"There were three eggs in the nest, similar to those in the first
nest. Both parent birds were obtained. The first nest measured 5
inches long by 4·5 wide, the egg-cavity 3·8 deep by 2·75 wide at the
entrance. The other was about half an inch smaller each way.
"The measurements of the six eggs varied from 0·76 to 0·81 in length
by 0·56 to 0·6 in width, but the average was 0·78 by 0·59."
The eggs are rather narrow ovals, as a rule, occasionally much pointed
towards one end. The shell is very fine and has a faint gloss. The
ground-colour is white. The markings, which are difficult to describe,
consist first of spots, specks, and hair-line scratches, dark brown,
almost black occasionally, and a great amount of irregular clouding,
streaking, and smudging of a pale dirty-brown, slightly reddish in
some eggs. Besides this, about the large end there is an indistinct
irregular zone of faint inky purple spots and small blotches, and a
few spots of this same colour may be observed on other parts of the
egg.
182. Sittiparus castaneiceps (Hodgs.). _The Chestnut-headed
Tit-Babbler_.
Minla castaneiceps, _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 255; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 619.
Mr. Hodgson's notes inform us that the Chestnut-headed Tit-Babbler
breeds in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling in May and June, laying four
eggs, which are figured as somewhat elongated ovals, having a very
pale greenish-yellow or dingy yellowish-white ground finely speckled,
chiefly at the large end, where there is a tendency to form a zone,
with red or brownish red, and measuring 0·75 by 0·52. The nest is said
to be placed in a thick bush, at a height of about 3 feet from the
ground, in a double fork; to be very broad and shallow, composed of
twigs, grass, and moss, and lined with leaves. One, taken on the 18th
May, 1846, measured 6 inches in diameter and 2·5 in height externally;
the cavity was only 2·1 in diameter and 1 in depth.
From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"A nest of this bird, with one fresh
egg and female, was brought to me in May. The man said he found the
nest in the Rungbee forest, at 6000 feet, among the moss growing on
the trunk of a large tree, a few feet from the ground. It was a solid
cup, made of green moss, with an inner layer of fine dark-coloured
roots, and lined with grassy fibres. Externally it measured 4 inches
in width by the same in depth; internally 1·5 wide by 1·25 deep."
Three eggs sent by Mr. Gammie measure 0·7 to 0·75 in length and 0·55
to 0·59 in breadth.
Mr. Davison says:--"On the 20th of February, when encamped just under
the summit of Muleyit, on its N.W. slope, I found a nest of this bird
containing three eggs, but so hard-set that it was only with the
greatest difficulty that I managed to preserve them.
"The nest, a deep cup, was placed about 5 feet from the ground, in
a mass of creepers growing up a sapling. It (the nest) was composed
externally of green moss and lined with fibres and dry bamboo-leaves.