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 begin