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

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Mr. W. Theobald makes the following remarks on the breeding of this
bird in the Valley of Cashmere:--

"Lays in the third week of April. Eggs four in number, ovato-pyriform,
measuring from 1.6 to 1.7 in length and from 1.2 to 1.25 in breadth.
Colour green spotted with brown; valley generally. Nest placed in
Chinar and difficult trees."

Captain Hutton tells us that the Corby "occurs at Mussoorie throughout
the year, and is very destructive to young fowls and pigeons; it
breeds in May and June, and selects a tall tree, near a house or
village, on which to build its nest, which is composed externally of
dried sticks and twigs, and lined with grass and hair, which latter
material it will pick from the backs of horses and cows, or from
skins of animals laid out to dry. I have had skins of the Surrow
(_Noemorhaedus thar_) nearly destroyed by their depredations. The eggs
are three or four in number."

From the plains I have very few notes. I transcribe a few of my own.

"On the 11th March, near Oreyah, I found a nest of a Corby--good large
stick nest, built with tamarind twigs, and placed fully 40 feet from
the ground in the fork of a mango-tree standing by itself. The nest
measured quite 18 inches in diameter and five in thickness. It was a
nearly flat platform with a central depression 8 inches in diameter,
and not more than 2 deep, but there was a solid pad of horsehair more
than an inch thick below this. I took the mass out; it must have
weighed half a pound. Four eggs much incubated.

"_Etawah, 14th March_.--Another nest at the top of one of the huge
tamarind-trees behind the Asthul: could not get up to it. A boy
brought the nest down; it was not above a foot across, and perhaps 3
inches deep; cavity about 6 inches in diameter, thickly lined with
grass-roots, inside which again was a coating of horsehair perhaps a
rupee in thickness; nest swarming with vermin. Eggs five, quite fresh;
four eggs normal; one quite round, a pure pale slightly greenish
blue, with only a few very minute spots and specks of brown having a
tendency to form a feeble zone round the large end. Measures only 1.25
by 1.2. Neither in shape, size, nor colour is it like a Corby's egg;
but it is not a Koel's, or that of any of our parasitic Cuckoos, and
I have seen at home similar pale eggs of the Rook, Hooded Crow,
Carrion-Crow, and Raven.

"_Bareilly, May 10th_.--Three fresh eggs in large nest on a
mango-tree. Nest as usual, but lined with an immense quantity of
horsehair. We brought this home and weighed it; it weighed six ounces,
and horsehair is very light."

Major C.T. Bingham writes:--

"This Crow, so common at Allahabad, is very scarce here at Delhi. In
fact I have only seen one pair.

"At Allahabad it lays in February and March. I have, however, only
found one nest, a rather loose structure of twigs and a few thick
branches with rather a deep depression in the centre. It was placed on
the very crown of a high toddy palm (_Borassus flabelliformis_) and
was unlined save for a wad of human hair, on which the eggs, two in
number, lay; these I found hard-set (on the 13th March); in colour
they were a pale greenish blue, boldly blotched, spotted, and speckled
with brown."

Colonel Butler has furnished me with the following note on the
breeding of the Jungle-Crow:--

"Belgaum, 12th March, 1880.--A nest containing four fresh eggs. It
consisted of a loose structure of sticks lined with hair and leaves,
and was placed at the top of and in the centre of a green-foliaged
tree in a well-concealed situation about 30 feet from the ground. 18th
March: Two nests, each containing three slightly incubated eggs; one
of the nests was quite low down in the centre of an 'arbor vitae'
about 12 feet from the ground. 31st March: Another nest containing
four slightly incubated eggs. Some of the latter nests were very
solidly built, and not so well Concealed. 11th April: Two more
nests, containing five incubated and three slightly incubated eggs
respectively; and on the 14th April a nest containing four slightly
incubated eggs. These birds, when the eggs are at all incubated, often
sit very close, especially if the nest is in an open situation, and in
many instances I have thrown several stones at the nest, and made as
much row as I could below without driving the old bird off, and I have
seen my nest-seeker within a few yards of the nest after climbing the
tree before the old bird flew off. On the 26th of April I found two
more nests, one containing four young birds just hatched, the other
three fresh eggs. On the 27th another nest containing three fresh
eggs, and on the 28th a nest of three fresh eggs. On the 5th May
two more nests containing four fresh and four incubated eggs
respectively."

