand, and finally breaking loose, flying, not away as might have been expected, but straight back into the hole again, to commence sulking once more. Again I drew her out, keeping a firm hold of one leg until I got her well away from the hole, when I released her. I then extracted five fresh eggs from the hole by means of a small round net attached to the loop end of a short piece of wire. The nest was a simple pad of human and cows' hair, with a few horsehairs interwoven, and one or two bits of snake's skin in the lining, having a thin layer of green moss and thin strips of inner bark below as a foundation--in fact a regular Tit's nest. The eggs, of the usual parine type, were considerably larger than the eggs of _P. atriceps_, broad ovals, slightly smaller at one end than the other, having a white ground spotted moderately thickly all over with reddish chestnut; no zone or cap, but in some eggs more freely marked at one end (either small or large end) than the other, some of the markings almost amounting to blotches and the spots as a rule rather large."

Messrs. Davidson and Wenden remark of this bird in the Deccan:--"Specimens of this Tit were procured at Lanoli in August and at Egutpoora in March. They certainly breed at these places, as in September, at the latter place, W. observed two parent birds with four young ones capable of flying out very short distances."

And Mr. Davidson further states that it is "common throughout the district of Western Kandeish. I saw a pair building in the hole of a large mango tree at Malpur in Pimpalnir in the end of May."

44. Lophophanes melanolophus (Vig.). _The Crested Black Tit_.

Lophophanes melanolophus (_Vig._) _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 273: _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 638.

The Crested Black Tit breeds throughout the Lower Himalayas west of Nepal, at elevations of from 6000 to 8000 feet.

The breeding-season lasts from March to June, but the majority have laid, I think, for the first hatch by the end of the first week in April, unless the season has been a very backward one. They usually rear two broods.

They build, so far as I know, always in holes, in trees, rocks, and walls, preferentially in the latter. Their nests involve generally two different kinds of work--the working up of the true nests on which the eggs repose, and the preliminary closing in and making comfortable the cavity in which the former is placed. For this latter work they use almost exclusively moss. Sometimes very little filling-in is required; sometimes the mass of moss used to level and close in an awkward-shaped recess is surprisingly great. A pair breed every year in a terrace-wall of my garden at Simla; elevation about 7800 feet. One year they selected an opening a foot high and 6 inches wide, and they closed up the whole of this, leaving an entrance not 2 inches in diameter. Some years ago I disturbed them there, and found nearly half a cubic foot of dry green moss. Now they build in a cavity behind one of the stones, the entrance to which is barely an inch wide, and in this, as far as I can see, they have no moss at all.

The nests are nothing but larger or smaller pads of closely felted wool and fur; sometimes a little moss, and sometimes a little vegetable down, is mingled in the moss, but the great body of the material is always wool and fur. They vary very much in size: you may meet with them fully 5 inches in diameter and 2 inches thick, comparatively loosely and coarsely massed together; and you may meet with them shallow saucers 3 inches in diameter and barely half an inch in thickness anywhere, as closely felted as if manufactured by human agency.

Six to eight is considered the full complement of eggs, but the number is very variable, and I have taken three, four, and five well-incubated eggs.

Captain Beavan, to judge from his description, seems to have found a regular cup-shaped nest such, as I have never seen. He says:--"At Simla, April 20th, 1866, I found a nest of this species with young ones in it in an old wall in the garden. I secured the old bird for identification, and then released her. The nest contained seven young ones, and was large in proportion. The outside and bottom consists of the softest moss, the nest being carefully built between two stones, about a foot inside the wall; the rest of it is composed of the finest grey wool or fur. Diameter inside 2·5; outside about 5 inches. Depth inside nearly 3 inches; outside 3·6."

Captain Cock told me that he "found several nests in May and June in Cashmere. The first nest I found was in a natural cavity high up in a tree, containing three eggs, which I unfortunately broke while taking them out of the nest. The interior of the cavity was thickly lined with fur from some small animal, such as a hare or rat. I found my second nest close to my tent in a cleft of a pine, quite low down, only 3 feet from the ground. I cut it out and it contained five eggs of the usual type--broad, blunt little eggs, white, with rusty blotches."

