The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 written by Allan O. Hume

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Mr. Davison informs me that "this species breeds on the Nilghiris from
about 5500 feet to about 7000 during April and May, building in holes
of trees, crevices of rocks, &c., seldom at any great elevation
above the ground. The nest is composed of moss, lined with moss and
fern-roots. Two or three eggs are laid."

The few eggs I possess, which I owe to Messrs. Carter and Davison, and
which were taken by them in the Nilghiris, have a pale olive-brown
ground with, at the large end, an ill-defined mottled reddish-brown
cap. In some specimens the mottling extends more or less over the
whole egg, though always most dense about the larger end. Though much
larger and of a more elongated shape, they not a little resemble some
specimens of the eggs of _Pratincola indica_ that I possess. In shape
they are long ovals, recalling in that respect those of _Myiophoneus
temmincki_; they have less gloss than the eggs of most of the
Thrushes.

In length they vary from 0.97 to 1.02 inch, and in breadth from 0.65
to 0.69 inch.

197. Drymochares cruralis (Blyth). _The White-browed Short-wing_

Brachypteryx cruralis (Bl.), _Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 495; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 338.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and drawings, the White-browed
Short-wing breeds in April and May. It constructs its nest a foot or
so above the ground amongst grass and creeping-plants at the base of
trunks of trees; it is composed of moss and moss-roots, is somewhat
globular in shape, and is firmly attached to the creepers; dried
bamboo-leaves and pieces of fern are here and there fixed to the
exterior, and the nest is lined with hair-like fibres; the entrance is
at one side and circular. One nest measured 7 inches in height, 5.5
in width, and 3.38 from front to back. The aperture was 2 inches in
diameter. The eggs (four in number, or at times three) are pure white,
broad ovals, pointed at one end, measuring 0.9 by 0.65 inch.
This species breeds in the central regions of Nepal and in the
neighbourhood of Darjeeling.

Three nests of this species found early in June in Sikhim and Nepal,
at elevations of 5000 to 8000 feet, contained respectively 2, 3, and 4
fresh eggs. They were all placed in brushwood at 2 to 3 feet above
the ground, and they are all precisely similar, being rather massive
shallow cups, composed of very fine black roots firmly felted
together, and with a few dead leaves or scraps of moss in most of them
incorporated in one portion or other of the outer surface. The nests
are about 4 inches in diameter and 2 in height; the cavity is about
2 inches in diameter and 1 in depth; but, owing to the positions in
which they are placed, they are often more or less irregularly shaped.

Mr. Mandelli obtained three eggs which he considers to belong to this
species, on the 3rd June, near Darjeeling. I rather question the
authenticity of these eggs. They are pure white and devoid of gloss,
moderately elongated ovals, only slightly compressed towards the
smaller end. They vary from 0.83 to 0.91 in length and from 0.61 to
0.64 in breadth.

198. Drymochares nepalensis (Hodgs.). _The Nepal Short-wing_.

Brachypteryx nipalensis, _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 494.

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"A nest taken by me on the 15th
of June at 5000 feet, close to a large forest, contained three
slightly-set eggs. It was placed on the moss-covered trunk of a fallen
tree, and was hooded, with an entrance at the side; rather neatly
made of dry leaves with an outer covering of green moss, and an inner
lining of skeletonized leaves and black fibrous roots. Externally it
measures 5 inches in height by about the same in width; internally 3
inches high by 2.4 across. The entrance was 2.3 in diameter. The
front of the egg-cavity is but slightly depressed below the entrance,
gradually sloping backwards to the depth of nearly an inch."

All the nests of this species that I have seen were of the same type,
more or less globular, more or less hooded or domed, according to the
situation in which they were placed, composed of dry flags and dead
and more or less skeleton leaves, bound together with a little
vegetable fibre and some moss, but chiefly with fine black fibrous
roots, with which the entire cavity is densely lined, inside which
again is a coating of more skeleton leaves; they measure exteriorly 4
or 5 inches in diameter, and the cavities are a little above 2 by 2.5
inches in diameter.