"In the Nilghiris," writes Mr. Davison, "the Corby builds a coarse
nest of twigs, lined with cocoanut-fibre or dry grass high up in some
densely-foliaged tree. The eggs are usually four, often five, in
number. The birds lay in April and May."

Miss Cockburn again says:--"They build like all Crows on large
trees merely by laying a few sticks together on some strong branch,
generally very high up in the tree. I do not remember ever seeing more
than one nest on a tree at a time, so that they differ very much from
the Rook in that respect. They lay four eggs of a bluish green,
with dusky blotches and spots, and nothing can exceed the care and
attention they bestow on their young. Even when the latter are able
to leave their nests and take long flights, the parent birds will
accompany them as if to prevent their getting into mischief. The nests
are found in April and May."

Mr. J. Darling, jun., writes from the Nilghiris:--"I have found the
nest of this Crow pretty nearly all over the Nilghiris. The usual
number of eggs laid is four, but on one occasion, near the Quinine
Laboratory in the Government Gardens at Ooty, I procured six from one
nest. The breeding-season is from March to May, but I have taken eggs
as early as the 12th February."

From Ceylon, we hear from Mr. Layard that "about the villages the
Carrion-Crow builds its nest in the cocoanut-trees. In the jungles
it selects a tall tree, amid the upper branches of which it fixes
a framework of sticks, and on this constructs a nest of twigs
and grasses. The eggs, from three to five, are usually of a dull
greenish-brown colour, thickly mottled with brown, these markings
being most prevalent at the small end. They are usually laid in
January and February."

Mr. J.E. Cripps informs us that in Eastern Bengal it is "common and a
permanent resident. Occasionally found in the clumps of jungle that
are found about the country, which the next species never affects.
Breeds in the cold weather. I had noticed a pair building on a
Casuarina tree in my garden, about 50 feet off the ground, and on the
18th December, 1877, I took two perfectly fresh eggs from it; and
again on the 9th January, 1878, I found two callow young in this same
nest, the birds never having deserted it. The lining used for this
nest was principally jute-fibre--any tree is selected to build on; the
nests are placed from 15 to 50 feet off the ground. Some nests are
very well concealed, whereas others are quite exposed. On the 15th
January I found a nest about 15 feet up a small kudum tree, standing
in a large plain, and which had a lining of hair from the tail-tufts
of cows. There was one fresh egg, and a week later I got another fresh
egg from this very nest. From two to four eggs are in each nest."

Mr. Oates writes from Pegu:--"These birds all begin to build about the
same time, and I have taken numerous nests at the end of January. At
the end of February most nests contain young birds."

Mr. W. Theobald gives the following notes on the nidification of this
bird in Tenasserim and near Deoghur:--

"Lays in the third week of February and fourth week of March: eggs
ovato-pyriform; size 1.66 by 1.15; colour, dull sap-green much
blotched with brown; nest carefully placed in tall trees."

The eggs, though smaller, closely resemble, as might have been
expected, those of the Raven, but they are, I think, typically
somewhat broader and shorter. Almost every variety, as far as
coloration goes, to be found amongst those of the Raven, are found
amongst the eggs of the present species, and _vice versa_; and for a
description of these it is only necessary to refer to the account of
the former species; but I may notice that amongst the eggs of _C.
macrorhynchus_ I have not yet noticed any so boldly blotched as is
occasionally the case with some of the eggs of the Raven, which remind
one not a little, so far as the character of the markings go, of eggs
of _Oedicnemus crepitans_ and _Esacus recurvirostris_. Like those
of the Raven the eggs exhibit little gloss, though here and there
a fairly glossy egg is met with. Eggs from various parts of the
Himalayas, of the plains of Upper India, of the hills and plains of
Southern India, do not differ in any respect. _Inter se_ the eggs from
each locality differ surprisingly in size, in tone of colour, and in
character of markings; but when you compare a dozen or twenty from
each locality, you find that these differences are purely individual
and in no degree referable to locality.

There are just as big eggs and just as small ones from Simla and
Kotegurh, from Cashmere, from Etawah, Bareilly, Futtehgurh, from
Kotagherry, and Conoor; all that one can possibly say is that perhaps
the Plains birds do on the _average_ lay a _shade larger_ eggs than
the Himalayan or Nilghiri ones.

Taking the eggs as a whole, I think that in size and shape they are
about intermediate between the eggs of the European Carrion-Crow and
Rook. But they vary, as I said, astonishingly in size, from 1.5 to
1.95 in length, and in breadth from 1.12 to 1.22, and I have one
perfectly spherical egg, a deformity of course, which measures 1.25 by
1.2.

