Sitta himalayensis, _J. & S., Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 385; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 248.
According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and drawings this species begins to
lay in April, constructing a shallow saucer-like nest of moss lined
with moss-roots, in holes of trees at no great elevation from the
ground. One such nest, the measurements of which are recorded, was
3.25 inches in diameter and 2 in height externally; the cavity was
2·25 inches in diameter and 1·25 inch in depth. They lay three or four
pure white eggs slightly speckled with red, which measure about 0·72
inch in length by 0·55 inch in width. They breed once a year, and both
sexes assist in incubating the eggs and rearing the young.
Mr. R. Thompson says:--"In Kumaon the White-tailed Nuthatch breeds in
May and June, laying five or six eggs, in holes in trees, especially
in oaks."
Colonel G.F.L. Marshall writes:--"This bird is an early breeder in
Naini Tal; a nest found on the 25th April contained half-fledged
young. It was in a natural hollow of a tree about 10 feet from the
ground in a thick trunk; the hole was closed up with a kind of stiff
gummy substance, leaving only a circular entrance about an inch in
diameter, just as I have seen in nests of _Sitta europaea_. The
old birds were busily engaged in feeding the young. Another nest
containing young was found on the 28th April in an oak tree at about
7000 feet elevation; both birds were feeding the young, and the nest
was similar to the last except that in this case it was so low down in
the trunk that, sitting on the ground, I could put my ear against
the hole. From a third nest, found on the 2nd May, the young
had apparently just fled. My experience bears out Mr. Hodgson's
observations: I have often been up here in May and June searching
closely and never found a nest; this year I came up for the first time
in April, and within a few days find three nests with young. I may add
that after the 10th May all the Nuthatches I have seen were in small
parties, apparently parents with their young."
316. Sitta cinnamomeiventris, Blyth. _The Cinnamon-bellied
Nuthatch_.
Sitta cinnamomeoventris, _Bl., Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 387.
Writing from Sikhim, Mr. Gammie says:--"I lately took the nest of
_Sitta cinnamomeiventris_ at 2000 feet. It was 20 feet from the ground
in a soft decaying bamboo on the edge of large jungle. The birds had
made a small hole just below an internode, and from the next internode
below had filled up the hollow of the bamboo with alternate layers of
green moss and pieces of tree-bark of about an inch or more square to
within a few inches of the entrance-hole. Each layer of moss was about
an inch thick, but the bark layer not more than a quarter of an inch,
the thickness of the bark itself. On the top of this pile, which was a
foot high, was a pad three inches wide by two in depth, of fine moss,
fur, a feather or two, and a few insects' wings intermixed, for the
eggs to rest on. The fur looks like that of a rat. There were four
hard-set eggs, which, unfortunately, got broken in the taking. One
of them only was measurable, and it was 0·65 inch by 0·5. I send the
shell-fragments to show the coloration."