223. Yuhina gularis, Hodgs. _The Stripe-throated Yuhina_.
Yuhina gularis, _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 261; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 626.
The Stripe-throated Yuhina breeds, according to Mr. Hodgson’s notes, from April to July, building a large massive nest of moss, lined with moss-roots, and wedged into a fork of a branch or between ledges of rocks, more or less globular in shape, and with a circular aperture near the top towards one side. A nest taken on the 19th June, near Darjeeling, was quite egg-shaped, the long diameter being perpendicular to the ground, and measured 6 inches in height and 4 inches in breadth, the aperture, 2 inches in diameter, being well above the middle of the nest; the cavity was lined with fine moss-roots. The eggs are figured as rather elongated ovals, 0.8 by 0.56, with a pale buffy or _cafe au lait_ ground-colour, thickly spotted with red or brownish red, the markings forming a confluent zone about the large end.
225. Yuhina nigrimentum (Hodgs.). _The Black-chinned Yuhina_.
Yuhina nigrimentum (_Hodgs.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 262; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 628.
A nest of the Black-chinned Yuhina, taken by Mr. Gammie on the 17th June below Rungbee, at an elevation of about 3500 feet, was placed in a large tree, at a height of about 10 feet from the ground, and contained four hard-set eggs. It is a mere pad, below of moss, mingled with a little wool and moss-roots, and above, that is to say the surface where the eggs repose, of excessively fine grass-roots.
Dr. Jerdon says:–“A nest was once brought me which was declared to belong to this species; it was a very small neat fabric, of ordinary shape, made with moss and grass, and contained three small pure white eggs. The rarity of the bird makes me doubt if the nest really belonged to it.”
The eggs are tiny little elongated ovals, pure white, and absolutely glossless.
Two sent me by Mr. Gammie measure 0.58 by 0.42 and 0.57 by 0.43.
226. Zosterops palpebrosa (Temm.). _The Indian White-eye_.
Zosterops palpebrosus (_Temm.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 265; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 631.
The Indian White-eye, or White-eyed Tit as Jerdon terms it, breeds almost throughout the Indian Empire, sparingly in the hotter and more arid plains, abundantly in the Nilghiris and other ranges of the Peninsula to their very summits, and in the Himalayas to an elevation of 5000 or 6000 feet.
The breeding-season extends in different localities from January to September, but I think that everywhere April is the month in which most eggs are to be met with.
Sometimes they have two broods; whether this is always the case I do not know.
The nest is placed almost indifferently at any elevation. I have taken one from amongst the topmost twigs of a huge mohwa tree (_Bassia latifolia_) fully 60 feet high, and I have found them in a tiny bush not a foot off the soil. Still I think that perhaps the majority build at low elevations, say between 2 and 6 feet from the ground.
The nest is always a soft, delicate little cup, sometimes very shallow, sometimes very deep, as a rule suspended between two twigs like a miniature Oriole’s nest, but on rare occasions propped in a fork. The nest varies much in size and in the materials with which it is composed.
Pine grass and roots, tow, and a variety of vegetable fibres, thread, floss silk, and cobwebs are all made use of to bind the little nest together and attach it to the twigs whence it depends. Grass again, moss, vegetable fibre, seed-down, silk, cotton, lichen, roots and the like are used in the body of the nest, which is lined with silky down, hair, moss, and fern-roots, or even silk, while at times tiny silvery cocoons or scraps of rich-coloured lichen are affixed as ornaments to the exterior.
One nest before me is a very perfect and deep cup, hung between two twigs of a mohwa tree and almost entirely hidden by the surrounding leaves. The exterior diameter of the nest is 21/2 inches, and the depth 2 inches. The egg-cavity measures scarcely more than 11/2 inch across and very nearly as much in depth. It is composed of very fine grass-stems and is thinly coated exteriorly with cobwebs, by which also it is firmly secured to the suspending twigs, and externally numerous small cocoons and sundry pieces of vegetable down are plastered on to the nest. Another nest, hung between two slender twigs of a mango tree, is a shallow cup some 21/2 inches in diameter, and not above an inch in depth externally. The egg-cavity measures at most 11/2 inch across by three-fourths of an inch in depth. The nest is composed of fine tow-like vegetable fibres and thread, by which it is attached to the twigs, a little grass-down being blended in the mass, and the cavity being very sparsely lined with very fine grass-stems. In another nest, somewhat larger than, the last described, the nest is made of moss slightly tacked together with cobwebs and lined with fine grass-fibres. Another nest, a very regular shallow cup, with an egg-cavity 2 inches in diameter and an inch in depth, is composed almost entirely of the soft silky down of the _Calatropis gigantea_, rather thickly lined with very fine hair-like grass, and very thinly-coated exteriorly with a little of this same grass, moss, and thread. Another, with a similar-sized cavity, but nearly three-fourths of an inch thick everywhere, is externally a mass of moss, moss-roots, and very fine lichen, and is lined entirely with very soft and brilliantly white satin-like vegetable down. Another, with about the same-sized cavity, but the walls of which are scarcely one-fourth of an inch in thickness, is composed _entirely_ of this satiny down, thinly coated exteriorly and interiorly with excessively fine moss-roots (roots so fine that most of them are much thinner than human hair); a few black horsehairs, which look coarse and thick beside the other materials of the nest, are twisted round and round in the interior of the egg-cavity. Other nests might be made entirely of tow, so far as their appearance goes; and in fact with a very large series before me, no two seem, to be constructed of the same materials.
I have nests before me now, taken in September, March, June, and August, all of which when found contained eggs.
Two is certainly the normal number of the eggs; about one fifth of the nests I have seen contained three, and once only I found four.
From Murree Colonel C.H.T. Marshall informs us that he took the eggs in June at an elevation of about 6000 feet.
Colonel G.F.L. Marshall says:–“I have taken eggs of this species at Cawnpore in the middle of June. I found six nests, five of which were in neem-trees. I also found the nest in Naini Tal at 7000 feet above the sea, with young in the middle of June; one only of all the nests I have seen was lined, and that was lined with feathers: they were, as a rule, about eight feet from the ground, but one was nearly forty feet up.”
Capt. Hutton gives a very full account of the nidification of this species. He says:–“These beautiful little birds are exceedingly common at Mussoorie, at an elevation of about 5000 feet, during summer, but I never saw them much higher. They arrive from the plains about the middle of April, on the 17th of which month I saw a pair commence building in a thick bush of _Hibiscus_, and on the 27th of the same month the nest contained three small eggs hard-set. I subsequently took a second from a similar bush, and several from the drooping branches of oak-trees, to the twigs of which they were fastened. It is not placed on a branch, but is suspended between two thin twigs, to which it is fastened by floss silk torn from the cocoons of _Bombyx Huttoni_, Westw., and by a few slender fibres of the bark of trees or hair according to circumstances.
“So slight and so fragile is the little oval cup that it is astonishing the mere weight of the parent bird does not bring it to the ground, and yet within it three young ones will often safely outride a gale that will bring the weightier nests of Jays and Thrushes to the ground.
“Of seven nests now before me four are composed externally of little bits of green moss, cotton, and seed-down, and the silk of the wild mulberry-moth torn from the cocoons, with which last material, however, the others appear to be bound together within. The lining of two is of the long hairs of the yak’s tail, two of which died on the estate where these nests were found, and a third is lined with black human hair. The other three are formed of somewhat different materials, two being externally composed of fine grass-stalks, seed-down, and shreds of bark so fine as to resemble tow; one is lined with seed-down and black fibrous lichens resembling hair, a second is lined with fine grass, and a third with a thick coating of pure white silky seed-down. In all the seven, the materials of the two sides are wound round the twigs, between which they are suspended like a cradle, and the shape is an ovate cup, about the size of half a hen’s egg split longitudinally. The diameter and depth are respectively 2 inches and 11/2 inch by three-fourths of an inch. The eggs are usually three in number.”
Mr. Brooks, writing from Almorah, says:–“This morning, 28th April, I found a nest of _Zosterops palpebrosa_ containing two fresh eggs. Yesterday I found one of the same bird containing three half-fledged young ones. Near the Tonse River, in the Allahabad District, I found these birds in July nesting high in a mango-tree, the nest suspended like an Oriole’s to several leaves; now I find it in low bushes, at heights of from 3 to 5 feet from the ground. The eggs, as before, skim-milk blue, without markings of any kind.”
From Gurhwal Mr. R. Thompson says:–“A small cup-shaped elegant nest is built by this bird suspended by fastenings from the fork of a low branch. The nest is about 21/2 inches in diameter and three-fourths of an inch in depth, composed of cobwebs, fine roots, hairs, &c., neatly interwoven and lined internally with vegetable down. The eggs, two, three, or four in number, are of a pale whitish-blue, oval, and somewhat larger than those of _Arachnechthra asiatica_. The birds select all kinds of trees, but the nest is always suspended. The breeding-season is about March and April, and the brood is quickly hatched and fledged.
“A nest found by me on the 22nd April, and containing four eggs, was built most ingeniously in a creeper that hung from a small tree. The birds had arranged it so that the long down-bearing tendril of the creeper blended with the nest, which in the main was composed of the material surrounding it.
“Another nest found on the 26th contained three young ones. It was built in a low branch of a large mango-tree, and might have been 12 feet from the ground. It was a neat compact structure, deeply hollow, and made up of cobwebs, fine straw, and hair, and lined with vegetable down, closely and neatly interwoven.
“The parent birds were evidently feeding the young on the ripe fruit of the _Khoda_ or _Chumroor_ (_Ehretia laevis_). I got one fruit from the old birds, being anxious to know what the young ones were getting for their dinner.
“The pairing-season commences about the end of March, when the males may be heard uttering a feeble kind of rambling song, which in reality is merely modified repetitions of a single note.”
Mr. A. Anderson remarked that “the White-eye breeds throughout the North-Western Provinces and Oudh during the months of June, July, and August. The nest is a beautiful little model of the Oriole’s; and according to my experience it is invariably _suspended_, and _not fixed in the fork of small branches_ as stated by Jerdon. I have on several occasions watched a pair in the act of building their nest. They set to work with cobwebs, and having first tied together two or three leafy twigs to which they intend to attach their nest, they then use fine fibre of the _sun_ (_Crotalaria juncea_), with which material they complete the outer fabric of their very beautiful and compact nest. As the work progresses more cobwebs and fibre of a silky kind are applied externally, and at times the nest, when tossed about by the wind (sometimes at a considerable elevation), would be mistaken by a casual observer for an accidental collection of cobwebs. The inside of the nest is well felted with the down of the madar plant, and then it is finally lined with fine hair and grass-stems of the softest kind. Sometimes the nest is suspended from only two twigs, exactly after the fashion of the Mango-birds (_Oriolus kundoo_); and in this case it is attached by means of silk-like fibres and fine fibre of _sun_ for about 11/2 inch on each side; at others it is suspended from several twigs; and occasionally I have seen the leaves fixed on to the sides of the nest, thus making it extremely difficult of detection.
“In shape the nest is a perfect hollow hemisphere; one now before me measures (inside) 1.5 in diameter. The wall is about 0.3 in thickness.
“Almost all my nests have been built on the neem tree, the long slender _petioles_ of which are admirably adapted for its suspension.
“As a rule the nest is built at a considerable height, and owing to its situation there is not a more difficult nest to take. Great numbers get washed down in a half-finished state in a heavy fall of rain.
