on. However, close
inspection, whether by the anatomist or the naturalist, reveals the
mark of the corvidae in the tits. First, there is the habit of holding
food under the foot while it is being devoured. Then there is the
aggressiveness of the tits. This is Lloyd-Georgian or even Winstonian
in its magnitude. "Tits," writes Jerdon, "are excessively bold and
even ferocious, the larger ones occasionally destroying young and
sickly birds, both in a wild state and in confinement."

Many species of tit dwell in the Himalayas. To describe them all would
bewilder the reader; I will, therefore, content myself with brief
descriptions of four species, each of which is to be seen daily in
every hill station of the Western Himalayas.

The green-backed tit (_Parus monticola_) is a glorified edition of
our English great tit. It is a bird considerably smaller than a
sparrow.

The cheeks are white, the rest of the head is black, as are the breast
and a characteristic line running along the abdomen. The back is
greenish yellow, the lower parts are deep yellow. The wings are black
with two white bars, the tail is black tipped with white. This is
one of the commonest birds in most hill stations.

Like the sparrow, it is ever ready to rear up its brood in a hole
in the wall of a house. Any kind of a hole will do, provided the aperture
is too small to admit of the entrance of birds larger than itself.

The nesting operations of a pair of green-backed tits form the subject
of a separate essay.

Another tit much in evidence is the yellow-cheeked tit, _Machlolophus
xanthogenys_. I apologise for its scientific name. Take a
green-backed tit, paint its cheeks bright yellow, and give it a black
crest tipped with yellow, and you will have transformed him into a
yellow-cheeked tit.

There remain to be described two pigmy tits. The first of these is
that feathered exquisite, the red-headed tit (_AEgithaliscus
erythrocephalus_). I will not again apologise for the name; it must
suffice that the average ornithologist is never happy unless he be
either saddling a small bird with a big name or altering the
denomination of some unfortunate fowl. This fussy little mite is not
so long as a man's thumb. It is crestless; the spot where the crest
ought to be is chestnut red. The remainder of the upper plumage is
bluish grey, while the lower plumage is the colour of rust. The black
face is set off by a white eyebrow. Last, but not least, of our common