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

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Messrs Davidson and Wenden, writing of the Deccan, remark:--"Commonish
in wooded localities. D. took several nests in the Satara Hills in
March and the two following months."

Captain Butler writes:--"The Red-whiskered Bulbul is common at Mount
Aboo and breeds in March, April, and May. The nest is usually placed
in low bushes from 4 to 8 feet from the ground, and is a neat
cup-shaped structure composed externally of fibrous roots and dry
grass-stems, and lined with fine grass, horsehair, &c. Round the edge
and woven into the outside I have generally found small spiders' nests
looking like lumps of wool. The eggs, usually two but sometimes three
in number, are of a pinkish-white colour, covered all over with spots
and blotches and streaks of purplish or lake-red, forming a dense
confluent cap at the large end. A nest I examined on the 24th April
contained two nestlings almost ready to fly.

"On the 3rd May, 1875, I took a nest in a low carinda bush, containing
two fresh eggs."

Mr. C.J.W. Taylor, writing from Manzeerabad, Mysore, says:--"Most
abundant in the wooded district. Common everywhere. Eggs taken March
and April. On the 5th July, 1883, I procured a, nest of this species
with three pure white eggs. I found it in a coffee-bush the day before
leaving, so snared parent bird to make sure it was _O. fuscicaudata_,
or otherwise should have left a couple of the eggs to see if young
would turn out true to parents."

Captain Horace Terry states that on the Pulney hills this species is
"a most common bird, found wherever there are bushes. In the small
bushes along the banks of the streams is a very favourite place. I
found several nests with usually two, but sometimes three eggs."

Mr. Benjamin Aitken tells us:--"I never saw this bird in the plains,
but it is, perhaps without exception, the commonest bird at Matheran,
Khandalla, and other hill-stations in the Bombay Presidency. I have
found the nests, always with eggs in May, placed from four to seven
feet from the ground, and often in the most exposed situations. It is
not unusual to find only two eggs in a nest. The bird is not in the
least shy, and sets up no clatter, like the Common Bulbul, when its
nest is disturbed."

Finally, Mr. J. Darling, Junior, remarks:--"I really wonder if anyone
down south does not know the Red-whiskered Bulbul and its nest. On the
Nilghiris and in the Wynaad I can safely say it is the commonest nest
to be met with, built in all sorts of places, sometimes high up. They
generally lay two, but very often three, eggs. In a friend's bungalow
in the Wynaad there were three nests built on the wall-plate of
the verandah and two eggs laid in each nest. The young were safely
hatched.

"This year the nests have been rebuilt and contain eggs. As I am
writing, there are two pairs building in a rose-bush about 3 yards
from me. They breed from 15th February to 15th May."

The numerous eggs of this species that I possess, though truly
Bulbul-like in character, all belong to one single type of that form.
Almost all have a dull pinkish or reddish-white ground, very thickly
freckled, mottled, and streaked all over with a rich red; in most
blood-red, in others brick-red, underneath which, when closely looked
into, a small number of pale inky-purple spots are visible. In half
the number of eggs the markings are much densest at the large end:
these eggs are one and all more brightly and intensely coloured than
any of those that I possess of _M. leucotis, M. leucogenys_, and _O.
emeria_; they are, moreover, larger than any of these.

In length they vary from 0.82 to 0.97, and in breadth from 0.63 to
0.71; but the average of thirty-six eggs measured was 0.9 by 0.66.

290. Otocompsa flaviventris (Tick.). _The Black-crested Yellow
Bulbul_.

Rubigula flaviventris (_Tick._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 88.
Pycnonotus flaviventris (_Tick._), _Hume, Rough Draft
N. & E._ no. 456.

