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

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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.