The average of thirty Himalayan eggs is 1.73 by 1.18, of twenty Plains
eggs 1.74 by 1.2, and of fifteen Nilghiri eggs 1.7 by 1.18. I would
venture to predict that with fifty of each, there would not be a
hundredth of an inch between their averages.

7. Corvus splendens, Vieill. _The Indian House-Crow_.

Corvus splendens, _Vieill. Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 298.
Corvus impudicus, _Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 663.

Throughout India and Upper Burma the Common Crow resides and breeds,
not ascending the hills either in Southern or Northern India to any
great elevation, but breeding up to 4000 feet in the Himalayas.

The breeding-season _par excellence_ is June and July, but occasional
nests will be found earlier even in Upper India, and in Southern and
Eastern India a great number lay in May. The nests are commonly placed
in trees without much regard to size or kind, though densely foliaged
ones are preferred, and I have just as often found several in the same
tree as single ones. At times they will build in nooks of ruins
or large deserted buildings, where these are in well inhabited
localities, but out of many thousands I have only seen three or four
nests in such abnormal positions.

The nest is placed in some fork, and is usually a ragged stick
platform, with a central depression lined with grass-roots; but they
are not particular as to material; I have found wool, rags, grass, and
all kinds of vegetable fibre, and Mr. Blyth mentions that he has "seen
several nests composed more or less, and two almost exclusively, of
the wires taken from soda-water bottles, which had been purloined from
the heaps of these wires commonly set aside by the native servants
until they amount to a saleable quantity." Four is the normal number
of eggs laid, but I often have found five, and on two occasions six.
It is in this bird's nest that the Koel chiefly lays.

Writing of Nepal, Dr. Scully remarks:--"In the valley it lays in May
and June; some twenty nests were once examined on the 23rd June, and
half the number then contained young birds."

Major Bingham says:--"Very common, of course, both at Allahabad and at
Delhi, and breeds in June, July, and beginning of August. At Allahabad
it is much persecuted by the Koel (_Eudynamys orientalis_), every
fourth or fifth nest that I found in some topes of mango-trees having
one or two of the Koel's eggs."

Colonel Butler informs me that in Karachi it "begins to lay in the
mangrove bushes in the harbour as early as the end of May;" and that
it "breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa in June, July, and August,
commencing to build in the last week of May."

Later, he writes:--"Belgaum, 15th May, 1879. Found numerous nests in
the native infantry lines in low trees, containing fresh and incubated
eggs and young birds of all sizes. In the same locality, on the 30th
March, 1880, I found a nest containing four young birds able to fly;
the eggs must therefore have been laid quite as early as the middle of
February, if not earlier."

Mr. G.W. Vidal writes:--"The Common Crow appears to have two broods in
the year in our district (Ratnagiri), the first in April and May, and
the second in November and December. In these four months I have
found nests, eggs, and young birds in several different places in the
district, and as yet at no other times. It is extremely improbable
that there should be one breeding-season lasting from April to
December, and I think I may State with certainty that the Crows _do
not_ breed at Ratnagiri during the months of heaviest rainfall,
viz. July, August, and September. As their breeding in November and
December appears to be exceptional, I subjoin a record of the few
nests I examined.

"Nov. 22, 1878. Ratnagiri:
One nest with 3 young birds.
" " 1 fresh egg.

"Nov. 23, 1878. Ratnagiri:
One nest with 1 fresh egg.
" " 1 fresh egg.

"Dec. 4, 1878. Saugmeshwar.--One nest with 3 eggs hard-set; another
nest probably containing young birds, but the Crows pecked so
viciously at the man who was climbing the tree, that he got frightened
and came down again without reaching the nest. Crows with sticks and
feathers in their mouths are flying about all day.

"Dec. 5, 1878. Aroli.--Found a nest with a Crow sitting in it; no one
to climb the tree."