The Black-crested Yellow Bulbul is another very common species of
which I have as yet seen very few eggs. The first notice of its
nidification I am acquainted with is contained in the following brief
note by Captain Bulger, which appeared in 'The Ibis.' He says:--"I
obtained several specimens, chiefly from the vicinity of the Great
Rungeet River. From a thicket on the bank, near the cane-bridge, a
nest was brought to me on the 16th May, of the ordinary cup-shape,
made of fibres and leaves, and containing three eggs, which my
_shikaree_ said belonged to this species. The eggs were of a dull
pinkish hue, very thickly marked with small specks and blotches of
brownish crimson."

Major C.T. Bingham, writing of this Bulbul in Tenasserim,
says:--"Common enough in the Thoungyeen forests, affecting chiefly the
neighbourhood of villages and clearings. The following is a note of
finding a nest and eggs I recorded in 1878:--On the 14th April I
happened to be putting up for the day in one of the abandoned Karen
houses of the old village of Podeesakai at the foot of the Warmailoo
toung, a spur from the east watershed range of the Meplay river.
Having to wait for guides, I had nothing particular to do that day, a
very rare event in my forest work; I devoted it to a fruitless search
for bears. I had returned tired and rather dispirited, and was moving
about among the ruined houses, between and among which a lot of jungle
was already springing up, when, just as I passed a low bush about 3
feet high, out went one of the above-mentioned birds; of course the
bush contained a nest, a remarkably neat cup-shaped affair, below and
outside of fine twigs, then a layer of roots, above which was a lining
of the stems of the flower of the 'theckay' grass. It contained three
eggs on the point of hatching, out of which I was only able to save
one. It is one of the loveliest eggs I have seen; in colour I can
liken it only to a peculiar pink granite that is so common at home
in Ireland. Its ground-colour I should say was white, but it is so
thickly spotted with pink and claret that it is hard to describe. It
measured 0.85 x 0.61 inch."

Captain Wardlaw Ramsay writes in 'The Ibis':--"I found a nest
containing two eggs in April at the foot of the Karen hills in Burma."

I have seen too few eggs of this species to say much about them.
What I have seen were rather elongated ovals pretty markedly pointed
towards the small end. The shell fine, but with only a slight gloss;
the ground a pinky creamy white, everywhere very finely freckled
over with red, varying from brownish to maroon, and again still more
thickly with pale purple or purplish grey, this latter colour being
almost confluent over a broad zone round the large end.

292. Spizixus canifrons, Blyth. _The Finch-billed Bulbul_.

Spizixus canifrons, _Bl., Hume, cat._ no. 453 bis.

Colonel Godwin-Austen says:--"_Spizixus canifrons_ breeds in the
neighbourhood of Shillong, in May. Young birds are seen in June."[A]

[Footnote A: TRACHYCOMUS OCHROCEPHALUS (Gm.). _The Yellow-crowned
Bulbul_.

Trachycomus ochrocephalus (_Gm.), Hume, cat._ no. 449 bis.

As this bird occurs in Tenasserim, the following description of the
nest and eggs found a short distance outside our limits will prove
interesting.

Mr. J. Darling, Junior, writes:--"I found the nest of this bird on the
2nd July at Kossoom. The nest was of the ordinary Bulbul type, but
much larger, and like a very shallow saucer. The foundation was a
single piece of some creeping orchid, 3 feet long, coiled round; then
a lot of coils of fern, grass, and moss-roots. The nest was 4 inches
in diameter on the inside, the walls 1/4 inch thick, and the cavity 1
inch deep. It was built 10 feet from the ground, in a bush in a very
exposed position, and exactly where any ordinary Bulbul would have
built."

The eggs of this species are of the ordinary Bulbul type, rather broad
at the large end, compressed and slightly pyriform, or more or less
pointed, towards the small end. The shell fine and smooth, but with
only a moderate amount of gloss. The ground-colour varies from very
pale pinky white to a rich warm salmon-pink. The markings are two
colours: first, a red varying from a dull brownish to almost crimson;
the second, a paler colour varying from neutral tint through purplish
grey to a full though pale purple. The first may be called the primary
markings; the others, which seem to be somewhat beneath the surface of
the shell, the secondary ones. Varying as both do in _different_ eggs,
all the primary markings of any one egg are almost precisely the same
shade; and the same is the case with the secondary ones, and there is
always a distinct harmony between both these and the ground tint. As
for the markings, they are generally much the most dense, in a more or
less confluent mottled cap, round one end, generally the largest, and
are usually more or less thinly set elsewhere. In some eggs all the
markings are rather coarse and sparse, in others fine and more thickly
set. Two eggs measured 1.06 by 0.76 and 1.03 by 0.73.]

