f 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."

The eggs of this species vary somewhat in size. In shape some are
moderately elongated, some are somewhat broad ovals, and all are, more
or less, compressed towards the smaller end, which, however, is obtuse
and not at all pointed. The ground is white and has a slight gloss.
The markings consist of small spots and minute specks, some eggs
exhibiting only the latter. In all cases the markings are most dense
towards the large end, where they generally form an irregular and
ill-defined mottled cap or zone. In colour the markings are red and
pale purple, the red varying from bright brickdust-red to brownish and
even purplish red, and the purple being sometimes lilac and sometimes
grey, and here and there in a single speck, almost black. In length
the eggs vary from 0.67 to 0.75 inch, and in breadth from 0.5 to 0.55
inch.

323. Sitta frontalis,, Horsf. _The Velvet-fronted Blue Nuthatch_.

Dendrophila frontalis (_Horsf._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ p. 388; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 253.

The Velvet-fronted Nuthatch, lays from the middle of F