Mr. Benjamin Aitken has favoured me with the following interesting
note:--"I send you an account of a nest of the Common Crow, found in
October, 1874, in the town of Madras. My attention was first directed
to the remarkable pair of Crows to which the nest belonged, in the end
of July, when they were determinedly and industriously attempting to
fix a nest on the top ledge of a pillar in the verandah of the 'Madras
Mail' office. The ledge was so narrow that one would have thought the
Sparrow alone of all known birds would have selected it for a site;
and even the Sparrow only under the condition of a writing or
toilet-table being underneath to catch the lime, sticks, straws, rags,
feathers, and other innumerable materials that commonly strew the
ground below a Sparrow's nest. I was told that the Crows had been at
their task for two months before I saw them, and I then watched them
till nearly the end of October. The celebrated spider that taught King
Bruce a lesson in patience was eager and fitful compared with this
pair of Crows. I kept no account of the number of times their
structure was blown down, only to be immediately begun again; but as
there was a good deal of rain and wind at that season, in addition to
the regular sea-breeze, it was a common thing for the sticks to be
cleared off day after day. But perseverance will often achieve seeming
impossibilities, and, moreover, the Crows worked more indefatigably as
the season went on, and used to run up their nest with great rapidity
(no doubt, also, they improved by their practice); so that several
times the structure was completed, or nearly completed, before being
swept to the ground, though how it remained in its place for a moment
seems a mystery; and twice I saw a broken egg among the scattered
_debris_. At length, about the middle of September, the Crows
determined to try the pillar at the other end of the verandah. By this
time, of course, all the Crows in Madras had long brought up their
broods and sent them adrift; and what they thought to see an eccentric
pair of their own species forsaking society, and _building_ in
September, may be imagined. The new site selected differed in no
respect from the old one, and was no less exposed to the wind; but the
birds had grown expert at building 'castles in the air,' and now met
with fewer mishaps. In the first week of October the hen bird was
sitting regularly, so on the 8th of the month I sent a man up by a
ladder, and he held up four eggs for me to look at. It fairly seemed
after this that patience was to have its reward, but on the night of
the 20th there came a storm of wind and rain, and when I went to the
office in the morning, the nest was lying on the ground, with two
young Crows in it, with the feathers just beginning to appear. The
other two, I suppose, had fallen over into the street. And thus
ended one of the most persevering attempts on record to overcome a
difficulty insurmountable from the first. The old birds thought it
time now to stop operations, and frequented the office no more.

"I am told by a gentleman in the 'Mail' office that the Crows have
built in that verandah regularly for five or six years past, but
nobody seems to have watched the nests. I am, therefore, hopeful that
the attempt will be repeated this year, in which case I will keep a
diary of all that takes place."

He writes subsequently:--"I sent you a long story in my last batch of
notes about two eccentric Crows that succeeded in building a nest upon
the narrow ledge of a pillar in the verandah of my office, several
months after all well-conducted Crows had sent out their progeny to
battle with the world. I mentioned to you that they were said to build
in that unnatural place every year, and I said that I would watch them
this year.

"Well, would you believe it? on the 26th July, when every other Crow's
nest in Madras had hard-set eggs, or newly-hatched young ones, these
two indefatigable birds set methodically to work to construct a nest
on the south pillar--the one where all their earlier efforts were made
last year, but not the one on which they succeeded in fixing their
nest. They worked all the 26th and 27th, putting up sticks as fast as
they fell down, and then desisted till the 4th August, when they began
operations on the opposite (north) pillar with redoubled energy.
Meeting with no better success they left off operations after a couple
of days' fruitless labour. Yesterday (after a delay of five weeks)
they set to work on the south pillar again and succeeded in raising
a great pile, which, however, was ignominiously blown down in the
afternoon. To-day they are continuing their work indefatigably."

Mr. J.E. Cripps has the following note in his list of birds of
Furreedpore, Eastern Bengal:--"Very common, and a permanent resident,
affecting the haunts of man. They build and lay in May. The Koel lays
its eggs in this bird's nest. In April, 1876, I saw two nests in the
compound of the house in which I lived at Howrah, which were made
_entirely_ of galvanized wire, the thickest piece of which was as
thick as a slate pencil. How the birds managed to bend these thick
pieces of wire was a marvel to us; not a stick was incorporated with
the wires, and the lining of the nest (which was of the ordinary
size) was jute and a few feathers. The railway goods-yard, which was
alongside the house, supplied the wire, of which there was ever so
much lying about there."

