The Eastern Rock-Nuthatch is abundant in Baluchistan, and without
doubt breeds there. The following note by Lieut. H.E. Barnes will
therefore be interesting. He writes from Afghanistan:--"This Nuthatch
is very common on the hills. It appears to choose very different
localities to build in. In some instances a hole in the face of a
rock is selected, and this it lines with agglutinated mud and resin,
continuing the lining-case until it, projects in the shape of a cone
to fully 8 inches. It seems fond of decorating its little palace
with feathers to a distance of 2 or even 3 feet, and it is thus a
conspicuous object; but most nests are found in holes in trees, and
even here feathers are stuck into crevices all around. They are
usually well lined with camel-hair.
"They breed in March and April. The eggs are usually four in number (I
have sometimes found five), oval in shape, more or less glossy white,
and more or less densely or sparsely (generally most densely towards
the large end) spotted and blotched with varying shades of chestnut
to reddish brown, more or less intermingled with pale purple and
occasionally purplish grey. Some eggs are very richly marked. Some are
almost pure white. They average 0·87 by 0·57."
The eggs of this species are typically moderately broad ovals,
slightly pointed towards the small end, but elongated and more or less
blunt-ended pyriform examples occur. The shell is extremely fine and
smooth, but has only moderate amount of gloss in any specimen that I
have seen and in some specimens has only a trace of this. The ground
colour is pure white, and the eggs are generally thinly speckled,
spotted, or blotched, about the broad end only, with a pale red;
occasionally a few greyish-purple spots and blotches are intermingled
with the other markings, and specks and tiny spots of both red and
grey sometimes extend to the smaller end of the egg also. I have seen
no such examples myself, but very probably in some eggs the principal
markings may be at the small end. Eighteen eggs vary from 0·81 to 0·91
in length by 0·61 to 0·69 in breadth.]
323. Sitta leucopsis, Gould. _The White-cheeked Nuthatch_.
Sitta leucopsis, _Gould, Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 385; _Hume, Rough Draft
N. & E._ no. 249.
Captain Cock took the eggs of the White-cheeked Nuthatch late in May
and early in June (1871) in Kashmir at Sonamurg.
Captain Wardlaw Ramsay says, writing of Afghanistan:--"I observed it
hanging about a nest-hole on the 21st May, but on returning to take
the eggs some days later was unable to find the tree:" and he adds,
"On the 21st of June I shot a young bird just fledged near the Peiwar
Kotul."