“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.”