Machlolophus xanthogenys (_Vig._) _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 279; _Hume,
Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 647.
The Yellow-cheeked Tit is one of the commonest birds in the
neighbourhood of Simla, yet curiously enough I have never found a
nest.
I have had eggs and nest sent me, and I know it breeds throughout the
Western Himalayas, at elevations of from 4000 to 7000 feet; and that
it lays during April and May (and probably other months), making a
soft pad-like nest, composed of hair and fur, in boles in trees and
walls; but I can give no further particulars.
Captain Hutton tells us that it is "common in the hills throughout
the year. It breeds in April, in which month a nest containing
four fledged young ones was found at 5000 feet elevation; it was
constructed of moss, hair, and feathers, and placed at the bottom of a
deep hole in a stump at the foot of an oak tree."
Writing from Dhurmsala, Captain Cock says:--"Towards the end of April
this bird made its nest in a hole of a tree just below the terrace
of my house. Before the nest was quite finished a pair of _Passer
cinnamomeus_ bullied the old birds out of the place, which they
deserted. After they had left it I cut the nest out and found it
nearly ready to lay in, lined with soft goat-hair and that same dark
fur noticed in the nest of _Parus monticola_."
Later he wrote to me that this species "breeds up at Dhurmsala in
April and May. It chooses an old cleft or natural cavity in a tree,
usually the hill-oak, and makes a nest of wool and fur at the bottom
of the cavity, upon which it lays five eggs much like the eggs of
_Parus monticola_. Perhaps the blotches are a little larger, otherwise
I can see no difference. I noticed on one occasion the male bird carry
wool to the nest, which, when I cut it out the same day, I found
contained hard-set eggs. I used to nail a sheepskin up in a hill-oak,
and watch it with glasses, during April and May, and many a nest have
I found by its help. _Parus atriceps, P. monticola, Machlolophus
xanthogenys, Abrornis albisuperciliaris_, and many others used to
visit it and pull off flocks of wool for their nests. Following up a
little bird with wool in its bill through jungle requires sharp eyes
and is no easy matter at first, but one soon becomes practised at it."
The eggs are regular, somewhat elongated ovals, in some cases slightly
compressed towards one end. The ground is white or reddish white, and
they are thickly speckled, spotted, and even blotched with brick-dust
red; they have little or no gloss.
They vary in length from 0·7 to 0·78, and in breadth from 0·52 to
0·55; but I have only measured six eggs.