but nearly doing so.  Of course, I made for the tree, and sure enough there, about 15 feet from the ground, in a fork, was a large mass of twigs, above which was placed a neatly made cup-shaped nest, lined with fine black roots, and containing three fresh eggs, densely spotted, chiefly at the larger end, with yellowish brown and sepia, on a ground-colour of dull greenish white.  The whole time the peon I had sent up was climbing up and getting the nest, the two birds kept sweeping round and round with harsh cries.  I secured them both for the identification of the eggs.”

The eggs of this species are typically rather long ovals, generally a good deal pointed towards the small end.  They are dull eggs, and never seem to have any perceptible gloss.  The ground-colour varies from white to a rich warm pink.  The markings are of all sizes and shapes, from large blotches to the tiniest specks, and they vary in every egg, being thickly set in some, thinly in others, but as a rule the largest and most conspicuous markings are about the large end.  Again, in colour the markings vary very much:  they are red, purplish red, reddish brown, pale purple, and inky grey; generally the eggs exhibit both coloured markings reddish and lilac, but sometimes the white-grounded eggs have only these latter.  Some of the pink eggs are strikingly handsome, and remind one of those of some of the Bulbuls.  Others are dull eggs with only a few irregular grey clouds about the large end, thinly interspersed with brownish-red spots, usually darker about the centre, and elsewhere excessively minutely and thinly speckled with spots too small to render it possible to say what colour they are.

An egg I received from Darjeeling measures 1.1 by 0.87; others received from Mynall from Mr. Bourdillon, and the Kakencotte Forest, Mysore, from Mr. I. Macpherson, vary in length from 1.16 to 1.1, and in breadth from 0.84 to 0.75.  Three eggs, taken in Pegu by Mr. Oates, measure from 1.1 to 1.05 in length, by 0.83 to 0.81 in breadth, and are smaller than those the dimensions of which he himself records above.

Family CERTHIIDAE.

341.  Certhia himalayana, Vigors. The Himalayan Tree-Creeper.

Certliia himalayana, Vig., Jerd B. Ind. i, p, 380; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 243.

Writing from Murree of the Himalayan Tree-Creeper, Colonel C.H.T.  Marshall says:—­“This is a most difficult nest to find, as the little bird always chooses crevices where the bark has been broken or bulged out, some 40 or 50 feet from the ground, and generally on tall oak-trees which have no branches within 40 feet of their roots.  There were young in the few nests we found.  Captain Cock secured the eggs in Kashmir; they are very small, being only 0.6 by 0.45; the ground is white, with numerous red spots.  The nests we found were in the highest part of Murree, about 7200 feet.”

Two eggs of this species which I possess measure 0.69 and 0.68 respectively in length, by 0.5 in breadth.