295. Iole icterica (Strickl.). _The Yellow-browed Bulbul_.

Criniger ictericus, _Strickl., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p. 82; _Hume. Rough
Draft N. & E._ no 450.

The Yellow-browed Bulbul breeds apparently throughout the hilly
regions of Ceylon and the southern portion of the Peninsula of
India. I have never taken the nests myself, and I have only detailed
information of their nidification on the Nilghiris, which they ascend
to an elevation of from 6000 to 6500 feet, and where they lay from
March to May.

A nest of this species, taken by Mr. Wait near Coonoor on the 20th of
March, is a small shallow cup hung between two twigs, measuring some
31/2 inches across and 3/4 inch in depth. It is composed of excessively
fine twigs and lined with still finer hair-like grass, is attached to
the twigs by cobwebs, and has a few dead leaves attached by the same
means to its lower surface. It is a slight structure, nowhere I
should think above 1/4 inch in thickness, and apparently carelessly put
together: but for all that, owing to the fineness of the materials
used, it is a pretty firm and compact nest. It is not easy to express
it in words; but still this nest differs very considerably in
appearance from the nests of any of the true Bulbuls with which I am
acquainted, and more approaches those of _Hypsipetes_.

Mr. Wait sends me the following note:--

"This bird, although very common on the Nilghiris at elevations of
from 4000 to 5000 feet, is a very shy nester, and its nest, which is
not easily found, is, as far as my experience goes, invariably placed
in the top of young thin saplings at heights of from 6 to 10 feet from
the ground. The saplings chosen are almost always in thick cover near
the edge of dry water-courses. They generally lay during May, but I
have found nests in March. In shape the nest is a moderately deep
cup, nearly hemispherical, with an internal diameter of from 2.5 to 3
inches--a true Bulbul's nest, composed of grass and bents and lined
with finer grasses. The nest is always suspended by the outer rim
between two lateral branches, and never, I believe, built in a fork
as is so common in the case of many other Bulbuls. They lay only two
eggs, and never, I believe, more. The eggs are longish ovals, rather
pointed at one end, a dull white or reddish white, more or less
thickly speckled and spotted or clouded with pale yellowish or reddish
brown; occasionally the eggs exhibit a few very fine black lines."

Miss Cockburn, writing from Kotagherry, says:--"The Yellow-browed
Bulbul is common on the less elevated slopes of the Nilghiris, where
it is often seen feeding upon guavas, loquots, pears, peaches, &c.
They lay generally in April and May.

"Their nests are constructed very much like those of the common
Bulbuls, except that, instead of being placed in the forked branches
of trees, they are suspended between two twigs, and fastened to them
by cobwebs, the inside being neatly lined with fine grass. Two nests
of this bird were found, each containing two fresh eggs, of a pretty
pinkish salmon colour, with a dark ring at the thick end; but another
nest had three nearly _white_ eggs! The whole structure of the nests
was slight and thin, and the eggs could be plainly seen through. The
notes of the Yellow-browed Bulbul are loud and repeated often."

Writing on the birds of Ceylon, Colonel Legge remarks:--"I once found
the nest of this bird in the Pasdun-Korale forests in August; little
or nothing, however, is known of its breeding-habits in Ceylon, so
that it most likely commences earlier than that month to rear its
brood. My nest was placed in the fork of a thin sapling about 8 feet
from the ground. It was of large size for such a bird, the foundation
being bulky and composed of small twigs, moss, and dead leaves,
supporting a cup of about 21/2 inches in diameter, which was constructed
of moss, lined with fine roots; the upper edge of the body of the nest
was woven round the supporting branches.... The bottom of the nest was
in the fork."