Mr. Mandelli found two of these nests at Lebong (elevation 5500 feet),
near Darjeeling, on the 8th July. One contained three fresh eggs, the
other three slightly incubated ones. They were about 12 yards apart,
in a very shady damp glen, in very dense underwood, to the stems of
which they were attached in a standing position about 3 feet from the
ground. The entrance was on one side in both cases.

The eggs of this species obtained by Mr. Gammie belong to the same
type as those of _Brachypteryx rufiventris_ and _B. albiventris_. In
shape they are moderately elongated, rather regular ovals, somewhat
obtuse at both ends. The shell is fine and compact, and very smooth to
the touch, but they have not much gloss. The ground is a pale olive
stone-colour, and they are very minutely freckled and mottled, most
densely at the large end, with pale, very slightly reddish brown; the
freckling is excessively minute and fine.

Two eggs measured 0.8 and 0.82 in length by 0.6 in breadth.

200. Elaphrornis palliseri (Blyth). _The Ceylon Short-wing_.

Brachypteryx palliseri, _Bl., Hume, cat._ no. 338 bis.

Colonel Legge, writing in his 'Birds of Ceylon,' says:--"Mr. Bligh
found a nest at Nuwara Eliya in April 1870; it was placed in a thick
cluster of branches on the top of a somewhat densely-foliaged small
bush, which stood in a rather open space near the foot of a large
tree; it was in shape a deep cup, composed of greenish moss, lined
with fibrous roots and the hair-like appendages of the green moss
which festoons the trees in such abundance at that elevation. It
contained three young ones, plumaged exactly like their parents,
who kept churring in the thick bushes close by, but would not show
themselves much."

201. Tesia cyaniventris, Hodgs. _The Slaty-bellied Short-wing_.

Tesia cyaniventer, _Hodgs., Jerd, B. Ind._ i, p. 487; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 328.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes, the Slaty-bellied Short-wing breeds
much like the next species. It constructs a huge globular nest of
green moss and black moss-roots, which it fixes in any dense dry shrub
or clump of shoots, many of which it incorporates in the walls of the
nest. The nest measures externally about 7 inches in height and 5
inches in width; it has a circular aperture on one side, a little
above the middle, about 2 inches in diameter, and it is placed at a
height of one or two feet from the ground. Three or four eggs are
laid; these are figured as rather broad ovals, somewhat pointed
towards one end, with a whitish ground, profusely speckled and
spotted, especially towards the large end, where the markings are
nearly confluent, with bright red, and measuring 0.72 by 0.54 inch.

202. Oligura castaneicoronata (Burt.). _The Chestnut-headed
Short-wing_.

Tesia castaneo-coronata (_Burt.), Jerd. E. Ind._ i, p. 487; _Hume,
Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 327.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and figures, the Chestnut-headed
Short-wing builds a large globular nest, more or less egg-shaped, some
6 inches high and 4 in breadth, composed of moss-roots and fibres, and
lined with feathers, and with a circular aperture in the middle of one
side about 1.5 inch in diameter. The nest is placed in some clump of
shoots or thick bush (the twigs of which are more or less incorporated
in the sides of the nest) at a height of 1 or 2 feet from the ground.
The birds lay in April and May three or four eggs, which are figured
as moderately broad ovals, somewhat pointed at one end, reddish
(apparently something like a Prinia's, though this seems incredible),
and measuring 0.66 by 0.48 inch.

Dr. Jerdon says:--"A nest made chiefly of moss, with four small white
eggs, was brought me as the nest of this bird. It was of the ordinary
shape, rather loosely put together, and the walls of great thickness.
It was taken from the ground on a steep bank near the stump of a
tree."

