Mr. H.R.P.  Carter notes that he “found a nest of the Grey Tit at Coonoor, on the Nilgiris, on the 15th May.  It was placed in a hole in a bank by the roadside.  It was a flat pad, composed of the fur of the hill-hare, hairs of cattle, &c., and was fluffy and without consistence.  It contained three half-set eggs.”

Mr. J. Darling, Jun., says:—­“I have found the nests at Ooty, Coonoor, Neddivattam, and Kartary, at all heights from 5000 to nearly 8000 feet above the sea, on various dates between 17th February and 10th May.

“It builds in banks, or holes in trees, at all heights from the ground, from 3 to 30 feet.  It is fond of taking possession of the old nest-holes of the Green Woodpecker.  The nest is built of fur or fur and moss, and always lined with fine fur, generally that of hares.  Its shape depends upon that of the hole in which it is placed, but the egg-cavity or depression is about 3 inches in diameter and an inch in depth.

“It lays four, five, and sometimes six eggs, but I think more commonly only four.”

Dr. Jerdon remarks:—­“I once found its nest in a deserted bungalow at Kallia, in the corner of the house.  It was made chiefly of the down of hares (Lepus nigricollis), mixed with feathers, and contained six eggs, white spotted with rusty red.”

The eggs resemble in their general character those of many of our English Tits, and though, I think, typically slightly longer, they appear to me to be very close to those of Parus palustris.  In shape they are a broad oval, but somewhat elongated and pointed towards the small end.  The ground-colour is pinkish white, and round the large end there is a conspicuous, though irregular and imperfect, zone of red blotches, spots, and streaks.  Spots and specks of the same colour, or occasionally of a pale purple, are scantily sprinkled over the rest of the surface of the egg, and are most numerous in the neighbourhood of the zone.  The eggs have a faint gloss.  Some eggs do not exhibit the zone above referred to, but even in these the markings are much more numerous and dense towards the large end.

In length the eggs vary from 0.65 to 0.78, and in breadth from 0.5 to 0.58; but the average of thirty-eight is 0.71 by 0.54, so that they are really, as indeed they look as a body, a shade shorter and decidedly broader than those of P. monticola.

34.  Parus monticola, Vig. The Green-backed Tit.

Parus monticolus, Vig., Jerd.  B. Ind. ii, p. 277; Hume, Rough Draft
N. & E. no. 644.

The Green-backed Tit breeds through the Himalayas, at elevations of from 4000 to 7000 or 8000 feet.

The breeding-season lasts from March to June, and some birds at any rate must have two broods, since I found three fresh eggs in the wall of the Pownda dak bungalow about the 20th June.  More eggs are, however, to be got in April than in any other month.