The eggs of this species sent to me by Mr. Wait from Coonoor
are totally unlike any other egg of this family with which I am
acquainted. They remind one more of the eggs of _Stoparola melanops_
or one of the _Niltavas_ than anything else. The eggs are moderately
long and rather perfect ovals, almost devoid of gloss, and with a dull
white or pinkish-white ground, speckled more or less thickly over the
whole surface with rather pale brownish red or pink. The specklings
becoming confluent at the large end, where they form a dull irregular
mottled cap. Other specimens received from Miss Cockburn from
Kotagherry exhibit the same general characters; but the majority of
them are considerably elongated eggs, approaching, so far as shape is
concerned, the _Hypsipetes_ type. In some eggs only the faintest trace
of pale pinkish mottling towards the large end is observable; in
others, the whole surface of the egg is thickly freckled and mottled
all over, but most densely at the large end, with salmon-pink or pale
pinkish brown.

In length the eggs vary from 0.9 to 1.03, and in breadth from 0.64 to
0.7.[A]

[Footnote A: PYCNONOTUS ANALIS (Horsf.). _The Yellow-vented Bulbul_.

Otocompsa analis (_Horsf._), _Hume, cat._ no. 452 sex.

Mr. J. Darling, Junior, writes:--"I found the nest of this Bulbul at
Salang in the Malay peninsula, on the 14th February. The nest was
built in a bush in secondary jungle, with a few trees scattered about.
It was in a fork 6 feet from the ground. The foundation was of dried
leaves, then fine twigs, and lined with fine grass-bents. There was a
good deal of cobweb in the construction. It was an exact facsimile of
many nests of _Otocompsa fuscicaudata_ from the Nilgherry Hills. The
egg-cavity was 3 inches in diameter and 21/2 inches deep; the walls were
1/2 inch thick, the bottom 1 inch."

The eggs are of the usual variable Bulbul type, some broader and more
regular, some more elongated, some more or less pyriform. The shell as
in others, and apparently rarely showing any very perceptible gloss.
The ground-colour pinky white to a warm pink; the markings, specks,
and spots, or, when three or four of these latter have coalesced,
occasionally small blotches of a rich maroon-red intermixed with spots
and specks and clouds of pale purple. The markings always apparently
pretty thickly set everywhere, but almost invariably most densely in
a zone about the larger end, where they become at times more or less
confluent. Of course as in others of the genus, in some eggs all the
markings are very fine and speckly, while in others they are somewhat
bolder. In some the red greatly predominates; in others, again, the
grey underlying clouds are very widely extended, and form by far the
most conspicuous part of the markings, giving a grey tinge to the
entire egg. The eggs vary from 0.82 to 0.91 in length and from 0.61 to
0.65 in breadth.]

299. Pycnonotus finlaysoni, Strickl. _Finlayson's Stripe-throated
Bulbul_.

Ixus finlaysoni (_Strickl.), Hume, cat._ no. 452 ter.

Major C.T. Bingham says:--"On the 22nd May, 1877, while wandering
about collecting in the jungles below the Circuit-house at Maulmain, I
came across a neat, though thinly made, cup-shaped nest in the fork
of a tall sapling, some 12 feet above the ground. Coming closer, I
perceived it contained eggs, which were plainly visible through the
frail structure of the sides. On looking about to find the owner, I
saw a couple of _Pycnonotus finlaysoni_ flitting about uneasily in a
tree close at hand; so I hid myself a few yards off, and was almost
immediately rewarded by seeing one of them (it turned out to be
the female) fly down on to the nest, and seat herself on the eggs.
Approaching cautiously, I managed to shoot her as she slipped off;
but, on taking down the nest, I found I had fired too soon, as one of
the eggs (there were but two) was smashed by a pellet of shot. The
nest was rather a deep cup, and, notwithstanding its flimsy sides,
strongly made of grass-roots, lined with very fine black roots of
fern. The one unbroken egg was rather roundish in shape, of a dull
whitish and claret colour, mixed and spotted and clouded with deeper
vinous red, chiefly at the larger end."

