nest.

I have had eggs and nest sent me, and I know it breeds throughout the
Western Himalayas, at elevations of from 4000 to 7000 feet; and that
it lays during April and May (and probably other months), making a
soft pad-like nest, composed of hair and fur, in boles in trees and
walls; but I can give no further particulars.

Captain Hutton tells us that it is "common in the hills throughout
the year. It breeds in April, in which month a nest containing
four fledged young ones was found at 5000 feet elevation; it was
constructed of moss, hair, and feathers, and placed at the bottom of a
deep hole in a stump at the foot of an oak tree."

Writing from Dhurmsala, Captain Cock says:--"Towards the end of April
this bird made its nest in a hole of a tree just below the terrace
of my house. Before the nest was quite finished a pair of _Passer
cinnamomeus_ bullied the old birds out of the place, which they
deserted. After they had left it I cut the nest out and found it
nearly ready to lay in, lined with soft goat-hair and that same dark
fur noticed in the nest of _Parus monticola_."

Later he wrote to me that this species "breeds up at Dhurmsala in
April and May. It chooses an old cleft or natural cavity in a tree,
usually the hill-oak, and makes a nest of wool and fur at the bottom
of the cavity, upon which it lays five eggs much like the eggs of
_Parus monticola_. Perhaps the blotches are a little larger, otherwise
I can see no difference. I noticed on one occasion the male bird carry
wool to the nest, which, when I cut it out the same day, I found
contained hard-set eggs. I used to nail a sheepskin up in a hill-oak,