Both nest in holes in trees and lay white eggs after the manner of their kind.  The scops owl breeds from January till April, while February and March are the months in which to look for the eggs of the wood-owl.

In the western districts of the United Provinces the Indian cliff-swallows (Hirundo fluvicola) are beginning to construct their curious nests.  Here and there a pair of blue rock-pigeons (Colombia intermedia) is busy with eggs or young ones.  In the Punjab the ravens are likewise employed.

The nesting season of the hoopoe has now fairly commenced.  Courtship is the order of the day.  The display of this beautiful species is not at all elaborate.  The bird that “shows off” merely runs along the ground with corona fully expanded.  Mating hoopoes, however, perform strange antics in the air; they twist and turn and double, just as a flycatcher does when chasing a fleet insect.  Both the hoopoe and the roller are veritable aerial acrobats.  By the end of the month all but a few of the hoopoes have begun to nest; most of them have eggs, while the early birds, described in January as stealing a march on their brethren, are feeding their offspring.  The 6th February is the earliest date on which the writer has observed a hoopoe carrying food to the nest; that was at Ghazipur.

March and April are the months in which the majority of coppersmiths or crimson-breasted barbets rear up their families.  Some, however, are already working at their nests.  The eggs are hatched in a cavity in a tree—­a cavity made by means of the bird’s bill.  Both sexes take part in nest construction.  A neatly-cut circular hole, about the size of a rupee, on the lower surface or the side of a branch is assuredly the entrance to the nest of a coppersmith, a green barbet, or a woodpecker.

As the month draws to its close many a pair of nuthatches (Sitta castaneiventris) may be observed seeking for a hollow in which to nestle.  The site selected is usually a small hole in the trunk of a mango tree that has weathered many monsoons.  The birds reduce the orifice of the cavity to a very small size by plastering up the greater part of it with mud.  Hence the nest of the nuthatch, unless discovered when in course of construction, is difficult to locate.

All the cock sunbirds (Arachnechthra asiatica) are now in the full glory of their nuptial plumage.  Here and there an energetic little hen is busily constructing her wonderful pendent nest.  Great is the variety of building material used by the sunbird.  Fibres, slender roots, pliable stems, pieces of decayed wood, lichen, thorns and even paper, cotton and rags, are pressed into service.  All are held together by cobweb, which is the favourite cement of bird masons.  The general shape of the nest is that of a pear.  Its contour is often irregular, because some of the materials hang loosely from the outer surface.