“The eggs are, exactly as Jerdon describes them, of a pale blue, ‘almost like skimmed milk,’ and the usual number is three, though four are frequently laid.”
“On the 7th September,” writes Mr. E.M. Adam, “in my garden in Lucknow, I discovered a nest of this bird in course of construction, but when it was nearly finished the birds left it. The nest was a beautiful little cup made of fine grass and cobwebs. It was situated in a slender fork of a mango-tree about 15 feet from the ground.”
Major C.T. Bingham says:–“Common both at Allahabad and at Delhi; breeds in both places in May, June, and July. All nests I have seen have been finely made little cups of fibres, bits of thread and cobwebs, lined interiorly with horsehair, generally suspended between two slender twigs at no great height from the ground.”
Mr. E. Aitken writes:–“I have only actually taken one nest of the White-eye. That was in Poona (2000 feet above the sea) on the 21st July. The bird, however, builds abundantly in Poona about gardens, trees on the roadside, &c.
“This particular nest was fixed to a thin branch of a tamarind-tree on the side of a lane among gardens. It was within reach of my hand, and was attached both to the thin branch itself and to two twigs. It was well sheltered among leaves.
“The nest was a cup rather narrower at the mouth than in the middle. Its external diameter at the top was 21/2 inches; internal diameter 11/2 inch; depth 11/2 inch internally. It was composed of a variety of fibres closely interwoven with some kind of vegetable silk, and was lined principally with horsehair and very fine fibres. It contained three eggs.”
Mr. Davison tells us that “the White-eye breeds on the Nilghiris in February, March, April, and the earlier part of May.
“The nest is a small neat cup-shaped structure suspended between a fork in some small low bush, generally only 2 or 3 feet from the ground, but sometimes high up, about 20 or 30 feet from the ground. It is composed externally of moss and small roots and the down from the thistle; the egg-cavity is invariably sparingly lined with hair. The eggs, two in number, are of a pale blue, like skimmed milk.”
From Kotagherry Miss Cockburn remarks:–“Their nests are, I think, more elegantly finished than those of any of the small birds I have seen up here. They generally select a thick bush, where, when they have chosen a horizontal forked branch, they construct a neat round nest which is left quite open at the top. The materials they commence with are green moss, lichen, and fine grass intertwined. I have even found occasionally a coarse thread, which they had picked up near some Badagar’s village and used in order to fasten the little building to the branches. The inside is carefully lined with the down of seed-pods. White-eyes’ nests are very numerous here in the months of January, February, and March. They are extremely partial to the wild gooseberry bush as a site to build on. One year I found ten out of eleven nests on these bushes, the fruit of which is largely used by the aborigines of the hills. A pair once built on a thick orange-tree in our garden. We often stood quite close to one of them while sitting on the eggs, and it never showed the slightest degree of fear. They lay two eggs of a light blue colour.”
Mr. Wait, writing from Conoor, says that “_Z. palpebrosa_ breeds in April and May, building in bushes and shrubs, and making a deep round cup-shaped nest very neatly woven in the style of the Chaffinch, composed of moss, grass, and silk cotton, and sparsely lined with very fine grass and hair. The eggs are two in number, of a roundish oval shape, and a pale greenish-blue colour.”
Finally Colonel Legge informs us that this species breeds in Ceylon in June, July, and August.
The eggs are somewhat lengthened ovals (occasionally rather broader), and a good deal pointed towards the small end. The shell is very fine but almost glossless; here and there a somewhat more glossy egg is met with. They are normally of a uniform very pale blue or greenish blue, without any markings whatsoever, but once in a way an egg is seen characterized by a cap or zone of a somewhat purer and deeper blue. Abnormally large and small specimens are common. They vary in length from 0.53 to 0.7, and in breadth from 0.42 to 0.58; but the average of thirty-eight eggs is 0.62 by 0.47, and the great majority of the eggs are really about this size.
229. Zosterops ceylonensis, Holdsworth. _The Ceylon White-eye_.
Zosterops ceylonensis, _Holdsw., Hume, cat._ no. 631 bis.
Colonel Legge, referring to the nidification of the Ceylon White-eye, says:–“This species breeds from March until May, judging from the young birds which are seen abroad about the latter month. Mr. Bligh found the nest in March on Catton Estate. It was built in a coffee-bush a few feet from the ground, and was a rather frail structure, suspended from the arms of a small fork formed by one bare twig crossing another. In shape it was a shallow cup, well made of small roots and bents, lined with hair-like tendrils of moss, and was adorned about the exterior with a few cobwebs and a little moss. The eggs were three in number, pointed ovals, and of a pale bluish-green ground-colour. They measured, on the average, .64 by .45 inch.”
231. Ixulus occipitalis (Bl.) _The Chestnut-headed Ixulus_.
Ixulus occipitalis (_Bl.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 250; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 624.
A nest of this species, taken by Mr. Gammie out of a small tree below Rungbee, at an elevation of about 3000 feet, was a small, somewhat shallow cup, composed almost entirely of very fine moss-roots, but with a little moss incorporated in the outer surface. Externally the nest was about 31/2 inches in diameter and 2 inches in height. The egg-cavity was about 21/4 inches by barely 11/4 inch. This nest was found on the 17th June and contained three hard-set eggs, _which_ were thrown away!
232. Ixulus flavicollis (Hodgs.). _The Yellow-naped Ixulus_.
Ixulus flavicollis (_Hodgs._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p. 259; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 623.
I have never taken a nest of the Yellow-naped Ixulus.
Mr. Gammie says:–“I have only as yet found a single nest of this species, and this was one of the most artfully concealed that I have ever seen. I found it in forest in the Chinchona reserves, at an elevation of about 5000 feet, on the 14th May. It was a rather deep cup, composed of moss and fine root-fibres and thickly lined with the latter, and was suspended at a height of about six feet amongst the natural moss, hanging from a horizontal branch of a small tree, in which it was entirely enveloped. A more beautiful or more completely invisible nest it is impossible to conceive. It contained three fresh eggs. The cup itself was exteriorly 3.7 inches in diameter and 1.9 in depth, while the cavity was 2.5 in diameter and 1.5 in depth.”
The Yellow-naped Ixulus breeds, according to Mr. Hodgson’s notes, in the central region of Nepal and the neighbourhood of Darjeeling, laying during the months of May and June. It builds on the ground in tufts of grass, constructing its nest of moss and moss-roots, sometimes open and cup-like and sometimes globular, and lining it with sheep’s wool. Mr. Hodgson figures one nest suspended from a branch, and although neither the English nor the vernacular notes confirm this, it is supported to a certain extent by Mr. Gammie’s experience. At the same time, though the situation and surroundings of both seem to have been similar, Mr. Hodgson figures his nest, not cup-shaped, but egg-shaped, and with the longer diameter horizontal. Seven nests are recorded as having been taken, and all on the ground. One, cup-shaped, taken on the 7th June, 1846, which is also figured, in amongst grass and leaves on the ground, measured externally 3.5 inches in diameter, 2.5 in height, and internally 2 inches both in diameter and depth.
The full complement of eggs is said to be four. Two types of eggs are figured, both rather broad ovals, measuring about 0.75 by 0.6. The one has a buffy-white ground and is thinly speckled and streaked, except quite at the broad end, where the markings are nearly confluent, with pale dingy yellowish brown; the other has a pale earthy-brown ground, and is spotted similarly to the one just described, but with red and purple. This latter egg appears on the same plate with the suspended nest, and is, I think, doubtful.
Several nests of this species, which I owe to Captain Masson of Darjeeling, are very beautiful structures, moderately shallow and rather massive cups, externally composed of moss, and lined thickly with fine black moss-roots. The cavity of the nests may have been about 13/4 inch in diameter by less than 11/2 inch in depth, but the sides of the nests are from one inch to 2 inches in thickness, constructed of firmly compacted moss.
Other nests of this species that have since been sent me show that the bird very commonly suspends its nest to one or two twigs, not unfrequently making it a complete cylinder or egg in shape, with the entrance at one side, but always using moss, in some cases fine, in some coarse, according to the nature of the moss growing where the nest is placed, as the sole material, and lining the cavity thickly with fine black moss and fern-roots.
Dr. Jerdon tells us that at Darjeeling he has repeatedly had the nest brought to him. “It is large, made of leaves of bamboos carelessly and loosely put together, and generally placed in a clump of bamboos. The eggs are three to five in number, of a somewhat fleshy-white, with a few rusty spots.”
I cannot but think that in this case wrong nests had been brought to Dr. Jerdon. The eggs that I possess are all of one type–rather elongated ovals with scarcely any gloss, and strongly recalling in shape, size, and appearance densely marked varieties of the eggs of _Hirundo rustica_, but with the markings rather browner and slightly more smudgy.
The eggs are typically rather elongated ovals, often slightly compressed towards the small end, sometimes rather broader and slightly pyriform. The shell is extremely fine and compact, but has scarcely any gloss; the ground-colour is sometimes pure white, sometimes has a faint brownish-reddish or creamy tinge. The markings are invariably most dense about the large end, where they form a zone or cap, regular, well defined and confluent in some specimens, irregular, ill-defined and blotchy in others. As a rule these markings, which consist of specks, spots, and tiny blotches, are comparatively thinly scattered over the rest of the egg, but occasionally they are pretty thickly scattered everywhere, though nowhere anything like so densely as at the large end. The colour of the markings is rather variable. It is a brown of varying shades, varying not only in different eggs, but there being often two shades on the same egg. Normally it is I think an umber-brown, yellower in some spots, but varying slightly in tinge, leaning to burnt umber, sienna, and raw sienna.
Other eggs subsequently obtained by Mr. Gammie are of much the same character as those already described, but one is a good deal shorter and broader, and the markings are more decided red than are some of the yellowish-brown spots observable in the eggs first obtained.
In length the eggs seem to vary from 0.76 to 0.8, and in breadth from 0.54 to 0.58.
Subfamily LIOTRICHINAE.
235. Liothrix lutea (Scop.). _The Red-billed Liothrix_.
Leiothrix luteus (_Scop._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 250. Leiothrix callipyga (_Hodgs._), _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 614.
The Red-billed Liothrix breeds from April to August; at elevations of from 3000 to 6000 feet, throughout the Himalayas south, as a rule, of the first snowy range and eastward of the Sutlej; west of the Sutlej I have not heard of its occurrence. It also doubtless breeds throughout the hill-ranges running down from Assam to Burmah.
Mostly the birds lay in May, affecting well-watered and jungle-clad valleys and ravines. They place their nests in thick bushes, at heights of from 2 to 8 feet from the ground, and either wedge them into some fork, tack them into three or four upright shoots between which they hang, or else suspend them like an Oriole’s or White-eye’s nest.
The nest varies from a rather shallow to a very deep cup, and is composed of dry leaves, moss, and lichen in varying proportions, bamboo-leaves being great favourites, bound together with slender creepers, grass-roots, fibres, &c., and lined with black horse- or buffalo-hair, or hair-like moss-roots. The nests differ much in appearance: I have seen one composed almost entirely of moss, and another of nothing but dry bamboo-sheaths, with a scrap or two of moss. They are always pretty substantial, but sometimes they are very massive for the size of the bird.
Three is certainly the usual complement of eggs.
According to Mr. Hodgson’s notes, this species breeds in the central mountainous region of Nepal, and lays from April to August. The nest, which is somewhat purse-shaped, is placed in some upright fork between three or four slender branches, to all of which it is more or less attached. It is composed of moss, dry leaves, often of the bamboo, and the bark of trees, and is compactly bound together with moss-roots and fibres of different kinds; it is lined with horse-hair and moss-roots, and contains generally three or four eggs.
