They build in holes, in trees, bamboos, walls, and even banks, but walls receive, I think, the preference.

The nests are loose dense masses of soft downy fur or feathers, with more or less moss, according to the situation.

The eggs vary from six to eight, and I have repeatedly found seven and eight young ones; but Captain Beavan has found only five of these latter, and although I consider from six to eight the normal complement, I believe they very often fail to complete the full number.

Captain Beavan says:—­“At Simla, on May 4th, 1866, I found a nest of this species in the wall of one of my servant’s houses.  It contained five young ones, and was composed of fine grey pushm or wool resting on an understructure of moss.”

At Murree Colonel C.H.T.  Marshall notes that this species “breeds early in May in holes in walls and trees, laying white eggs covered with red spots.”

Speaking of a nest he took at Dhurmsala, Captain Cock says:—­

“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.