Sila casianea Lesson.
Size: Slightly smaller than the Sparrow.
Field Characters: A small bird slaty-blue above, deep
chestnut below. The underparts of the female are paler. Short
square tail (not used in climbing as by the woodpeckers) ; loug
heavy pointed bill, It scuttles jerkily up, sideways or down
and around the trunk and branches of a tree, or clings to and
runs along the undersurface of a bough with surprising agility.
Distribution: A resident species thronghout India, Burma
and Assam (not Ceylon) though often patchy. Four races are
here recognised on differences in size of wing and bill, and
colouration--chiefly of the underparts.
Habits: The Chestnut-bellied Nuthatch is not a bird of deep
forest though it likes wooded tracts. Et is partial to mango
groves on the outskirts of villages. ‘There is in the Nuthatch
something of the tit and something of the woodpecker. Like
the tit it scours the trunk and branches of trees for its food ;
like the woodpecker it climbs and taps away on the hark to
dislodge insect prey, Ona casual glimpse it is possible to mistake
it for a tree-mouse. Indeed the manner in which it runs up
and down a tree, slips behind a trunk or branch or clings to
it upside down is strongly reminiscent of the antics of that
todent. It utters feeble mousy squeaks and alsa has aw quick-
repeated double note: Chilp-chilp. Unless paired off for breed-
ing, these nuthatehes may be seen in sinall parties usually in
the mixed company of woodpeckers, tits, warblers, ilycatchers
and other insectivorous birds working the tree-trunks and
branches with industry and thoroughness in search of spiders,
grubs and insects lurking on the bark anc in its holes and crevices.
They also eat the kernel of various nuts and hartd-shelled seeds
of forest trees. These arc wedged firmly into some crevice
and pierced or hacked open by Tepeated blows of their strong,
pointed bills.
Nesting : ‘The season over most of its range is between February
and May. ‘The eggs are laid in natural holes and hollows in
tree-trnnks on a lining of leaves, moss, wool, feathers or merely
chips of bark. The hollow is walled up with a plaster of mud,
leaving a small neat round entranee hole. Two to six eggs are
laid, white in ground colour, speckle with red. Sometimes
two broods are raised in succession.
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