The following note I quote _verbatim_:–“_Central Hills, August 12th_.–Male, female, and nest. Nest in a low leafy tree 5 cubits from the ground in the Shewpoori forest; partly suspended and partly rested on the fork of the branch; suspension effected by twisting part of the material round the prongs of the fork; made of moss and lichens and dry leaves, well compacted into a deep saucer-shaped cavity; 3.62 high, 4.5 wide outside, and inside 2.25 deep and 3 inches wide; eggs pale verditer, spotted brown, and ready for hatching. The bird found in small flocks of ten to twelve, except at breeding-season.”
A nest sent to me last year by Mr. Gammie was found by him on the 24th April, at an elevation of about 5000 feet, in the neighbourhood of Rungbee. It was built by the side of a stream in a small bush, at a height of about 3 feet from the ground, and contained three eggs. The nest is a deep and, for the size of the bird, very massive cup, exteriorly composed entirely of broad flag-like grass-leaves, with which, however, a few slender stems of creepers are intermingled, internally of grass-roots; the egg-cavity being thinly lined with coarse, black buffalo-hair. Externally the nest is more than 5 inches in diameter and nearly 4 inches high; but the egg-cavity, which is very regularly shaped, is 21/2 inches in diameter and 2 inches in depth.
This year Mr. Gammie writes to me:–“I have taken many nests of the Red-billed Liothrix here in our Chinchona reserves, at all elevations from 3500 to 5000 feet. They breed in May and June, amongst dense scrub, placing their nests in shrubs, at heights of from 3 to 5 feet from the ground, and either suspending them from horizontal branches, or hanging them between several upright stems, to which they firmly attach them. The nest itself is cup-shaped and composed principally of dry bamboo-leaves held together by a few fibres, and a few strings of green moss wound round the outside. The lining consists of a few black hairs, and the usual number of eggs is three. A nest I recently measured was externally 4 inches in diameter and 2.7 in height, while the cavity was 2.6 across by 1.9 in depth.”
Mr. Gammie subsequently found a nest on the very late date of 17th October at Rishap, Darjeeling. It contained three eggs, two of which were addled.
Dr. Jerdon says that at Darjeeling he “got the nest and eggs repeatedly; the nest made chiefly of grass, with roots and fibres, and fragments of moss, and usually containing three or four eggs, bluish, white, with a few purple and red blotches. It is generally placed in a leafy bush at no great height from the ground. Gould, quoting from Mr. Shore’s notes, says that the eggs are black spotted with yellow: this is of course erroneous. I have taken the nest myself on several occasions, and killed the bird, and in every case the eggs were coloured as above.”
I wish to add here, as I have abused him occasionally, that Mr. Shore was, I understand, a most excellent man, and that I have now come to the conclusion that the extraordinary fictions that he recorded about the eggs of birds can only have been due to colour-blindness of a peculiarly aggravated nature. It is not that he mistook eggs, but that he describes _impossible_ eggs–Kingfishers’ eggs variegated black and white, and here in this case black eggs spotted with yellow! Why, there _are_ no such eggs in the whole world, I believe. On the other hand, his whole life proves that he could not have deliberately set to work to invent falsehoods. To return.
The eggs vary a good deal in shade and size, but are more or less long ovals, slightly pointed towards the lesser end. The ground-colour is a delicate very pale green or greenish blue, in one, not very common type, almost pure white, and they are pretty boldly blotched or spotted and speckled as the case may be, and clouded, most thickly towards the large end, and very often almost exclusively in a zone or cap round this latter, with various shades of red or purple and brown. Some blotches in some eggs are almost carmine-red, but the majority are brownish red or reddish brown, varying much in depth and intensity of colour. There is something Shrike-like in the markings of many eggs; and where the markings are most numerous, namely at the large end, they are commonly intermingled with streaks and clouds of pale lilac. The smaller end of the egg is often entirely free from markings. I should mention that all the eggs have a faint gloss, and that some are decidedly glossy.
They vary in length from 0.76 to 0.95, and in breadth from 0.59 to 0.66; but the average of thirty-four eggs is 0.85 by 0.62.
237. Pteruthius erythropterus (Vig.). _The Red-winged Shrike-Tit_.
Pteruthius erythropterus (_Vig.) Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 245; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 609.
Writing from Murree, Colonel C.H.T. Marshall says:–“There is no record about the nidification of this species. Its nest is exceedingly difficult to find, and it was only by long and careful watching through field-glasses that Captain Cock discovered that there was a nest at the top of a very high chestnut-tree, to and from which the birds kept flying with building-materials in their beaks. The nest is most skilfully concealed, being at the top of the tree, with bunches of leaves both above and below. The nest, like that of the Oriole, is built pendent in a fork. It is somewhat roughly made of moss and hair. The eggs are pinky white, blotched with red, forming in some a ring round the larger end. They average 0.9 in length and 0.65 in breadth. We were fortunate enough to secure two nests; both were more than 60 feet from the ground. Breeds in the end of May, at an elevation of 7000 feet.”
Captain Cock says:–“I first found this bird building its nest on the top of a high chestnut-tree at Murree in the month of May. When the nest was ready I took my friend Captain C.H.T. Marshall to be present at the taking of it, as it had never, I think, been taken before. We took the nest on the 30th May.
“It was an open flattish cup, like the nest of _O. kundoo_ in structure, only shallower. It contained three eggs, pinky white, covered with a shower of claret spots that at the larger end formed a cap of dark claret colour. Another nest, which I took in June from the top of an oak, contained two eggs.”
To Colonel Marshall and Captain Cock I am indebted for a nest and egg of this species.
The nest is a moderately deep cup, suspended between two prongs of a horizontal fork. Externally it is about 4 inches in diameter and about 3 inches in depth. The egg-cavity is nearly hemispherical, 3 inches in diameter and 1.5 in depth. It is a very loosely made structure, composed internally of not very fine roots and externally coated with green moss. Along the lines of suspension a good deal of wool is incorporated in the structure, and it is chiefly by this wool that the nest is suspended. The fork is a slender one, the prongs being from 0.3 to 0.4 in diameter.
The egg is a broad oval, a good deal pointed towards the small end. The shell is very fine and compact, and has a fine gloss. The ground-colour is white or pinky white, and is pretty thickly speckled and finely spotted all over with brownish red and a little pale inky purple. Just towards the large end the markings are very dense, and form, more or less of a confluent cap of mingled brownish red and pale lilac, the latter everywhere appearing to underlie the former.
The egg was taken on the 10th June, and measures 0.9 by 0.68.
239. Pteruthius melanotis, Hodgs. _The Chestnut-throated Shrike-Tit_.
Allotrius oenobarbus, _Temm. apud Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 246. Allotrius melanotis, _Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 611.
According to Mr. Hodgson’s notes and figures, the Chestnut-throated Shrike-Tit breeds in Sikhim and Nepal up to an elevation of 6000 or 7000 feet. The nest is placed at a height of 6 to 10 feet from the ground, between some slender, leafy, horizontal fork, between which it is suspended like that of an Oriole or White-eye. It is composed of moss and moss-roots and vegetable fibres, beautifully and compactly woven into a shallow cup some 4 inches in diameter, and with a cavity some 2.5 in diameter and less than 1 in depth. Interiorly the nest is lined with hair-like fibres and moss-roots; exteriorly it is adorned with pieces of lichen. The eggs are two or three in number, very regular ovals, about 0.77 in length by 0.49 in width. The ground-colour is a delicate pinky lilac, and they are speckled and spotted with violet or violet-purple, the markings being most numerous towards the large end, where they have a tendency to form a mottled zone.
243. Aegithine tiphia (Linn.). _The Common Iora_.
Iora zeylonica (Gm.) _et_ I. typhia (_Linn.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, pp. 101, 103.
Aegithine tiphia (_Linn.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ nos. 467, 468.
I have already on several occasions (see especially ‘Stray Feathers,’ 1877, vol. v, p. 428) recorded my inability to distinguish as distinct species _Ae. tiphia_ and _Ae. zeylonica_. I am quite open to conviction; but believing them, so far as my present investigations go, to be inseparable, I propose to treat them as a single species in the present notice.
The Common Iora (the genus, though possibly nearly allied, is too distinct from _Chloropsis_ to allow me to adopt, as Jerdon does, one common trivial name for both) breeds in different localities from May to September. I have taken nests and eggs of typical examples of both supposed species, and have had them sent me with the parent birds by many correspondents; and though both vary a good deal, I am convinced that all the variations which occur in the nests and eggs of one race occur also in those of the other. If one gets only two or three clutches of the eggs of each, great differences, naturally attributed to difference of species (see Captain Cock’s remarks, _infra_), may be detected; but I have seen more than fifty, and, so far as I am concerned, I have no hesitation in asserting that, as in the case of the birds so in that of their nests and eggs, no constant differences can be detected if only sufficiently large series are compared.
The birds build usually on the upper surface of a horizontal bough, at a height of from 10 to 25 feet from the ground. Sometimes, when the bough is more or less slanting, the nest assumes somewhat more of a pocket-shape. Occasionally it is built between three or four slender twigs, forming an upright fork; but this is quite exceptional.
As a rule nests of the Iora very closely resemble those of _Leucocerca_, so much so that when I sent a beautiful photograph of a nest, which I had myself watched building, of the latter species to Mr. Blyth, he unhesitatingly pronounced it to be a nest of the former. There is, however, a certain amount of difference; the Iora’s nests are looser and somewhat less compact and firm. My experience does not confirm Mr. Brooks’s remarks (_vide infra_) that they are usually shallower; on the contrary all those now before me are, as indeed all the many I can remember to have seen were, deep, thin-walled cups, which had been placed on more or less horizontal branches, not uncommonly where some upright-growing twig afforded the nest additional security. The egg-cavity averages about 2 inches in diameter, and varies from an inch to 11/4 inch in depth; the walls, composed of vegetable fibres, and varying in different specimens from only one eighth to three eighths of an inch in thickness, are everywhere thickly coated externally with cobwebs, by which also the nest is firmly attached to the branch on which it is seated, as well as, where such adjoin the nest, to any little twig springing from that branch. Interiorly they are more or less neatly lined with very fine grass-stems. The bottom of the nest in its thinnest part is rarely above one eighth of an inch in thickness, but running, as it so often does, down the curving sides of the branch, it becomes a good deal thicker, and where placed on a small branch, say not exceeding an inch in diameter, the lateral portions of the bottom of the nest are sometimes more than half an inch in thickness.
One nest which I obtained recently in the Botanical Gardens at Calcutta was built in an upright fork of four slender twigs; and in this case the bottom of the nest was obtusely conical, and at its deepest point may have been nearly an inch in depth. I have never seen a similar nest.
The eggs are normally three in number, but I have at times found only two, and these more or less incubated.
Mr. Brooks, writing of a nest he took in the Mirzapoor District, says:–“Did you ever get particulars of the nest of _Iora zeylonica_ on the forked branch of a mango-tree 12 or 14 feet from the ground? Nest composed of the same materials as that of _Leucocerca albifrontata_, but not quite so neat and much more shallow; eggs salmon-coloured and spotted with pale reddish brown, intermixed with a few larger dashes of purple-grey. The bird lays in July; three eggs. This is the only nest I have not taken since I came to India the second time.”