Mr. J. Darling, Junior, found the nest of this Bulbul on more than one
occasion at Taroar in the Malay peninsula. He writes:--"I shot this
bird off a nest with two eggs on the 8th February; the nest was in a
bush 5 feet from the ground; the foundation was of leaves and fine
grass, lined with fine grass and a few cocoanut fibres. The nest was
3 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep. The eggs were too hard-set to
blow.

"On the 10th February I took another nest of _Pycnonotus finlaysoni_
at Taroar. The nest was built in a small shrub 3 feet from the ground,
in a fork; foundation of dead leaves, built of fine twigs and fibrous
bark; lined with fine grass-bents and moss-roots. Egg-cavity 23/4 inches
in diameter, 13/4 deep; walls 1/4 inch thick, bottom 3/4 inch.

"Found a nest of _Pycnonotus finlaysoni_, with two fresh eggs, on the
16th March. The nest was built in a thin small sapling, 51/2 feet from
ground, on the top of a thinly wooded hill; the nest was of the
ordinary Bulbul type, but better put together and neater. The
foundation was of broad fibrous bark and twigs, lined with fine
grass-stalks."

The eggs vary in shape from broad ovals a good deal pointed towards
one end, to pyriform and elongated shaped, very obtuse even at the
small end. The shell is fine and compact, in some has a fine gloss,
in others it is rather dull. The ground-colour is a beautiful pink,
sometimes with a creamy tinge, and the markings are bold blotches,
spots, and streaks of a maroon of varying degrees in richness, and of
a subsurface-looking purple, varying to almost inky grey. In some eggs
the maroon, in some the purple or grey seems to predominate; in some
eggs the markings seem pretty equally distributed over the egg; in
others they form a more or less conspicuous zone about the larger end.
The eggs measure from 0.85 to 0.92 in length by 0.6 to 0.7 in breadth.

300. Pycnonotus davisoni (Hume). _Davison's Stripe-throated Bulbul_.

Ixus davisoni, _Hume; Hume, cat._ no. 452 quat.

Mr. Oates writes from Kyeikpadein in Pegu:--"A nest of this bird was
found on the 1st June, and another on 6th of the same month, each
containing two fresh eggs. The females, which were shot off the nest,
showed, however, no signs on dissection of being about to lay more.

"The nest is a flimsy structure, built of the stems of small weeds and
lined with grass. A few fine black tree-roots are twisted round the
inside of the egg-chamber. The outside and inside diameters measure 4
and 3 inches, and the depths are similarly 3 and 1.25. Both nests were
placed low down about 4 feet from the ground--one in a bush, and the
other in a creeper.

"The eggs vary much in size. One pair measure .92 and .88 by .60
and .65, and the other .83 and .82 by .65 and .61 respectively;
the ground-colour of all is a pinkish white. In one pair the
shell-blotches of washed-out purple are spread over the whole egg, and
the surface-spots and clashes of carneous red are also equally spread
over the whole shell. In the other pair the shell-marks are grouped
round the larger end to form a broad ring, and the whole egg is
thickly speckled and spotted with bright reddish. The eggs are very
slightly glossy."

301. Pycnonotus melanicterus (Gm.)._The Black-capped Bulbul_.

Rubigula melanictera (_Gm.), Hume, cat._ no. 455 bis.

