chestnut; no zone or cap, but in some eggs more freely marked at one
end (either small or large end) than the other, some of the markings
almost amounting to blotches and the spots as a rule rather large."

Messrs. Davidson and Wenden remark of this bird in the
Deccan:--"Specimens of this Tit were procured at Lanoli in August and
at Egutpoora in March. They certainly breed at these places, as in
September, at the latter place, W. observed two parent birds with four
young ones capable of flying out very short distances."

And Mr. Davidson further states that it is "common throughout the
district of Western Kandeish. I saw a pair building in the hole of a
large mango tree at Malpur in Pimpalnir in the end of May."


44. Lophophanes melanolophus (Vig.). _The Crested Black Tit_.

Lophophanes melanolophus (_Vig._) _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 273: _Hume,
Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 638.

The Crested Black Tit breeds throughout the Lower Himalayas west of
Nepal, at elevations of from 6000 to 8000 feet.

The breeding-season lasts from March to June, but the majority have
laid, I think, for the first hatch by the end of the first week in
April, unless the season has been a very backward one. They usually
rear two broods.

They build, so far as I know, always in holes, in trees, rocks, and
walls, preferentially in the latter. Their nests involve generally two