The three eggs in my museum supposed to belong to this species
pertained to this nest, and are excessively tiny, somewhat oval eggs
of a pure, dull, glossless unspotted white, very unlike our English
Wren's egg and certainly not one half the size. Dr. Jerdon was not
quite certain to which species of _Tesia_ these eggs belonged, and I
therefore only record this "_quantum valeat_". They measure 0.55
and 0.6 inch in length by 0.4, 0.42, and 0.45 inch in breadth. I am
inclined to believe that both nest and eggs belonged to _Pnoepyga
pusilla_, Hodgs.

Subfamily SIBIINAE.

203. Sibia picaoides, Hodgs. _The Long-tailed Sibia_.

Sibia picaoides, _Hodgs. Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 55; _Hume, Rough Draft
N. & E._ no. 430.

Mr. Gammie obtained a nest of the Long-tailed Sibia from the top of
a tall tree, situated at an elevation of about 4000 feet, in the
neighbourhood of Rungbee, near Darjeeling. This was on the 17th June,
and the nest contained five fresh eggs. The nest is as perplexing as
are the eggs; for the nest is that of a Bulbul, the eggs those of a
Shrike or Minivet. The nest is a deep compact cup, about 41/2 inches in
diameter and 23/4 inches in depth. The egg-cavity is 3 inches across and
fully 13/4 inch in depth. Interiorly the nest is composed of excessively
fine grass-stems very firmly interwoven; externally of the stems of
some herbaceous plant, a Chenopod, to which the dry blossoms are still
attached, intermingled with coarse grass, a single dead leaf, and one
or two broad grass-blades more or less broken up into fibres.

The eggs, for the authenticity of which Mr. Gammie positively vouches,
are very unlike what might have been expected. They are absolutely
Shrike's eggs--broad ovals, pointed towards one end, with a slight
gloss, the ground a slightly greyish white, with a good many small
spots and specks of pale yellowish brown and dingy purple, chiefly
confined to a large irregular zone towards the larger end. They vary
in length from 0.86 to 0.93, and in breadth from 0.7 to 0.73.

204. Lioptila capistrata (Vigors). _The Black-headed Sibia_.

Sibia capistrata (_Vig.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 54; _Hume, Rough Draft
N. & E._ no. 429.

The Black-headed Sibia lays throughout the Himalayas from Afghanistan
to Bhootan, at elevations of from 5000 to 7000 feet.

It lays during May and June, and perhaps part of July, for I find that
on the 11th of July I found a nest of this species a little below the
lake at Nynee Tal, on the Jewli Road, containing two young chicks
apparently not a day old.

They build on the outskirts of forests, constructing their nests
towards the ends of branches, at heights of from 10 to 50 feet from
the ground. The nest is a neat cup, some 4 or 5 inches in diameter and
perhaps 3 inches in height, composed chiefly of moss and lined
with black moss-roots and fibres. In some of the nests that I have
preserved a good deal of grass-leaves and scraps of lichen are
incorporated in the moss. The cavity is deep, from 21/2 to 3 inches in
diameter and not much less than 2 inches in depth.

They lay two or three eggs; not more, so far as I yet know.

From Murree, Colonel C.H.T. Marshall tells us that "the egg of this
bird was, we believe, previously unknown, and it was a mere chance
that we found the whereabouts of their nests, as they breed high up in
the spruce firs at the outer end of a bough. The nest is neatly made
of moss, lined with stalks of the maiden-hair fern. The eggs are pale
blue, spotted and blotched with pale and reddish brown. They are .95
in length and .7 in breadth. This species breeds in June, about 7000
feet up."

Nearly twenty years prior to this, however, Captain Hutton had
remarked:--"At Mussoorie this bird remains at an elevation of 7000
feet throughout the year, but I never saw it under 6500 feet. Its loud
ringing note of _titteree-titteree tweeyo_, quickly repeated, may
constantly be heard on wooded banks during summer. It breeds in May,
making a neat nest of coarse dry grasses as a foundation, covered
laterally with green moss and wool and lined with fine roots. The
number of eggs I did not ascertain, as the nest was destroyed when
only one egg had been deposited, but the colour is pale bluish white,
freckled with rufous. The nest was placed on a branch of a plum-tree
in the Botanical Garden, Mussoorie."