Colonel G.F.L. Marshall writes:--"I have only found two nests of this species in Naini Tal, both had young (two in one nest, in the other I could not count) on the 25th April; they were at about 7000 feet elevation, built in holes in walls, the entrance in both cases being very small, having nothing to distinguish it from other tiny crevices, and nothing to lead any one to suppose that there was a nest inside. It was only by seeing the parent birds go in that the nest was discovered."

The eggs of this species are moderately broad ovals, with a very slight gloss. The ground-colour is a slightly pinkish white, and they are richly blotched and spotted, and more or less speckled (chiefly towards the larger end), with bright, somewhat brownish red.

The markings very commonly form a dense, almost confluent zone or cap about the large end, and they are generally more thinly scattered elsewhere, but the amount of the markings varies much in different eggs. In some, although they are thicker in the zone, they are still pretty thickly set over the entire surface, while in others they are almost confined to one end of the egg, generally the broad end.

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.

The nest is a very regular and perfect hemisphere, both externally and internally. It is very compactly made, externally of coarse grass and strips of bamboo-leaves, and internally very thickly lined with stiff but very fine grass-stems, about the thickness of an ordinary pin, very carefully curved to the shape of the nest. The coarser exterior grass appears to have been used when dry; but the fine grass, with which the interior is so densely lined, is still green. It is the most perfectly hemispherical nest I ever saw. Exteriorly it is exactly 6 inches in diameter and 3 in height; internally the cavity measures 4.5 in diameter and 2·25 in depth.

The egg is a regular moderately elongated oval, slightly compressed towards the smaller end. The shell is fine and thin, and has only a faint gloss. The ground-colour is a dull white, and it is sparsely blotched, streaked, and smudged with pale yellowish brown, besides which, about the large end, there are a number of small pale inky purple spots and clouds, looking as if they were beneath the surface of the shell.

The single egg preserved measures 1·11 by 0·8.

A nest sent me by Mr. Mandelli was found, he says, in May, in Native Sikhim, in a cluster of Ringal (hill-bamboo) at an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet. It is a large, rather broad and shallow cup, the great bulk of the nest composed of extremely fine hair-like grass-stems, obviously used when green, and coated thinly exteriorly with coarse blades of grass, giving the outside a ragged and untidy appearance. The greatest external diameter is 5.5, the height 3·2, but the cavity is 4·5 in diameter and 2.2 in depth, so that, though owing to the fine material used throughout except in the outer coating the nest is extremely firm and compact, it is not at all a massive-looking one.

60. Scaeorhynchus ruficeps (Bl.). _The Larger Red-headed Crow-Tit_.

Paradoxornis ruficeps, _Bl., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 5.

Mr. Gammie writes from Sikhim:--"In May, at 2000 feet elevation, I took a nest of this bird, which appears to have been rarely, if ever, taken by any European, and is not described in your Rough Draft of 'Nests and Eggs.' It was seated among, and fastened to, the spray of a bamboo near its top, and is a deep, compactly built cap, measuring externally 3·5 inches wide and the same in depth; internally 2·7 wide by 1·9 deep. The material used is particularly clean and new-looking, and has none of the secondhand appearance of much of the building-stuffs of many birds. The outer layer is of strips torn off large grass-stalks and a very few cobwebs; the lining, of fine fibrous strips, or rather threads, of bamboo-stems. There were three eggs, which were ready for hatching-off. They averaged 0·83 in. by 0·63 in. I send you the nest and two of the eggs.

"Both Jerdon and Tickell say they found this bird feeding on grain and other seeds, but those I examined had all confined their diet to different sorts of insects, such as would be found about the flowers of bamboo, buckwheat, &c. Probably they do eat a few seeds occasionally, but their principal food is certainly insects. Very usually, in winter especially, they feed in company with _Gampsorhynchus rufulus_. Rather curious that the two Red-heads should affect each other's society."