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.

43. Machlolophus haplonotus (Bl.). _The Southern Yellow Tit_.

_Machlolophus jerdoni (Bl.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 280.

Col. E.A. Butler writes:--"Belgaum, 12th Sept., 1879.--Found a nest of
the Southern Yellow Tit in a hole of a small tree about 10 feet from
the ground. My attention was first attracted to it by seeing the
hen-bird with her wings spread and feathers erect angrily mobbing a
palm-squirrel that had incautiously ascended the tree, and thinking
there must be a nest close by, I watched the sequel, and in a few
seconds the squirrel descended the tree and the Tit disappeared in a
small hole about halfway up. I then put a net over the hole and tapped
the bough to drive her out, but this was no easy matter, for although
the nest was only about 3/4 foot from the entrance, and I made as much
noise as a thick stick could well make against a hollow bough, nothing
would induce her to leave the nest until I had cut a large wedge out
of the branch, with a saw and chisel, close to the nest, when she flew
out into the net.

"The nest, which contained, to my great disappointment, five young
birds about a week old, was very massively built, and completely
choked up the hollow passage in which it was placed. The foundation
consisted of a quantity of dry green moss, of the kind that natives
bring in from the jungles in the rains, and sell for ornamenting
flower vases, &c. Next came a thick layer of coir, mixed with a few
dry skeleton-leaves and some short ends of old rope and a scrap or two
of paper, and finally a substantial pad of blackish hair, principally
human, but with cow- and horse-hair intermixed, forming a snug little
bed for the young ones. The total depth of the nest exteriorly was at
least 7 inches.

"The bough, about 8 inches in diameter, was partly rotten and hollow
the whole way down, having a small hole at the side above by which the
birds entered, and another rather larger about a foot below the nest
all choked up with moss that had fallen from the base of the nest. It
is strange that it should have escaped my eye previously, as the tree
overhung my gateway, through which I passed constantly during the day.
Immediately below the nest a large black board bearing my name was
nailed to the tree.

"At Belgaum, on the 10th July, 1880, I observed a pair of Yellow Tits
building in a crevice of a lar