Captain Cock says that he "found this species breeding at Murree, at
6000 feet elevation.

"I took my first nest on the 5th June.

"It builds near the tops of the highest pines, and unless seen
building its nest with the glasses, it is impossible to find the nest
with the unaided eye.

"The nest is placed on the outer extremity of an upper bough in a
pine-tree; is constructed of moss lined with stalks of the maiden-hair
fern. Three eggs is the largest number I ever found. The eggs are
light greenish white, with rusty spots and blotches principally at the
larger end."

From Nynee Tal Colonel G.F.L. Marshall writes:--"This species builds
in trees and bushes. The only nest I examined personally was a very
compact and thick cup-shaped structure of moss, grass, and roots,
lined with grass, and placed amongst the outer twigs of a blackberry
bush overhanging a cliff. It was ready for the eggs on the 23rd May.
It was found at Nynee Tal on Agar Pata, about 7000 feet above the
sea."

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"I have only myself taken two nests of
this common species. I found both of them the same day (the 21st May),
in the Chinchona reserves, at an elevation of about 5000 feet. Both
nests were in the forest, built on the outer branches of trees, at
heights the one of 15, the other of 40 feet from the ground. The nests
were cup-shaped, and very neatly made of moss, leaves and fibres, and
lined with black fibres. One measured externally 4.6 in diameter by
2.75 in height, and internally 2.4 in diameter and 1.7 in depth. One
nest contained two fresh, the other two hard-set eggs; so perhaps two
is the normal number, though the natives say that they lay three. As
might be expected from the bird's habit of feeding on the insects on
moss-covered trees in moist forests, the nests were in forest by the
sides of streams."

The eggs are rather broad, slightly pyriform ovals, often a good deal
pulled out as it were at the small end. The shell is fine, but almost
entirely devoid of gloss. The ground-colour is a pale greenish white
or very pale bluish green. The markings are various and complicated:
first there are usually a few large, irregular, moderately dark
brownish-red spots and splashes; then there are a very few, very dark,
reddish-brown hair-lines, such as one finds on Buntings' eggs; then
there is a good deal of clouding and smudging here and there of pale,
dingy purplish or brownish red (all these markings are most numerous
towards the large end); and then besides these, and almost entirely
confined to the large end, are a few pale purple specks and spots.
Sometimes the markings are almost wholly confined to the thicker end
of the egg. Of course the eggs vary somewhat, and in some specimens
the characteristic Bunting-like hair-lines are almost wholly wanting.
The eggs vary in length from 0.95 to 1.0, and in breadth from 0.66 to
0.72.

205. Lioptila gracilis (McClell.). _The Grey Sibia_.

Malacias gracilis (_McClell.), Hume, cat._ no. 429 bis.

Colonel Godwin-Austen is, I believe, the only ornithologist who has
as yet secured the nest and eggs of the Grey Sibia. He says:--"In the
pine forest that covers the slopes of the hills descending into the
Umian valley in Assam, one of my men marked a nest on June 25th; I
proceeded to the spot soon after I had heard of it, and on coming up
to the tree, a pine, saw the female fly off out of the head of it.
But the nest was so well hidden by the boughs of the fir, that it was
quite invisible from below. The bird after a short time came back, and
then I saw it was _Sibia gracilis_; but it was very shy and seeing
us went off again, and hung about the trees at a distance of some 50
yards; while thus waiting, some four or five others were also seen.
The female, however, would not venture back, and I sent one of my
Goorkhas up, to cut off the head of the fir, nest and all, first
taking out the eggs. It contained three, of a pale sea-green, with
ash-brown streakings and blotchings all over.

"The nest was constructed of dry grass, moss, and rootlets, and the
green spinules of the fir were worked into it, fixing it most firmly
in its place in the crown of the pine where it was much forked."

206. Lioptila melanoleuca (Bl.). _Tickell's Sibia_.

Malacias melanoleucus (_Bl.), Hume, cat._ no. 429 quart.