From Raipoor, Mr. F.R. Blewitt remarks:–“The Iora breeds from July to September, and certainly _not_, as Dr. Jerdon supposes, twice a year. Both birds assist in the building of the nests, and there evidently appears to be no choice of any particular kind of tree on which to build. I have found them indiscriminately on the mango, mowah, neem, and other trees. The nest is invariably made either just above or between the fork of two outshooting slender horizontal branches. It is very neatly made, deeply cup-shaped, of grass and fibres, with spider’s web on the exterior. The maximum number of eggs is three; they are of a pale whitish colour, marked generally, chiefly at the broad end, with brownish spots. The brown spots vary in size on different eggs. I secured the first eggs on the 12th July, and the last on the 2nd September. A pair of birds were on this last date just completing their nest, which unfortunately was destroyed by the heavy rains.”
Captain Cock says:–“_Iora tiphia_ is tolerably common at Seetapoor (Oudh), and I have several times taken their nests and eggs. I may here mention that I have taken eggs of _Iora zeylonica_ at Etawah, and that knowing the birds well, I can say that it is quite a distinct bird; although in the marking of its eggs there is a slight resemblance, yet the nests of the two species are quite different. On the 13th May I observed a nest of _I. tiphia_ on a young mango-tree, at the edge of a croquet-ground in our garden. I shot both male and female and took the eggs; the nest was placed on the upperside of a sloping bough, was covered outside with cobweb, and lined with thin dry grass. It contained two fresh eggs of a delicate pink colour, with broad irregularly-shaped dashes of light brown down the sides of the shell, not tending to coalesce in any way at either apex. Another pair also built their nest on the edge of the same ground in another tree; but unfortunately in a weak moment I pointed out the nest to a lady friend, and as thereafter no one ever played croquet on the ground without staring at the nest, the birds got disgusted and soon deserted it.”
To this I need merely add that _of course_ typical _Ae. tiphia_ and typical _Ae. zeylonica_ are very distinct, but that as every intermediate form occurs, they are not, according to my views of what constitutes a species, entitled to specific separation, and that as regards nest and eggs, according to my experience, every variety in the one is to be found in the other.
Dr. Jerdon, speaking of Southern India, remarks:–“I have seen the nest and eggs on several occasions. The nest is deep, cup-shaped, very neatly made with grass, various fibres, hairs, and spiders’ webs; and the eggs, two or three in number, are reddish white, with numerous darker red spots, chiefly at the thicker end. It breeds in the south of India in August and September; perhaps, however, twice a year.”
Writing from South Wynaad, Mr. J. Darling (Junior) says:–“I found the nest, which with the eggs and both parents I have now sent you, in the Teriat Hills on the 24th May, at an elevation of about 2300 feet. It was placed on, and near the extremity of, a bough, at a height of about 10 feet from the ground. It is round, about 2 inches in height and the same in diameter, and the cavity was about an inch or a trifle more in depth. It is built of grass and reed-bamboo-fibres, and is coated with spider’s web. It only contained two eggs.”
Both parents (sexes ascertained by dissection) are in the typical _tiphia_ plumage, without one particle of black on either head, nape, or back.
Mr. Davidson writes:–“In the Satara and Sholapur districts the cock puts on his summer plumage in May and the whole back of head, neck, and back (not rump) is glossy and black.
“This bird lays from the end of June to beginning of August. It is very shy when building and is easily caused to forsake its nest; if a single egg is taken from the nest it does not forsake it, however, but lays on (three instances this year).”
Mr. W.E. Brooks has favoured me with the following very interesting note on the habits of this Iora:–
“Ioras are very numerous and have such a variety of notes that I thought at first there were several sorts; but as far as I can see there is but one species. Iora spreads its tail in a wonderful manner, and comes spinning round and round towards the ground looking more like a round ball than a bird. All the time it descends it utters a strange note, something like that of a frog or cricket, a protracted sibilant sound. This bird is close to _Liothrix_ and _Stachyrhis_, although it belongs to the plains.”
Colonel Butler writes:–“A nest on the 17th August, 1880, on the outside branch of a silk-cotton tree in Belgaum about 12 feet from the ground, containing three fresh eggs.
“I found many other nests building all through the hot weather and rains; but in every single instance except the present one they were deserted before they were completed.”
Major Bingham writes from Tenasserim:–“This species is common throughout the country. As a rule its nest is well hid, but one I saw in the compound of a house in Maulmain was placed in the exposed leafless fork of a tree, not above six feet from the ground. It contained no eggs when I examined it, and was deserted a day or two after. This was in the beginning of May.”
Mr. Oates remarks on the breeding of this bird in Pegu:–“Nests are found chiefly in June and July, but the birds probably lay also in May.”
In shape the eggs are moderately broad ovals, slightly pointed towards one end. They vary, however, a good deal, some being much more elongated than others. They are almost entirely devoid of gloss. The ground-colour is generally greyish white, but some have creamy and some a salmon tinge; typically they have numerous long streaky pale brown or reddish-brown blotches, chiefly confined to the large end, where they often seem to spring from an irregular imperfect zone of the same colour. The colour of the blotches varies a good deal. In some it is a pale greyish or purplish brown; in others decidedly reddish, or even well-marked and somewhat yellowish brown. Some pale, purplish streaks and clouds generally underlie the brown blotches where they are thickest, and there form a kind of nimbus. In some eggs the markings are confined to a narrow imperfect zone of pale purplish specks or very tiny blotches round the large end, and some of the eggs remind one of those of _Leucocerca albifrontata_. The peculiar streaky longitudinal character of the markings, almost wholly confined to the large end, best distinguishes the eggs of the Ioras from those of any other Indian bird with which they are likely to be confounded.
In length they vary from 0.63 to 0.76, and in breadth from 0.51 to 0.57: but the average of forty-seven eggs measured is 0.69, nearly, by a trifle more than 0.54.
246. Myzornis pyrrhura, Hodgs. _The Fire-tailed Myzornis_.
Myzornis pyrrboura, _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 263; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 629.
I have received a single egg said to belong to the Fire-tailed Myzornis from Native Sikhim, where it was found in May in a small nest (unfortunately mislaid) which was placed on a branch of a large tree at no great height from the ground. The place where it was found had an elevation of about 10,000 feet. Although the parent bird was sent with the egg, I cannot say that I have any great confidence in its authenticity, and only record the matter _quantum valeat_.
The egg is a very regular, rather elongated oval. The egg was never properly blown and has been consequently somewhat discoloured. It may have been pure white, and it may have been fairly glossy when fresh, but it is now a dull ivory-white with scarcely any gloss. It measured 0.68 in length by 0.5 in breadth.
252. Chloropsis jerdoni (Bl.). _Jerdon’s Chloropsis_.
Phyllornis jerdoni, _Bl., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 97; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 463.
I have never myself found the nest of Jerdon’s Chloropsis, but my friend Mr. F.R. Blewitt has sent me numerous specimens of both nests and eggs from Raipoor and its neighbourhood.
In that part of the country July and August appear to be the months in which it lays; but elsewhere its eggs have been taken in April, May, and June, so that its breeding-season is much the same as that of many of the Bulbuls. The nest is a small, rather shallow cup, at most 31/2 inches in diameter and 11/2 in depth; is composed externally entirely of soft tow-like vegetable fibre, which appears to be worked over a light framework of fine roots and slender tamarisk-stems, amongst which, some little pieces of lichen are intermingled. There is no attempt at a lining, the eggs being laid on the fine grass and slender twigs (about the thickness of an ordinary-sized pin) which compose the framework of the nest.
The eggs as a rule appear to be two in number.
Mr. Blewitt remarks:–“The Green Bulbul breeds in July and August. The bird does not preferentially select any one description of tree for its nest, though the greater number secured were taken from mowah trees (_Bassia latifolia_). The nest is generally firmly affixed at the fork of the end twigs of an upper branch from 15 to 25 feet from the ground. Sometimes, however, eschewing twigs, the bird constructs its nest on the _top_ of the main branch itself, cunningly securing it with the material to the rough exterior surface of the branch. Three is certainly the maximum number of eggs. During the period of nidification the parent birds are very watchful and noisy, and their alarm and over-anxiety on the near approach of a stranger often betray the nest.”
The late Captain Beavan recorded the following interesting note in regard to this species:–
“This handsome bird is very abundant in Manbhoom, where it is called ‘Hurrooa’ by the natives. Its note is so much like that of _Dicrurus ater_ that I have frequently been deceived by the resemblance. It breeds in the district. A nest with two eggs was brought to me at Beerachalee on April 4th, 1865. It is built at the fork of a bough and neatly suspended from it, like a hammock, by silky fibres, which are firmly fixed to the two sprigs of the fork, and also form part of the bottom and outside of the nest. The inside is lined with dry bents and hairs. The eggs (creamy white with a few light pinky-brown spots) are rather elongated, measuring 0.85 by 0.62. Interior diameter of nest 2.25, depth 1.5. The cry of alarm of this species is like that of _Parus major_”
Dr. Jerdon remarked (‘Illustrations of Indian Ornithology’), writing at the time from Southern India:–
“I have seen a nest of this species in the possession of S.N. Ward, Esq. It is a neat but slightly cup-shaped nest, composed chiefly of fine grass, and was placed near the extremity of a branch, some of the nearest leaves being, it was said, brought down and loosely surrounding it. It contained two eggs, white, with a few claret-coloured blotches. Its nest and eggs, I may remark, show an analogy to that of the Orioles.”
Mr. Layard tells us that this species is “extremely common in the south of Ceylon, but rare towards the north. It feeds in small flocks on seeds and insects, and builds an open cup-shaped nest. The eggs, four in number, are white, thickly mottled at the obtuse end with purplish spots.”
And Sir W. Jardine says:–“For the interesting nest and eggs of _Phyllornis jerdoni_, Blyth, we are indebted to E.S. Layard, Esq., Magistrate of the district of Point Pedro (the northernmost extremity of Ceylon), in which district we understand it to have been procured. A large groove along the underside of the nest indicates it to have been placed upon a branch; the general form is somewhat flat, and it is composed of very soft materials, chiefly dry grass and silky vegetable fibres, rather compactly interwoven with some pieces of dead leaf and bark on the outside, over which a good deal of spider’s web has been worked. It contains four eggs, white, abruptly speckled over with dark bistre mingled with some ashy spots.” Layard is not generally reliable where eggs are concerned, for he did not usually take them with his own hands and natives _will_ lie; and I doubt the _four_ eggs here, but I think, so far as the nest goes, that he was right in this case.
The eggs are rather elongated ovals; some of them a good deal pointed towards one end, others again slightly pyriform. The shell is very delicate; the ground-colour white to creamy white; as a rule almost glossless, in some specimens slightly glossy. They are sparingly marked, usually chiefly at the large end, with spots, specks, small blotches, hair-lines, or hieroglyphic-like figures, which are typically almost black, but which in some eggs are blackish, or even reddish, or purplish brown. In no specimens that I have seen were the markings at all numerous, except just at the large end; and in some they consist solely of a few tiny specks, scattered about the crown of the egg.
The eggs vary from 0.8 to 0.92 in length, and from 0.56 to 0.63 in breadth; but the average of a dozen was 0.86 by 0.6.
254. Irena puella (Lath.). _The Fairy Blue-bird_.
Irena puella (_Lath._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 105; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no 469.
Mr. Frank Bourdillon favoured me with an egg of the Fairy Blue-bird, which with other rare eggs he obtained on the Assamboo Hills. So little is known of this range that I quote his remarks upon this locality.
