g the birds for some days, when the
eggs had been laid I took the nest, placing my handkerchief in the
nest to prevent bits of mud falling in on the eggs. I opened out the
cavity, cleaning away the mud, and putting in my hand I caught the
female bird. I looked at her and let her go. In 1874 curiosity induced
me to look at the place again, and to my surprise I saw the cavity had
been built up again. I caught a bird on the nest and took four eggs;
it may have been a different bird, but there was only one pair in that
tope of trees, and was probably the same bird I caught in 1873. I
found another nest in my garden about 2 feet from the ground, and I
often used to flash the sunlight from a small hand-mirror, that I use
out birds' nesting, onto the hen bird while she sat on her eggs. Our
collection contains a large series of these eggs, the produce of some
five-and-twenty nests taken by myself at Sitapur."

Major C.T. Bingham writes:--"At Allahabad I found two nests of this
little Nuthatch, one in July and one in September. I regret to say
neither contained any eggs, though the birds were going in and out
constantly. The nests were in tiny holes in mango-trees, the entrances
being still more contracted by earth being plastered round."

Colonel C.H.T. Marshall observes:--"A nest of the Chestnut-bellied
Nuthatch was pointed out to me at Umballa in the next garden to mine.
It was about 12 feet above the ground in an old mango-tree; the
locality chosen was the stump of a branch which had been cut off and
had rotted down. Outside there was a great deal of masonry work as
hard and firm as that on white-ant hills, in the middle of which was a
neat circular hole just large enough for the passage of the bird. The
masonry continued down inside the hole as far as I could see; I did
not break it open, as there were nearly fledged young ones inside.
I knew this because the parent birds had been seen for some days
carrying in food. I did not see the nest till the end of May. The
following spring I found another nest at Kurnal in a bokain tree;
it was constructed after the same fashion; the nest itself, which
consisted only of dead leaves, was not very far down. I was
unfortunately this time (March 15th) too early for the eggs. The
holes are not easy to see from the ground, as they are most skilfully
concealed from view."

The eggs of this species are very regular, slightly elongated ovals,
scarcely compressed or pointed towards the sma