Mr. W. Davison was fortunate enough to secure a nest of this Sibia on
Muleyit mountain in Tenasserim. He says:--"I secured a nest of this
species on the 21st of February, containing two spotless pale blue
eggs slightly incubated. The nest, a deep compactly woven cup, was
placed about 40 feet from the ground, in the fork of one of the
smaller branches of a high tree growing on the edge of a deep ravine.

"The egg-cavity of the nest is lined with fern-roots, fibres and fine
grass-stems; outside this is a thick coating of dried bamboo-leaves
and coarse grass, and outside this again is a thick irregular coating
of green moss, dried leaves, and coarse fibres and fern-roots.

"Externally the nest measures about 5 inches in height, and nearly the
same in external diameter at the top.

"The egg-cavity measures 1.7 deep by 2.7 across.

"The eggs, a pale spotless blue, measure 0.95 and 0.98 in length by
0.66 and 0.68 in breadth."

211. Actinodura egertoni, Gould. _The Rufous Bar-wing_.

Actinodura egertoni, _Gould, Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 52; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 427.

There is no figure of the Rufous Bar-wing's nest or eggs amongst the
original drawings of Mr. Hodgson now in my custody, but in the British
Museum series there appears to be, since Mr. Blyth remarks:--"Mr.
Hodgson figures the nest of this bird like that of an English
Redbreast, with pinkish-white eggs."

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"On the 27th April I took a nest of
this Bar-wing in a large forest at an elevation of about 5000 feet.
It was placed about 20 feet from the ground, in a leafy tree, between
several upright shoots, to which it was firmly attached. It is
cup-shaped, mainly composed of dry leaves held together by slender
climber-stems, and lined with dark-coloured fibrous roots. A few
strings of green moss were twined round the outside to assist in
concealment. Externally it measures 4.2 inches wide by 4 deep;
internally 2.8 wide and 2.4 deep. It contained but two slightly-set
eggs.

"I killed the female off the nest."

Several nests have been obtained and sent me by Messrs. Gammie and
Mandelli. One was taken on the 4th May by Mr. Mandelli, at Lebong, at
an elevation of 5500 feet, which contained three fresh eggs; this
was placed on the branches of a small tree, in the midst of dense
brushwood, at a height of about 4 feet from the ground.

Another, taken in a similar situation at the same place on the 22nd
May, contained two fresh eggs, and was at a height of about 12 feet
from the ground.

These nests vary just in the same way as do those of _Trochalopterum
nigrimentum_; some show only a sprig or two of moss about them, while
others have a complete coating of green moss. They are cup-shaped,
some deeper, some shallower; the chief material of the nest seems to
be usually dry leaves. One before me is composed entirely of some
_Polypodium_, on which the seed-spores are all fully developed; in
another, bamboo-leaves have been chiefly used; these are all held
together in their places by black fibrous roots; occasionally towards
the upper margin a few creeper-tendrils are intermingled. The whole
cavity is lined more or less thickly, and the lip of the cup all round
is usually finished of with these same black fibrous roots; and then
outside all moss and selaginella are applied according to the taste
of the bird and, probably, the situation--a few sprigs or a complete
coating, as the case may be.

Two eggs of this species sent me by Mr. Gammie are regular, slightly
elongated ovals, with very thin and fragile shells, and fairly but not
highly glossy. The ground is a delicate pale sea-green, and they are
profusely blotched, spotted, and marked with curious hieroglyphic-like
figures of a sort of umber-brown; while about the larger end numerous
spots and streaks of pale lilac occur.

These eggs measure 0.98 in length, by 0.65 and 0.68 in breadth.

Other eggs obtained by Mr. Mandelli early in June are quite of the
same type, but somewhat shorter, measuring 0.85 and 0.93 in length by
0.68 and 0.7 in breadth. But the markings are rather more smudgy
and rather paler, and there are fewer of the hair-like streaks and
hieroglyphics.