“I must premise that the specimens were obtained along the Assamboo Range of hills, between the elevations of 1500 and 3000 feet above sea-level. This range of hills, running in a north-westerly and south-easterly direction from Cape Comorin to 8 deg.33′ north latitude, forms the boundary line between Travancore and the British Territory of Tinnevelly, the average height of the range being about 4000 feet, while some of the peaks are as high as 5500 feet. The general character of the hills is dense forest, broken here and there by grass ridges and crowned by precipitous rocks, above which lies an almost unexplored table-land, varying in width from a mile to 12 or 15 miles, at an elevation of almost 4000 feet.”
“The egg of the Fairy Blue-bird,” he adds, “was taken slightly set on the 28th February, 1873, from a loose sparsely-built nest situated in a sapling about 12 feet from the ground. The nest was composed of dead twigs lined with leaves, and was about 4 inches broad and very slightly indented.”
As will be remembered, Dr. Jerdon states that “Mr. Ward obtained, what he was informed were, the nest and eggs; the nest was large, made of roots and fibres and lined with moss; and the eggs, two in number, were pale greenish, much spotted with dusky:” and I have no doubt that Mr. Ward’s eggs were genuine.
The egg is an elongated oval, compressed almost throughout its entire length, very blunt at both points; a long cone, the apex broadly truncated and rounded off obtusely, sealed on half a very oblate spheroid. In no one single point–shape, texture of shell, colour or character of markings–does this egg approach to those of either the Oriole or the Chloropsis. This shell is very close-grained and fine, but only moderately glossy. The ground is pale green, and it is streaked and blotched with pale dull brown. The markings are almost entirely confluent over the large end (where they appear to be underlaid by dingy, dimly discernible greyish blotches), and from the cap thus formed they descend in streaky mottlings towards the small end, growing fewer and further apart as they approach this latter, which is almost devoid of markings.
It is impossible to generalize from a single specimen as to the position this bird _should_ hold, but this one egg renders it quite certain to my mind that the nearest allies of _Irena_ are neither _Oriolus_ nor _Chloropsis_, and that it is quite impossible to place it with the _Dicruridae_. The eggs of _Psaroglossa spiloptera_ are not very dissimilar, and I expect that it is somewhere between the _Paradiseidae, Sturnidae_, and _Icteridae_ that _Irena_ will ultimately have to be located.
The egg measures 1.1 by 0.73.
Mr. Fulton Bourdillon writes:–“The last note I have to send you at present is that of a Blue-bird’s nest (_Irena puella_). Of this there can be no possible doubt, as my brother and I shot both the male and female birds, and I took the nest with my own hands. It was in a pollard tree beside a stream among some thick branches about 20 feet from the ground. The nest was neatly but very loosely constructed of fresh green moss, which formed the bulk of the nest, and lined with the flower-stalks of a jungle shrub. It was very well concealed, and was about 4 inches broad with a cavity not more than 11/2 inch deep. It contained two eggs slightly set, measuring respectively 1.11 x .84 and 1.16 x .81. These eggs tally very fairly in colour, shape, and size with those sent last year; of the identity of which I was doubtful at the time, though now I think there can be no mistake.
“Since writing last I have had another nest of _Irena puella_ brought me with two fresh eggs. The nest was very loosely put together and similar in all respects to the one last sent. The eggs measure .95 x .81 and .92 x .79, with the same well-defined ring round the larger end. The nest was in a small tree about 10 feet from the ground and was well concealed. It was composed of twigs, without any lining.”
The nest sent me by Mr. Bourdillon is a very flimsy affair, reminding one much of the nest of _Graucalus macii_ and not in the smallest degree of that of an Oriole. A mere pad, some 4 inches in diameter, composed of very thin twigs or dry flower-stalks with a couple of dead leaves intermingled, and an external coating of green moss.
Major C.T. Bingham has favoured me with the following notes from Tenasserim:–“At the sources of the Winsaw stream, a feeder of the Thoungyeen river, on the 30th April I found a nest of this bird, a mere irregularly roundish pad of moss with very little depression in the centre, containing two fresh eggs, and placed 12 feet or so above the ground in the fork of an evergreen sapling. The eggs measure 1.18 x 0.86 and 1.19 x 0.86 respectively, and are so thickly spotted and blotched with brown as to show very little of the ground-colour, which latter, however, appears to be of a greenish white.
“On the 11th April I was slowly clambering along a very steep hill-side overlooking the Queebaw choung, a small tributary of the Meplay stream, when from a tree whose crown was below my feet I startled a female _Irena puella_ off her nest. I could see the nest and that it contained two eggs, so I shot the female, who had taken to a tree a little above me. On getting the nest down, I found it a poor affair of little twigs, with a superstructure of moss, shaped into a shallow saucer, on which reposed two eggs, large for the size of the bird, of a dull greenish white, much dashed, speckled, and spotted with brown. They were so hard-set that I only managed to save one, which measured 1.09 by 0.77 inch.”
Mr. Davison writes:–“At Kussoom, in some moderately thin tree-jungle I found the nest of _Irena puella_. The nest was placed in the fork of a sapling some 12 feet from the ground. The nest externally was composed of dry twigs, carelessly and irregularly put together. The egg-cavity was shallow, not more than 1.5 inch at its deepest part, and it was lined with finer twigs, fern-roots, and some yellowish fibre. The nest contained two fresh eggs.”
Two eggs, taken by Mr. Davison at Kussoom in the north of the Malay Peninsula, to which the Malayan form does not extend, are rather elongated ovals, with a slightly pyriform tendency. The shell is fine, smooth, and compact, and has a perceptible gloss. The ground-colour is greenish white; round the large end is a huge, smudgy, irregular zone of reddish brown and inky grey, the one colour predominating in the one egg, the other in the other. Inside the zone are specks and spots of the same colours, and below the zone streaks and spots of these same colours, thinly set, stretched downwards towards the small end of the egg.
Other eggs subsequently received are very similar to that first sent by Mr. Bourdillon, except that in shape they are more regular ovals, and that the brown markings in some have a reddish and in some a purplish tinge, and that in some eggs the mottings and markings are pretty thick even at the small end.
In length they seem to vary from 1.08 to 1.2 inch and in breadth from 0.73 to 0.88 inch.
In some eggs the ground appears to have no green tinge, but is simply a greyish white. In one egg the markings are all of one colour, a sort of chocolate-brown, a dense almost confluent mass of mottlings in a broad irregular zone round the large end and elsewhere pretty thickly set over the entire surface of the egg. They have always a certain amount of gloss, but are never very glossy.
257. Mesia argentauris, Hodgs. _The Silver-eared Mesia_.
Leiothrix argentauris (_Hodgs.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 251. Mesia argentauris, _Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 615.
According to Mr. Hodgson’s notes, the Silver-eared Mesia breeds in the low-lands of Nepal, laying in May and June. The nest is placed in a bushy tree, between two or three thin twigs, to which it is attached. It is composed of dry bamboo and other leaves, thin grass-roots and moss, and is lined inside with fine roots. Three or four eggs are laid: one of these is figured as a broad oval, much pointed towards one end, measuring 0.8 by 0.6, having a pale green ground with a few brownish-red specks, and a close circle of spots of the same colour round the large end.
Dr. Jerdon brought me two eggs from Darjeeling, which he believed to belong to this species. They much resemble those of _Liothrix lutea_. They are oval, scarcely pointed at all towards the lesser end, and are faintly glossed. The ground-colour of one is greenish, the other creamy, white, and both are spotted and streaked, chiefly in an irregular zone near the large end, with different shades of red and purple. The markings are smaller than those of the preceding species. Further observations are necessary to confirm the authenticity of the eggs.
They measure 0.85 and 0.87 by 0.65.
From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:–“I have taken about half a dozen nests of this bird. They closely resemble those of _Liothrix lutea_ in size and structure and are similarly situated, but instead of having the egg-cavity lined with dark-coloured material, as that species has, all I found had light-coloured linings; such was even the case with one nest I found within three or four yards of a nest of the other species.
“The eggs are usually four in number.”
Other eggs obtained by Mr. Gammie correspond with those given me by Dr. Jerdon. They are as like the eggs of _L. lutea_ as they can possibly be, and if there is any difference, it consists in the markings of the present species being as a body smaller and more speckled than those of _L. lutea_.
The six eggs that I have vary in length from 0.82 to 0.9, and in breadth from 0.6 to 0.65.[A]
[Footnote A: There is in the Tweeddale collection a skin of a young nestling of this species procured by Limborg on Muleyit mountain in Tenasserim in the second week of April. On the label attached to the specimen is a note to the effect that the nest from which the nestling was taken was made of moss.–ED.]
258. Minla igneitincta, Hodgs. _The Red-tailed Minla_.
Minla ignotincta, _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 254: _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 618.
The Red-tailed Minla, according to Mr. Hodgson’s notes and figures, breeds in the central region of Nepal and near Darjeeling, during May and June. It builds a beautiful rather deep cup-shaped nest of mosses, moss-roots, and some cow’s hair, lined with these two latter. The nest is placed in the fork of three or four slender branches of some bushy tree, at no great elevation from the ground, and is attached to one or more of the stems in which it is placed by bands of moss and fibres. A nest taken on the 24th May measured externally 3.28 inches in diameter and 2.25 in height; internally the cavity was 2 inches in diameter and 1.62 in depth. They lay from two to four eggs, of a pale verditer-blue ground, speckled and spotted pretty boldly with brownish red. An egg is figured as a regular rather broad oval, measuring 0.78 by 0.55.
On the other hand, Dr. Jerdon says:–“Its nest has been brought to me, of ordinary shape, made of moss and grass, and with four white eggs, with a few rusty red spots.”
260. Cephalopyrus flammiceps (Burton). _The Fire-cap_.
Cephalopyrus flammiceps (_Burt.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 267; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 633.
Writing from Murree, Colonel C.H.T. Marshall tells us:–“On the 25th May we found the nest of this species (the Fire-cap) in a hole in a rotten sycamore-tree about 15 feet from the ground. The nest was a neatly made cup-shaped one, formed principally of fine grass. We were unfortunately too late for the eggs, as we found four nearly fledged young ones, showing that these birds lay about the 15th April. Elevation, 7000 feet.”
Captain Cock says:–“I found a nest in the stump of an old chestnut-tree at Murree. The nest was about 13 feet from the ground near the top of the stump, placed in a natural cavity: it was constructed of fine grass and roots carefully woven and was of a deep cup shape. It contained five fully fledged young ones. The end of May was the time when I found this, and I have never yet succeeded in finding another.”
261. Psaroglossa spiloptera (Vigors). _The Spotted-wing_.
Saroglossa spiloptera (_Vig.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 336; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 691.
Personally I know nothing of the nidification of the Spotted-wing.
Captain Hutton tells us that “this species arrives in the hills about the middle of April in small parties of five or six, but it does not appear to ascend above 5500 to 6000 feet, and is therefore more properly an inhabitant of the warm valleys. I do not remember seeing it at Mussoorie, which is 6500 to 7000 feet, although at 5200 feet on the same range it is abundant during summer. Its notes and flight are very much those of the Starling (_Sturnus vulgaris_), and it delights to take a short and rapid flight and return twittering to perch on the very summit of the forest trees. I have never seen it on the ground, and its food appears to consist of berries.