Colonel Legge writes:--"In April 1873 I received from a friend in
Ceylon three eggs of this bird; but I was unable to identify them
until lately, when I had an opportunity of comparing them with a
clutch taken last year in the Western Province, and about which there
was no doubt. In the latter case the nest was fixed on the top of a
small stump, and was a loose structure of grass and bents; in
shape rather a deep cup; and contained two eggs of a reddish-white
ground-colour, profusely speckled with reddish brown (in one example
confluent round the obtuse end, in the other distributed over the
whole surface) over freckles of bluish grey. Dimensions: 0.79 by 0.58,
0.78 by 0.57. The other nest was made of grass on a foundation of
dry leaves and herbaceous stalks, loosely lined with fine hair-like
tendrils of creepers. The eggs were of a reddish-white ground, thickly
covered throughout with brownish-red and dusky red spots, becoming
somewhat confluent round the obtuse end. In form they are regular
ovals, and measure 0.78 by 0.6, 0.79 by 0.58."

305. Pycnonotus luteolus (Less.). _The White-browed Bulbul_.

Ixos luteolus (_Less.) Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 84; _Hume, Rough Draft N.
& E._ no. 452.

Common as is the White-browed Bulbul in Midnapoor, throughout the
Tributary Mehals, along the Eastern Ghats, and again, it appears, in
Bombay, only two of my correspondents appear as yet to have procured
the nest or eggs.

Mr. Benjamin Aitken, writing from Bombay under date the 11th June,
says:--"I now send you a nest of _Pycnonotus luteolus_ with two eggs.
I took it this morning from, a thickly foliaged tree in a garden. It
was placed on the top of the main stem of the tree, which had been
abruptly cut off about 5 feet from the ground, where the stem was
about 3 inches thick. The nest was begun this day week, Thursday, and
the first egg was laid the day before yesterday (Tuesday). The bird is
a very common one in gardens in Bombay, though I never saw it in Berar
nor even in Poona. They build in situations similar to, but perhaps
rather more sheltered than, those chosen by the Common Bulbul; but I
remember finding one nest placed at a height of only 2 feet from the
ground.

"This present nest was begun, as already mentioned, last Thursday,
just two days after the first severe thunder-shower preliminary to the
monsoon, now fairly on us.

"I draw your attention to the manner in which the nest has been tied
at _one_ place to a twig to prevent its being blown off its very
(apparently) insecure site. I was obliged to take the nest, as I was
leaving at once, otherwise one or perhaps two more eggs would have
been laid."

The nest is a rather loose straggling structure, exteriorly composed
of fine twigs. The cavity, hemispherical in shape, is carefully lined
with fine grass-stems. Outside it is very irregularly shaped, and many
of the twigs used are much too long and hang down several inches from
the nest; but on one side the outer framework has been firmly tied
with wool and a little cobweb to a live twig to which the leaves, now
withered, are still attached. No roots or hair have entered into the
composition of this nest.

Mr. E. Aitken writes:--"I once found a nest in Bombay, not many feet
above the level of the sea of course.

"The first egg was laid on 14th September. The nest was built in a
bush on the edge of an inundated field, but in our garden. It was
fixed to a thin waving branch underneath the bush, which completely
overshadowed it. It was only 2 feet from the ground, a cup just large
enough to hold the body of the bird, whose head and tail always
projected over the edge; and it was made of thin twigs and neatly
lined with _coir_. The bird laid two eggs and then deserted the nest.
One of these, which I took, was thicker and rounder than a Bulbul's,
and thickly spotted with claret-coloured spots, which gathered into a
ring at the larger end.

"The eggs were laid on successive days. I think the birds had already
had one brood (in another nest), for I saw apparently the same pair
followed by a young one not long before."

Dr. Jerdon says:--"I found the nest in my garden at Nellore. It was
rather loosely made with roots, grass, and hair, placed in a hedge,
and the eggs, four in number, were reddish white, with darker lake-red
spots, exceedingly like those of the Common Bulbul."

Colonel Legge, in his 'Birds of Ceylon,' tells us that this Bulbul
breeds in the west and south-west of Ceylon from December to June, the
months of April and May, however, appearing to be the favourite time.
On the eastern side of the island it breeds during the north-east
rains.