213. Ixops nepalensis (Hodgs.). _The Hoary Bar-wing_.

Actinodura nipalensis (_Hodgs.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p. 53; _Hume,
Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 428.

The Hoary Bar-wing is said in Mr. Hodgson's notes to breed from April
to June in Sikhim and the central region of Nepal up to an elevation
of 4000 or 6000 feet. The nest is placed in holes, in crevices
between rocks and stones; is circular and saucer-shaped. One measured
externally 3.62 in diameter by 2 inches in height; the cavity measured
2.5 in diameter and 1.37 in depth. The nest is composed of fine twigs,
grass, and fibres, and externally adorned with little pieces of
lichen, and internally lined with fine moss-roots. The birds are said
to lay from three to four eggs, which are not described, but they are
figured as pinky white, about 0.85 in length and 0.55 in width. Mr.
Blyth, however, remarks:--"One of Mr. Hodgson's drawings represents a
white egg with ferruginous spots, disposed much as in that of _Merula
vulgaris_."

Clearly there is some mistake here. Most of the drawings I have are
the originals, taken from the fresh specimens when they were obtained,
with Mr. Hodgson's own notes, on the reverse, of the dates on and
places at which he took or obtained the eggs, nests, and birds
figured, with often a description and dimensions of the two former,
and invariably full dimensions of the latter. On the other hand, the
drawings in the British Museum are mostly more finished and artistic
_copies_ of these originals; so how the spots got on to the eggs of
the British-Museum drawing I cannot say; there is no trace of such in
mine.

219. Siva strigula, Hodgs. _The Stripe-throated Siva_.

Siva strigula. _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p. 252; _Hume, Rough Draft
N. & E._ no. 616.

The nest of the Stripe-throated Siva is placed, according to Mr.
Hodgson, in the slender fork of a tree at no great elevation from the
ground. It is composed of moss and moss-roots, intermingled with dry
bamboo-leaves, and woven into a broad compact cup-shaped nest. One
such nest, taken on the 27th May, with three eggs in it, measured
exteriorly 4.25 in diameter and 3 inches in height, with a cavity
(thickly lined with cow's hair) about 2.5 in diameter and 2.25 in
depth. The birds lay in May and June. The eggs are three or sometimes
four in number; they are pale greenish blue or bluish green, and vary
in length from 0.8 to 0.9, and in breadth from 0.6 to 0.65, and are,
some thickly, some thinly, speckled and freckled, usually most densely
towards the large end, with red or brownish red. His nests were taken
both in Sikhim and Nepal.

221. Siva cyanuroptera, Hodgs. _The Blue-winged Siva_.

Siva cyanouroptera, _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 253; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 617.

The Blue-winged Siva breeds, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, in the
central regions of Nepal, and in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling, in
May and June. The nest is placed in trees, at no great elevation above
the ground, and is wedged in where three or four slender twigs make a
convenient fork. A nest taken on the 2nd June was a large compact cup,
measuring exteriorly 4.75 in diameter and 3.75 in height, and having
a cavity 2.6 in diameter and 1.87 in depth. It was composed of fine
stems of grass, dry leaves, moss, and moss-roots, bound together with
pieces of creepers, roots, and vegetable fibres, and closely lined
with fine grass-roots. They lay from three to four eggs, which are
figured as moderately broad ovals, considerably pointed towards the
small end, 0.85 in length by 0.6 in width, having a pale greenish
ground pretty thickly speckled and spotted, especially on the broader
half of the egg, with a kind of brownish brick-red.

Mr. Mandelli found a nest of this species at Lebong (elevation 5500
feet) on the 28th April. It contained four fresh eggs; it was placed
in a fork of a horizontal branch of a small tree at a height of only 3
feet from the ground. The nest is, for the size of the bird, a
large cup, externally entirely composed of green moss firmly felted
together. This outer shell of moss is thickly lined with the dead
leaves of a _Polypodium_, and this again is thinly lined with fine
grass. The nest was about 4 inches in diameter, and 2.5 in height
externally; the cavity was about 2.5 broad and 1.5 deep.