“Like the two species of _Acridotheres_, it nidificates by itself in the holes of trees, lining the cavity with bits of leaves. The eggs are usually three, or sometimes four or five, of a delicate pale sea-green speckled with blood-like stains, which sometimes tend to form a ring near the larger end; shape oval, slightly tapering.”
The eggs are so different in character from those of all the Starlings that doubts might reasonably arise as to whether this species is placed exactly where it ought to be by Jerdon and others. I possess at present only three eggs of this bird, which I owe to Captain Hutton. They are decidedly long ovals, much pointed towards the small end, and in shape and coloration not a little recall those of _Myiophoneus temmincki_. The eggs are glossless, of a greenish or greyish-white ground, more or less profusely speckled and spotted with red, reddish brown, and dingy purple. In two of the eggs the majority of the markings are gathered into a broad irregular speckled zone round the large end. In the third egg there is just a trace of such a zone and no markings at all elsewhere. In length they vary from 1.03 to 1.08, and in breadth from 0.68 to 0.74.[A]
[Footnote A: HYPOCOLIUS AMPELINUS, Bonap. _The Grey Hypocolius_. Hypocolius ampelinus, _Bp., Hume, cat._ no. 269 quat.
Although this bird has not yet been found breeding within Indian limits, the following account of its nidification at Fao, in the Persian Gulf, by Mr. W.D. Cumming (Ibis, 1886. p. 478) will prove interesting:–
“It is not till the middle of June that they breed.
“In 1883, first eggs were brought by an Arab about the 13th of June, and on the 15th of the same month I found a nest containing two fresh eggs. In 1884, on the 14th of June a nest was brought me containing four fresh eggs, and on the 15th I found a nest containing also four fresh eggs.
“2nd July, I came across four young birds able to fly. On the 3rd, three nests were brought, one containing two fresh eggs, another three young just fledged, and the other four eggs slightly incubated. On the 9th, another nest, containing four young just fledged was brought. On the 15th I saw a flock of small birds well able to fly; on the 18th I found a nest containing four young about a couple of days old, and on the 20th a nest containing three eggs well incubated was brought from a place called ‘Goosba’ on the opposite bank (Persian side) of the river.
“The nests are generally placed on the leaves of the date-palm, at no very great height. The highest I have seen was built about ten feet from the ground but from three to five feet is the average height.
“They are substantial and cup-shaped, having a diameter of about 31/4 inches by 21/4 inches in depth, lined inside with fine grass, the soft fluff from the willow when in seed, wool, and sometimes hair.
“The eggs are of a glossy leaden white, with leaden-coloured blotches and spots towards the larger end, sometimes forming a ring round the larger end and at times spreading over the entire egg. On rare occasions I have noticed a greenish tinge in very fresh eggs. This, I think, is due to the colour of the inner membrane, which is generally a very light green, in some very faint and in others more decided; this tinge seems to disappear after the egg is blown.
“Very rough measurements are as follows:–0.9 x 0.63; 0.83 x 0.63; 0.83 x 0.6; 0.83 x 0.66; 0.86 x 0.66.”]
Subfamily BRACHYPODINAE.
263. Criniger flaveolus (Gould). _The White-throated Bulbul_.
Criniger flaveolus (_Gould), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 83; _Hume. Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 451.
A nest of this species sent me from Darjeeling was found in July, at an elevation of about 3000 feet.
It was placed on the branches of a medium-sized tree, at a height of only about 5 feet from the ground.
The nest was a compact, rather shallow saucer, 5.5 inches in diameter and about 2 inches in height externally. The cavity was about 3.5 in diameter and an inch in depth. The greater portion of the nest was composed of dead leaves bound together firmly by fine brown roots; inside the leaves was just a lining of rather coarser brown roots, and again an inner lining of black horsehair-like roots and fine steins of the maiden-hair fern.
The nest contained three fresh eggs. These eggs vary from broad to somewhat elongated ovals, are more or less pointed towards the small end, and exhibit a fine gloss.
The ground is a beautiful salmon-pink, and it is thinly spotted, blotched, and marked with irregular lines of deep maroon-red. Most of the markings in one egg are gathered into a very irregular straggling zone round the large end, and the other egg exhibits a tendency to form a similar zone. Besides these primary markings a few spots and clouds of dull purple, looking as if beneath the surface of the shell, are thinly scattered about the egg, chiefly in the neighbourhood of the zone.
These eggs vary from 0.9 to 1.0 in length, and from 0.7 to 0.72 in breadth.
Several nests of this species sent me by the late Mr. Mandelli and obtained by him in British and Native Sikhim during July and the early part of August are all precisely of the same type. They each contained two fresh eggs; they were all placed in the branches of small trees in the midst of dense brushwood or heavy jungle, at heights of from 4 to 10 feet from the ground. The nests are broad and saucer-like, nearly 5 inches in diameter, but not much above 2 in height externally; the cavities average about 3.25 in diameter and about 1 in depth. The body of the nest is composed of dead leaves, the sides are more or less felted round with rich brown fibrous, almost wool-like roots; inside the leaves fine twigs and stems of herbaceous plants, all of a uniform brown tint, are wound round and round, apparently to keep the leaves in their places interiorly, and then the cavity is lined with jet-black horsehair-like vegetable fibres. What these are I do not know, but they are precisely like horsehair to look at, only they are comparatively brittle. The contrast of colour between the jet-black lining and the rich brown of the lip of the saucer, which is constant in all the nests, is very striking.
The eggs of this species sent me by Mr. Mandelli, obtained by him in Sikhim at elevations of from 2000 to 4000 feet in July and the early part of August, possess a very distinctive character. They are broad ovals, much pointed towards the small end, and they are more glossy than the eggs of any other of this family with which I am acquainted. The ground-colour is pink. The markings consist of curious hair-line scratches, clouded blotches, and irregular spots–in some eggs all very hazy and ill-defined, in others more scratchy and sharp. The great majority of the markings seem to be gathered together into an irregular and imperfect zone round the large end. In colour the markings vary from a deep brownish maroon to a dull brickdust-red, sometimes they are slightly more purplish. In some eggs a few faint clouds or small spots of subsurface-looking dusky purple may be noticed mingled with the rest of the markings.
These eggs are totally unlike the eggs of _Criniger ictericus_. I have never had an opportunity of verifying the eggs myself, but as three different nests have now been taken, all containing precisely similar eggs, I believe there can be no doubt of their authenticity.
269. Hypsipetes psaroides, Vigors. _The Himalayan Black Bulbul_.
Hypsipetes psaroides (_Vig.), Jerd. B. Ind_ ii, p. 77; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 444.
The Himalayan Black Bulbul breeds throughout the outer and lower ranges of the Himalayas, at any rate from Bhootan to Afghanistan, at elevations varying from 2000 to 6000 feet.
They lay mostly in May and June, but eggs may occasionally be met with during the latter half of April.
The nest of _Hypsipetes psaroides_ is usually made of rather coarse-bladed grass, with exteriorly a number of dry leaves, and more or less moss incorporated, and lined with very fine grass-stems and roots of moss. A good deal of spider’s web is often used exteriorly to bind the nest together, or attach it more firmly to the fork in which it rests. Its general shape is a moderately deep cup, the cavity measuring some 21/2 inches in diameter by 11/2 inch in depth. The sides, into which leaves and moss are freely interwoven, vary from an inch to a couple of inches in thickness. The bottom, loosely put together, is rarely more than from a quarter to half an inch in depth. It appears to be generally placed on the fork of a branch, at a moderate height from the ground.
Four is the normal number of eggs, but I have more than once found three partially incubated eggs in a nest.
From Darjeeling Mr. Gammie remarks:–“A nest of this bird, which I took on the 17th June, at a height of nearly 50 feet from the ground, on one of the topmost branches of a tree, contained three hard-set eggs. This was below Rungbee, at an elevation of about 3000 feet. The nest was a compact, moderately deep cup, composed of very fine twigs and stems, and with a quantity of dead leaves incorporated in the structure, especially towards its lower surface; it had no lining, but the stems used towards the interior of the nest were somewhat finer than the rest. Exteriorly the nest had a diameter of about 4.5 inches, and a height of about 2.5; interiorly a diameter of about 2.5, and a depth of nearly 1.5.”
Mr. Hodgson, writing from Nepal, says:–
“_May 20th, Jaha Powah_.–Two nests on the skirts of the forest in medium-sized trees, placed on the fork of a branch. They are made of moss and dry fern and dry elastic twig-tops, and lined with long elastic needles of _Pinus longifolia_. They are compact and rather deep, half pensile, that is to say, partly slung between the branches of the fork to which they are attached by bands of vegetable fibres. Each contained four eggs, pinkish-white, thickly spotted with dark sanguine.” Another year he wrote:–
“_May 9th, in the Valley_.–A mature female with nest and eggs. Nest saucer-shaped, the cavity 3.5 wide by 2.5 deep, made of slender twigs and grass-fibres, with no lining. Eggs three, pale pink, blotched all over with sanguine brown.”
Writing from Almorah, Mr. Brooks tells us that “the nest and eggs were found by Mr. Horne on the 27th May near Bheem Tal.”
Colonel G.F.L. Marshall also found a nest in the same place. He says:–“I have only myself found the nest once at Bheem Tal (4000 feet); it was situated in a thicket. The nest of this species is similar in shape but much more substantial than those of the Common Bulbul. The eggs are much larger and more elongated in shape, but the colouring is similar to those of the Bulbul, and in many cases the blotches have a tendency to form a zone near the thick end. The nest I found was taken on the 10th June and contained fresh eggs.
“On the 30th May, 1875, I found a nest of this species at Naini Tal on Ayarpata, over 7000 feet above the sea. I record the circumstance, as their breeding at so great an elevation is exceptional. The nest contained three fresh eggs; it was made of leaves and moss, lined with bents of grass, between two branches but partially resting on a third, in a bush at the outskirts of a forest on a steep bank and about eight feet from the ground.”
From Mussoorie, Captain Hutton recorded the following very full and interesting note:–
“They breed during April, May, and June, making a rather neat cup-shaped nest, which is usually placed in the bifurcation of a horizontal branch of some tall tree; the bottom of it is composed of thin dead leaves and dried grasses, and the sides of fine woody stalks of plants, such as those used by the White-cheeked Bulbul, and they are well plastered over externally with spiders’ webs; the lining is sometimes of very fine tendrils, at other times of dry grasses, fibrous lichen, and thin shavings of the bark of trees left by the wood-cutters. I have one nest, however, which is externally formed of green moss with a few dry stalks, and the spiders’ webs, instead of being plastered all over the outside, are merely used to bind the nest to the small branches among which it is placed. The lining is of bark-shavings, dry grasses, black fibrous lichens, and a few fine seed-stalks of grasses. The internal diameter of the nest is 23/4 inches, and it is 11/2 inches deep. The eggs are usually three in number, of a rosy or purplish white, sprinkled over rather numerously with deep claret or rufescent purple specks and spots. In colours and distribution of spots there is great variation, sometimes the rufous and sometimes the purple spots prevailing; sometimes the spots are mere specks and freckles, sometimes large and forming blotches; in some the spots are wide apart, in others they are nearly, and sometimes in places quite, confluent; while from one nest the eggs were white, with widely dispersed dark purple spots and dull indistinct ones appearing under the shell. In all the spots were more crowded at the larger end.”
Colonel C.H.T. Marshall remarks:–“Numerous nests of this species were found at Murree, agreeing well with Hutton’s description. They breed in May and June, never above 6000 feet.”
