Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 1).djvu/161

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 * Sitta cinnamoventris Blyth, J. A. S. 11, xi, p. 439 (1842) (Darjeeling).
 * Sitta cinnamomeoventris. Blanf. & Oates, i, p. 301.

Vernacular names. Siri (Hind.); Sidhyi-phip (Lepcha); Dao-mojo-gajao (Cachari).

Description.—Adult male. Like the last but the white parts of the face are delicately barred with brown; the upper plumage is more an ashy-blue, the under parts are a deep cinnamon-chestnut and the under tail-coverts are white with ashy bases and narrow chestnut tips.

Female. Differs from the male in beiug a pale dull chestnut below.

Colours of soft parts. Iris red-brown to lake; bill slaty-blue, black at the tip and paler on base and lower mandible; legs aud feet dull blue-grey or bluish plumbeous.

Measurements. Total length about 150 mm.; wing 78 to 81 mm.; tail about 45 mm.; tarsus about 18 mm.; culmen about 20 mm.

Distribution. The Himalayas from Murree to Eastern Assam, both North and South of the Brahmaputra, Manipur, Lushai and Chittagong hill-tracts, but not further East. Oates's specimens from Bhamo are much nearer neglecta and should be assigned to that bird.

Nidification. Gammie obtained the nest in Sikkim at 2,000 feet in a decayed bamboo, and I found many nests in the Khasia Hills in April and May at elevations between 4,500 and 6,000 feet. In these hills, although a nest might now and then be found in some old stump, the great majority are built in the retaining walls of roads or in walls of fields and compounds. These walls are built of mud and stones and form favourite breeding places for Tits, Nuthatches, Flycatchers and many other birds. The Nuthatches select some hollow, generally only a few inches from the ground, and then fill the whole entrance in with mud, leaving only a circular hole about 40 mm. across. The hollow inside, however big it may be, is filled to a depth of some inches with scraps of dead wood, bark and odds and ends of vegetable matter, over which is placed a bed of moss and then a fine thick layer of fur, or fur and wool. They are very persistent