Typically the eggs may, I think, be said to be rather broad ovals, a
good deal pointed towards the small end; but really the eggs vary so
much in shape that, even with nearly two hundred before me, it is
difficult to decide what is really the most typical form. Pyriform,
elongated, and globular varieties are common; long Cormorant-shaped
eggs and perfect ovals are not uncommon. As regards the colour of the
ground, and colour, character, and extent of marking, all that I have
above said of the Raven's eggs applies to those of this species, but
varieties occur amongst those of the latter which I have not observed
in those of the former. In some the ground is a very pale pure
bluish green, in others it is dingier and greener. All are blotched,
speckled, and streaked more or less with somewhat pale sepia markings;
but in some the spots and specks are a darker brown and, as a rule,
well defined, and there is very little streaking, while in others the
brown is pale and muddy, the markings ill-defined, and nearly the
whole surface of the egg is freckled over with smudgy streaks.
Sometimes the markings are most numerous at the large end, sometimes
at the small; no two eggs are exactly alike, and yet they have so
strong a family resemblance that there is no possibility of mistaking
them. Generally the markings as a whole are less bold, and the general
colour of a large body of them laid together is bluer and brighter
than that of a similar drawer-full of Ravens' eggs. As a whole, too,
they are more glossy. I have one egg before me bright blue and almost
as glossy as a Mynah's, thickly blotched and speckled at the broad
end, and thinly spotted elsewhere with olive-green, blackish-brown,
and pale purple. Another egg, a pale pure blue, is spotless, except
at the large end, where there is a conspicuous cap of olive-brown and
olive-green spots and speckles, and there are numerous other abnormal
varieties which I have not observed amongst the Ravens.

On the whole the eggs do _not_ vary much in size; out of one hundred
and ninety-seven, one hundred and ninety-five varied between 1.28 and
1.65 in length, and 0.98 and 1.15 in breadth. One egg measures only
1.2 in length, and one is only 0.96 in breadth; but the average of the
whole is 1.44 by 1.06.

8. Corvus insolens, Hume. _The Burmese House-Crow_.

Corvus insolens; _Hume; Hume, Cat._ no. 663 bis.

The Burmese House-Crow breeds pretty well over the whole of Burma.

Mr. Oates, writing from Pegu, says:--"Nesting operations are
commenced about the 20th March. The nest and eggs require no
separate description, for both appear to be similar to those of _C.
splendens_."

When large series of the eggs of both these species are compared,
those of the Burmese Crow strike one as _averaging_ somewhat brighter
coloured, otherwise they are precisely alike and need no separate
description.

9. Corvus monedula, Linn. _The Jackdaw_.

Colaeus monedula (_Linn._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 302.
Corvus monedula, _Linn., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 665.

I only know positively of Jackdaws breeding in one district within our
limits, viz. Cashmere; but I have seen it in the hills in summer, as
far east as the Valley of the Beas, and it must breed everywhere in
suitable localities between the two.

In the cold season of course the Jackdaw descends into the plains of
the North-west Punjaub, is very numerous near the foot of the hills,
and has been found in cis-Indus as far east as Umballa, and south at
Ferozpoor, Jhelum, and Kalabagh. In Trans-Indus it extends unto the
Dehra Ghazi Khan district.

I have never taken its eggs myself.

Mr. W. Theobald makes the following remarks on its nidification in the
Valley of Cashmere:--

"Lays in the first week of May; eggs four, five, and six in number,
ovato-pyriform and long ovato-pyriform, measuring from 1.26, 1.45, to
1.60 in length, and from 0.9 to 1.00 in breadth; colour pale,
clear bluish green, dotted and spotted with brownish black; valley
generally; in holes of rocks, beneath roofs, and in tall trees."

Dr. Jerdon says:--"It builds in Cashmere in old ruined palaces, holes
in rocks, beneath roofs of houses, and also in tall trees, laying four
to six eggs, pale bluish green, clotted and spotted with brownish
black."

Mr. Brookes writes:--"The Jackdaw breeds in Cashmere in all suitable
places: holes in old Chinar (Plane) trees, and in house-walls, under
the eaves of houses, &c. I did not note the materials of the nests,
but these will be the same as in England."

The eggs of this species are typically rather elongated ovals,
somewhat compressed towards one end. The shell is fine, but has only a
faint gloss. The ground-colour is a pale greenish white, but in some
eggs there is very little green, while in a very few the ground is
quite a bright green. The markings, sometimes very fine and close,
sometimes rather bold and thinly set, consist of specks or spots of
deep blackish brown, olive-brown, and pale inky purple. In most eggs
all these colours are represented, but in some eggs the olive-, in
others the blackish-brown is almost entirely wanting. In some eggs
the markings are very dense towards the large end, in others they are
pretty uniformly distributed over the whole surface; in some they are
very minute and speckly, in others they average the tenth of an inch
in diameter.

The eggs that I possess vary from 1.34 to 1.52 in length, and from
0.93 to 1.02 in breadth; but the average of sixteen eggs was 1.4 by
0.98.