The eggs are rather long ovals. Typically a good deal pointed towards the small end, and more or less pyriform, but at times nearly perfect ovals. They have little or no gloss. The ground-colour varies from white, very faintly tinged with pink, to a delicate pink, and they are profusely speckled, spotted, blotched, or clouded with various shades of red, brownish red, and purple. The markings vary much in character, extent, and intensity of colour. There seem to be two leading types, with, however, almost every possible intermediate variety of markings. The one is thickly speckled over its whole surface with minute dots of reddish purple, no dot much bigger than the point of a pin, and no portion of the ground-colour exceeding 0.1 in diameter free from spots. In these eggs the specklings are most dense, as a rule, throughout a broad irregular zone surrounding the large end, and this zone is thickly underlaid with irregular ill-defined streaky clouds of dull inky purple. In some eggs of this type, the smaller end is comparatively free from specks. In the other type, the surface of the egg is somewhat sparingly, but boldly, blotched and splashed, first with deep umber, chocolate, or purple-brown, and, secondly, with spots and clouds of faint inky purple, recalling not a little the style of markings of the eggs of _Rhynchops albicollis_. Then there are eggs partly speckly and partly blotched, some in which the markings are all rich red and where no secondary pale purple clouds are observable, and others again in which all the markings are dull purplish brown. Generally it may be said that the markings have a tendency to form a cap or zone at the large end.
A nest of three eggs recently obtained from Mussoorie were more richly coloured than any I have yet seen, and were decidedly glossy. The ground-colour is a rich rosy pink, boldly, but sparingly, blotched and spotted with deep maroon, underlaid by clouds and spots of pale purple, which appear as if beneath the surface of the shell. In all the eggs the markings are far more numerous at the large end, where in one they form a huge confluent maroon-coloured patch, mottled lighter and darker.
An egg recently obtained in Cashmere on the 20th June was a somewhat elongated oval, more or less compressed towards one end; a delicate glossy white ground with a faint pink tinge; a rich zone of reddish-purple spots and specks round the large end; a few similar markings scattered sparingly over the rest of the surface of the egg, and a multitude of very faint streaks and clouds of very _pale_ inky purple underlying the primary markings.
In length the eggs vary from 0.9 to 1.15, and in breadth from 0.7 to 0.78; but the average of twenty-five eggs measured is 1.03 by 0.75.
271. Hypsipetes ganeesa, Sykes. _The Southern-Indian Black Bulbul_.
Hypsipetes neilgherriensis, _Jerd._; _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 78; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 445. Hypsipetes ganeesa, _Sykes, Jerd. t.c._ p. 78.
Mr. Davison tells me that “this species breeds from April to about the middle of June. The nest is generally placed from 12 to 20 feet from the ground, in some dense clump of leaves; favourite sites are the bunches of parasitic plants with which nearly every acacia, and in fact nearly every other tree about Ootacamund, is covered. The nest is composed exteriorly of moss, dry leaves, and roots, lined with roots and fibres: the normal number of eggs is two; they are white with claret-coloured and purplish spots.”
A nest of this species taken at Coonoor on the 14th March, 1869, by Mr. Carter, to whom I owe this and many other nests from the Nilghiris, reminds one much of those of the Red-cheeked Bulbuls. A wisp of dry grass and dead leaves, with the dead leaves greatly predominating exteriorly, twisted into a shallow cup, some 41/2 inches in diameter externally, and with a shallow depression tolerably neatly lined with finer grass-stems measuring some 3 inches across and perhaps an inch in depth. The bottom of the nest is almost exclusively composed of dead leaves; while even in the sides, externally, little but these are visible, only a few grass-stems crossing in and out, here and there, sufficiently to keep the leaves in their places.
Mr. Wait remarks, writing from Coonoor:–“Our Black Bulbul breeds from March to June. It builds a cup-shaped nest neatly and firmly made. Outside, the nest is chiefly composed, as a rule, of green moss, grass-stalks, and fibres, while inside it is lined with fine stalks and hair. The cavity is from 2.5 to 3 inches in diameter and about half that depth. Two is certainly the normal number of eggs; indeed, I have never found more.”
Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says in ‘The Ibis’:–“It breeds in lofty trees in the Nilghiris, building a shallow cup-shaped nest, from 20 to 60 feet from the ground. The nest is constructed of the dried stems of the wild forget-me-not, and lined with a moss much resembling black horsehair. The eggs, which are two in number, are pretty thickly spotted with pale lilac and claret on a light pink ground-colour. I found these birds migrating in vast flights, numbering several thousands, in the Bolumputty valley in July. They were flying westwards towards Malabar.”
Mr. Darling, Junior, writes:–“I have taken the eggs of this Black Bulbul every year from 1863 to 1870 during March, April, May, and part of June, all over the Nilghiris. The nests were all made of moss, dry leaves, and roots, lined with roots and fibres. I have only once found three eggs (the normal number being two): in this case the eggs are very much smaller than usual, and more blotched with the reddish spots. I have found them at all heights from the ground up to 30 feet, and mostly in rhododendron trees. I found two nests in S. Wynaad, at an elevation of about 4000 feet, both with young, in June 1873.”
Mr. C.J.W. Taylor informs us that he procured the nest of this bird with three fresh eggs at Manzeerabad in Mysore on the 7th April.
Colonel Legge tells us that this Bulbul breeds in Ceylon from January till March.
That the Nilghiris bird should lay usually only _two_ eggs, and this seems a well ascertained fact, while our very closely allied Himalayan form lays, as I can personally certify, regularly _four_, is certainly very strange.
The eggs of this species, sent me from the Nilghiris by Messrs. Carter and Davison, very closely resemble those of _H. psaroides_ from the Himalayas. The eggs are of course of the Bulbul type, but in form are typically much more elongated and conical than the true Bulbuls. The ground-colour varies from white to a delicate pink. The markings consist of different shades of deep red and pale washed-out purple. In some the markings are bold, large, and blotchy, in others minute and speckly; and in both forms there is a tendency to confluence towards the large end, where there is commonly a more or less perfect, but irregular, zone. The eggs though smooth and satiny have commonly little or no gloss, and, considering their size, are very delicate and fragile.
In length they vary from 1.0 to 1.17, and in breadth from 0.7 to 0.8.
275. Hemixus macclellandi (Horsf.). _The Rufous-bellied Bulbul_.
Hypsipetes mclellandi, _Horsf., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 79. Hypsipetes m’clellandii, _Horsf., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 447.
The Rufous-bellied Bulbul, according to Mr. Hodgson’s notes, breeds in the central region of Nepal, and low down nearly to the Terai, from April to June. Its nest is a shallow saucer suspended between a slender horizontal fork, to the twigs of which it is firmly bound like an Oriole’s with vegetable fibres and roots. It is composed of roots and dry leaves bound together with fibres, and lined with fine grass or moss-roots. The bird is said to lay four eggs, but these are neither figured nor described.
Dr. Scully writes from Nepal:–“This Bulbul is common throughout the year on the hills round the valley of Nepal, but never tenants the central woods. It is generally found in bushes and bush trees, not in high tree-forest; and is commonly seen in pairs. The breeding-season appears to be May and June. A nest was taken on the 6th June, which contained two fresh eggs. The nest was somewhat oval in shape, measuring 3.35 inches in length and 2.5 across; the egg-cavity was about 1 inch deep in the centre, and the bottom of the nest 1.25 thick. It was attached to a slender fork of a tree, and was composed externally of ferns, dry leaves, roots, grass, and a little moss, bound together with fine black hair-like fibres, which were wound round the prongs of the fork so as regularly to suspend the nest like an Oriole’s. There was a regular lining, distinct from the body of the nest, composed of fine long yellowish grass-stems, and a little cobweb was spread here and there over the branches of the fork and the outside of the nest. The eggs are rather long ovals, smaller at one end, and fairly glossy; they measure 1.0 by 0.7, and 0.97 by 0.7. The ground-colour is pure pinkish white, abundantly speckled and finely spotted with reddish purple; the spots closely crowded together at the large end, but not confluent, forming in one egg a broadish zone, and in the other a cap; in the latter egg there are a few faint underlying stains of purplish inky at the large end.”
Two eggs sent me by Mr. Mandelli from Darjeeling, said to belong to this species, are elongated ovals, much pointed towards the small end. The shell is fine and fairly glossy; the ground-colour a dull salmon-pink, and they are profusely and minutely freckled, speckled, and streaked (so densely at the large end that the markings there are almost confluent) with dull reddish purple.
The eggs measure 1.06 and 1.11 by 0.67.
277. Alcurus striatus (Bl.). _The Striated Green Bulbul_.
Alcurus striatus (_Bl._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 81.
Mr. Mandelli sent me a nest of this species which was found, he said, on the 8th May about 4 feet from the ground amongst the foliage of a kind of prickly bamboo growing out of the crevices of a patch of large stones near Lebong (elevation 5000 feet), and contained two eggs nearly ready to hatch. The nest is a shallow cup, about 3.75 inches in diameter and 1.5 in height externally, composed entirely of fine brown fibrous roots, a little bound together outside with wool and the silk of cocoons and with two or three little bits of moss stuck about it, and sparingly lined with hair-like grass. It is altogether a light brown nest, no dark material being used in it at all. The cavity is 2.75 inches in diameter and about 1 deep.
278. Molpastes haemorrhous (Gm.). _The Madras Red-vented Bulbul_.
Pycnonotus haemorrhous (_Gm._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 94. Molpastes pusillus (_Bl._), _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 462.
The Madras Red-vented Bulbul, which by the way extends northwards throughout the Central Provinces, Chota-Nagpoor, Rajpootana (the eastern portions), the plains of the North-Western Provinces, Oudh, Behar, and Western Bengal, breeds in the plains country chiefly in June and July, although a few eggs _may_ also be found in April, May, and August. In the Nilghiris the breeding-season is from February to April, both months included.
Elsewhere I have recorded the following notes on the nidification of this species in the neighbourhood of Bareilly:–
“Close to the tank is a thick clump of sal-trees (_Shorea robusta_), the great building-timber of Northern India, whose natural home is in that vast sub-Himalayan belt of forest which passes only 30 miles to the north of Bareilly.
“In one of these a Common Madras Bulbul had made its home. The nest was compact and rather massive, built in a fork, on and round a small twig. Externally it was composed of the stems (with the leaves and flowers still on them) of a tiny groundsel-like (_Senecio_) asteraceous plant, amongst which were mingled a number of quite dead and skeleton leaves and a few blades of dry grass: inside, rather coarse grass was tightly woven into a lining for the cavity, which was deep, being about 2 inches in depth by 3 inches in diameter.
“This is the common type of nest; but half an hour later, and scarcely 100 yards further on, we took another nest of this same species. This one was built in a mango-tree, towards the extremity of one of the branches, where it divided into four upright twigs, between which the Bulbul had firmly planted his dwelling. Externally it was as usual chiefly composed of the withered stems of the little asteraceous plant, interwoven with a few jhow-shoots (_Tamarix dioica_) and a little tow-like fibre of the putsan (_Hibiscus cannabinus_), while a good deal of cobweb was applied externally here and there. The interior was lined with excessively fine stems of some herbaceous exogenous plant, and there did not appear to be a single dead leaf or a single particle of grass in the whole nest.
“The eggs, however, in both nests, three in each, closely resembled each other, being of a delicate pink ground, with reddish-brown and purplish-grey spots and blotches nearly equally distributed over the whole surface of the egg, the reddish brown in places becoming almost a maroon-red. Two eggs, however, that we took out of a nest, similar to the first in structure but situated like the second in a mango-tree, were of a somewhat different character and very different in tint. The ground was dingy reddish pink, and the whole of the egg was thickly mottled all over with very deep blood-red, the mottlings being so thick at the large end as to form an almost perfectly confluent cap. Altogether the colouring of these two eggs reminded one of richly coloured types of _Neophron’s_ eggs. Some of the Bulbuls’ eggs that we have taken earlier in the season were much feebler coloured than any of those obtained to-day, and presented a very different appearance, with a pinkish-white ground, and only moderately thickly but very uniformly speckled all over with small spots of light purplish grey, light reddish brown, and very dark brown. These eggs scarcely seem to belong to the same bird as the boldly blotched and richly-mottled specimens that we have taken to-day.”
Writing from the neighbourhood of Delhi, Mr. F.R. Blewitt says: “This Bulbul breeds from the middle of May to about the middle of August. Its selection of a tree for its nest is arbitrary, as I have found the latter on almost every variety of bush and tree. The nest is neatly cup-shaped, generally fragile in structure, though I have seen many a nest strong and compact. The outer diameter of the nest varies from 3 to nearly 4 inches, and the inner diameter from 2 to almost 3 inches.
“The chief material of the nest is, on the outside, coarse grass, with fine _khus_ or fine grass for the lining. Very frequently horsehair is likewise used for lining the interior of the cavity.
“I have seen some nests bound round on the outside with hemp, other kinds of vegetable fibres, and even spider’s web.
“The regular number of the eggs is four.”
Mr. W. Theobald found the present species breeding in Monghyr in the fourth week of June.
Mr. Nunn remarks:–“I took a nest of this species at Hoshungabad on 26th June, 1868, which contained four eggs; it was placed in a lime-tree, was composed of very small twigs, and lined inside with fine grass-roots; it was cup-shaped, and measured internally 2.25 inches in breadth by 1.75 in depth.”
The late Mr. A. Anderson wrote from Futtehgurh:–“On the 30th April last (1874) I took a very beautifully and curiously constructed nest of our Common Bulbul. In shape and size it resembled the ordinary nest, but the curious part of it was that the upper portion of the nest for an inch all round was composed entirely of _green twigs_ of the neem tree on which it was built, and the under surface (below) was felted with fresh blossoms belonging to the same tree. The green twigs had evidently been broken off by the birds, but the flowers were picked up from off the ground, where they were lying thick.”
Colonel Butler says:–“The Madras Red-vented Bulbul breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa all through the hot weather and in the monsoon. I found a nest at Mount Aboo in a garden on the 15th of April in the middle of a pot of sweet peas, containing three fresh eggs. I found other nests in Deesa, from the 11th May to 20th August, each containing three eggs.
“The nest is usually built of dry grass-stems, lined with fine roots and a few horsehairs neatly woven together. One nest I found was in a very remarkable situation, viz. inside an uninhabited bungalow upon the top of a door leading out of a sitting-room; the door was open and the bolt at the top had been forced back, and it was between the top of the door and the top of the bolt that the nest rested. The old bird entered the building by passing first of all through the lattice-work of the verandah, and then through a broken window-pane into the room where the nest was built.”
Mr. R.M. Adam informs us that this bird breeds at Sambhur during June and July.
Lieut. H.E. Barnes, speaking of Rajputana in general, states that this Bulbul breeds from April to September. Nests are occasionally found even earlier than this, but they are exceptions to the general rule.
Major C.T. Bingham writes:–“The first nest I have a note of taking was at Allahabad on the 2nd April. At Delhi it breeds from the end of April to the end of July; I have, however, found most nests in May. All have been firmly made little cups of slender twigs, sometimes dry stems of some herbaceous plant, and lined with fine grass-roots. Five is the usual number of eggs laid.”
Mr. G.W. Vidal, writing of the South Konkan, says:–“Abundant everywhere. Breeds in April, and again in September.”
Dr. Jerdon, whose experience of this species had been gained mainly in Madras, states that “it breeds from June to September, according to the locality. The nest is rather neat, cup-shaped, made of roots and grass, lined with hair, fibres, and spiders’ webs[A], placed at no great height in a shrub or hedge. The eggs are pale pinkish, with spots of darker lake-red, most crowded at the thick end. Burgess describes them as a rich madder colour, spotted and blotched with grey and madder-brown: Layard as pale cream, with darker markings.”
[Footnote A: This is some _lapsus pennae_. Spiders’ webs are sometimes used exteriorly never as a lining.]
Mr. Benjamin Aitken writes:–“The Common Bulbul lays at Khandalla in May, but I never found a nest in the plains till after the rains had set in. I have found one nest in Bombay, one in Poona, and two in Berar, as late as October; and my brother found a nest in Berar in September, with three eggs which were duly hatched.”
Writing from the Nilghiris, Miss Cockburn says that “the nests, which in shape closely resemble those of the Southern Red-whiskered Bulbul, are composed chiefly of grass. The eggs are three in number, and may occasionally be found in any month of the year, though most plentiful during February, March, and April.”
In shape the eggs are typically rather long ovals, slightly compressed or pointed towards the small end. Some are a good deal pointed and elongated; a few are tolerably perfect broad ovals, and abnormal shapes are not very uncommon. The ground is universally pinkish or reddish white (in old eggs which have been kept a long time a sort of dull French white), of which more or less is seen according to the extent of the markings. These markings take almost every conceivable form, defined and undefined–specks, spots, blotches, streaks, smudges, and clouds; their combinations are as varied as their colours, which embrace every shade of red, brownish, and purplish red. As a rule, besides the primary markings, feeble secondary markings of pale inky purple are exhibited, often only perceptible when the egg is closely examined, sometimes so numerous as to give the ground-colour of the egg a universal purple tint. In about half the eggs there is a tendency to exhibit, more or less, an irregular zone or cap at the large end, but solitary eggs occur in which there is a cap at the small end. Three pretty well marked types may be separately described. First, an egg thickly mottled and streaked all over with deep blood-red, which is entirely confluent over one third of the surface, namely at the large end, and leaves less than a third of the ground-colour visible as a paler mottling over the rest of the surface. Then there is another type with a very delicate pure pink ground, and with a few large, bold, deep red blotches, chiefly at the large end, where they are intermingled with a few small pale inky-purple clouds, and with only a few spots and specks of the former colour scattered over the rest of the surface. Lastly, there is a pale dingy pink ground, speckled almost uniformly, but only moderately thickly, over the whole surface, with minute specks and spots of blood-red and pale inky purple.
The dimensions are excessively variable. In length the eggs vary from 0.7 to 1.02, and in breadth from 0.6 to 0.75, but the average of sixty eggs measured was 0.89 by 0.65.
279. Molpastes burmanicus (Sharpe). _The Burmese Red-vented Bulbul._
The Burmese Red-vented Bulbul occurs from Manipur down to Rangoon. Writing from Upper Pegu, Mr. Oates says:–“On the 29th July I found a nest in the extremity of a bamboo-frond forming one of a large clump near my house at Boulay. It was circular, the internal diameter about 2.5 and the external 4 inches; the depth inside 1.5, and the total height 2.5. Foundation of dead leaves, the bulk of the nest coarse grass and small roots, and the interior of much finer grass carefully curved to shape. Altogether the nest was a very pretty structure. Two eggs measured 0.9 by 0.62 and 0.65. Another nest found at the same time was placed in a small shrub about 4 feet from the ground. It was very similar in construction and size to the above and contained three eggs.”
Subsequently writing from Lower Pegu, he says:–“Breeds abundantly from May to September, and has no particular preference for any one month.”
281. Molpastes atricapillus (Vieill.). _The Chinese Red-vented Bulbul_.
Molpastes atricapillus (_V.), Hume, cat._ no. 462 ter.
Mr. J. Darling, Jr., found a nest of the Chinese Red-vented Bulbul in Tenasserim with three fresh eggs on the 16th March. It was built in a bush little more than a foot above the ground on a hill-side.
Except that they seem to run smaller, these eggs are not distinguishable from those of the other species of this genus, and there is really nothing to add to the description already given of the eggs of _M. Haemorrhous_. The three eggs measured 0.79 by 0.6.
282. Molpastes bengalensis (Blyth). _The Bengal Red-vented Bulbul_.
Pycnonotus pygaeus (_Hodgs.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 93. Molpastes pygmaeus (_Hodgs.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 461.
I have taken many nests of the Bengal Red-vented Bulbul in many localities, and while the birds vary, getting less typical as you go westwards, the nests are all pretty much the same, though the eastern birds go in rather more for dead leaves than the western. Sikhim birds are very typical, and I will therefore confine myself to quoting a note I made there.
Several nests taken at Darjeeling in June, at elevations of from 2000 to 4000 feet, each contained three or four, more or less incubated, eggs. The nests were mostly very compact and rather deep cups about 31/2 inches in diameter and 2 inches in height, very firmly woven of moss and grass-roots, but with a certain quantity of dry and dead leaves, and here and there a little cobweb worked into the outer surface. Sometimes a little fine grass was used as a lining; but generally there was no lining, only the roots that were used in finishing off the interior of the nests were rather finer than those employed elsewhere. The egg-cavity is very large for the size of the nest, the sides, though very firm and compact, being scarcely above half an inch in thickness. The nests differ very much in appearance, owing to the fact that in some all the roots used are black, in others pale brown.
Mr. Gammie says:–“I took two or three nests of this species in the latter half of May at Mongpho, in Sikhim, at elevations of 3500 feet or thereabouts. They contained three eggs each, hard-set. The nests were in trees, at a moderate height, and rather flimsy structures; shallow caps, composed externally of fine twigs and vegetable fibre, and generally some dead leaves intermingled, especially towards their basal portions, and lined with the fine hair-like stem portion of the flowering tops of grass. One nest measured internally 21/2 inches in diameter by nearly 11/2 inch in depth; externally it was nearly 4 inches in diameter and 2 inches in height. The eggs were of the usual type.”
Mr. J.R. Cripps, writing from Fureedpore, Eastern Bengal, says:–“Excessively common and a permanent resident; commits great havoc in gardens amongst tomatoes and chillies, the red colour of which seems to attract them. Builds its nest in very exposed places and at all heights from two to thirty feet off the ground, in bushes and trees. One nest I saw containing two young ones, on the 28th June, was built on a small date-tree which stood on the side of a road along which people were passing all day, and within six feet of them. The nest was only five feet from the ground, but the materials of which it was made and the colour of the bird assimilated so perfectly with the bark of the tree that detection was difficult. I have found the nests with eggs from the 3rd of April to the end of June; dead leaves and cobwebs were incorporated with the twigs and grasses in all nests which I have seen in Dacca. The natives keep these birds for fighting purposes; large sums are lost at times on these combats.”
Writing from Nepal, Dr. Scully remarks:–“It breeds in May and June in the Residency grounds, the nests being very commonly placed in small pine-trees (_Pinus longifolia_). Three is the usual number of eggs found, and a clutch taken on the 29th May measured in length from 0.85 to 0.93, and in breadth from 0.64 to 0.65.”
I have fully described the leading types of the eggs of these Bulbuls under _Molpastes haemorrhous_. I shall therefore only here say that the eggs of this species in shape and colour exactly resemble those of its congener, but that as a body they are larger in size; every variety observable in the eggs of the one is, as far as I know, to be