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

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"Jerdon says that he does not remember ever having seen a nest made
with more than two leaves. I have found the nest of this species
vary considerably in appearance, size, and in the number of leaves
employed, and, I would also add, in the site selected, as well as in
the markings of the eggs, which latter never exceed four in number.

"The nest already described was built hardly _2 feet off the ground_,
was rather clumsy (if I might use such an expression), and was
composed of _three_ leaves. The eggs were white, covered with
brownish-pink blotches almost coalescing at the large end. Another
nest, taken in my presence (July, again, which is the general time)
from the _very top of a high tree_, was enclosed inside of _one_ leaf,
the sides being neatly sewn together, and the cavity at the bottom
lined with wool, down, and horsehair. These eggs (four) are covered,
chiefly at the larger ends, with minute red spots.

"A third nest seen by me was composed of _seven_ or _eight leaves_".

Captain Hutton tells us that he has seen many nests. All were
"composed of cotton, wool, vegetable fibre, and horsehair, formed in
the shape of a deep cup or purse, enclosed between two long leaves,
the edges of which were sewed to the sides of the nest, in a manner to
support it, by threads spun by the bird."

He adds that the birds, though common at their bases, do not ascend
the hills; but this is a mistake, for I have repeatedly taken nests
at elevations of over 3000 feet; and Mr. Gammie, writing from Sikhim,
says:--"We often find nests of this species near my house at Mongphoo
(which is at an elevation of about 3500 feet). I took one there on the
16th May, which contained four hard-set eggs. It was in a calicarpa
tree and between two of its long ovate leaves, the terminal halves of
which were sewn together by the edges, so as to form a purse in which
the real nest was placed. Yellow silk of some wild silkworm was the
sewing material used."

Again, writing from the Nilgiris, Miss Cockburn remarks:--"The
Tailor-bird is seldom met with on the highest ranges, but appears to
prefer the warmer climates enjoyed at the elevation of about 3500 or
4000 feet. They often build in the coffee-trees; a nest now before me
was built on a coffee-tree, two of the leaves of which were bent down
and sewn together. The threads are of cobweb, and the cavity is lined
with the down of seed-pods and fine grass. At the back of the nest the
leaves are made to meet, but are a little apart in front, so as to
form an opening for the birds to hop in and out. The depth of the nest
inside is 21/2 inches. It was found in the month of June, and contained
four eggs, which were white spotted with light red."

Of its breeding in Nepal, Dr. Scully tells us:--"It breeds freely in
the valley at an elevation of 4500 feet. I took many of its nests in
the Residency grounds, Rani Jangal, &c., in May, June, and July."

Major C.T. Bingham writes:--"The Indian Tailor-bird breeds in April,
May, and June, both at Allahabad and at Delhi. The nest formed of one,
two, and occasionally three, leaves neatly sewn so as to form a cone,
and lined with the down of the madar, is well known."

Colonel Butler has furnished me with the following note:--

"The Tailor-bird breeds, I fancy, at least twice in the year, as I
have seen young birds early in the hot weather both at Mount Aboo
and in Deesa, and I have also taken nests in the rains. The nest is
usually constructed with much skill and ingenuity. One nest which I
took on the 3rd September at Mount Aboo consisted of three leaves
cleverly sewn together with raw cotton, leaving a moderate-sized
entrance on one side near the top, the inside being lined exclusively
with horsehair and fine dry fibres.

"I captured the hen bird with a horsehair noose fixed to the end of a
long thin rod as she left the nest. Another nest which I took in Deesa
on the 3rd September, 1876, was composed almost entirely of raw cotton
with a scanty lining of horsehairs and dry grass-stems. It was fixed
to the outside twigs of a lime-tree, two of the leaves of which were
sewn to it; two dead leaves were also attached to the nest, one being
sewn on each side as a support to the cotton. It was cup-shaped and
open at the top, much like a Chaffinch's nest."

Mr. Oates remarks:--"This is a common bird in Burma in the plains, and
possibly also on the hills, though I did not observe it on the latter.
I found the nest of this species containing young birds in the
Thayetmyo cantonment on the 12th August. In the Pegu plains it appears
to nest from the middle of May to the end of August."

The eggs are typically long ovals, often tapering much towards the
small end. The shells are very thin, delicate, and semi-transparent,
and have but little gloss.

The ground-colour is either reddish white or pale bluish green. Of the
two types, the reddish white is the more common in the proportion
of two to one. The markings consist of bold blotchings or sometimes
ill-defined clouds (in this respect recalling the eggs of _Prinia
inornata_,) chiefly confined to the large end; and specks, spots, and
splashes, extending more or less over the whole surface, typically of
a bright brownish red, varying, however, in different examples both
in shade and intensity. The markings have a strong tendency to form a
bold, irregular zone or cap at the large end, and in some specimens
the markings are entirely confined to this portion of the egg's
surface.

The eggs, which have a reddish-white ground, though smaller and of
a much more elongated shape, closely resemble those of _Suya
fuliginosa_.

In length the eggs vary from 0.6 to 0.7, and in breadth from 0.45 to
0.5; but the average of fifty eggs measured is 0.64 by 0.46.

375. Orthotomus atrigularis, Temm. _The Black-necked Tailor-bird_.

Orthotomus atrigularis, _Temm., Hume, cat._ no. 530 bis.

Mr. Mandelli sends me a nest which he assures me belongs to this
species, and the bird he sent me for identification certainly did so
belong. The nest was found near the great Ranjit River on the 18th
July, and then contained three fresh eggs. The nest, which is a
regular Tailor-bird's, composed entirely of the finest imaginable
panicle-stems of flowering grass, is a deep cup placed in between two
living leaves, which have been sewn together at the tips and along the
margins from the tip for about half their length, so as to provide a
perfect pocket in which the nest rests. The leaves of which the pocket
is composed were the terminal ones of the twigs of a sapling, and only
about 3 feet from the ground. The leaves are large oval ones, each
about 7 inches in length; they have been sewn together with wild
silk carefully knotted, exactly as is the practice of the common
Tailor-bird.

The eggs of this species are not separable from others of _O.
sutorius_, and though they may possibly average somewhat larger, I
have not seen enough of them to be able to make sure of this; and as
regards shape, colours, and markings the description given of the eggs
of _O. sutorius_ applies equally to eggs of this species.

380. Cisticola volitans, Swinh. _The Golden-headed Fantail-Warbler_.

This species was not known to Jerdon, nor was it known to occur in
Burma at the time that I issued my Catalogue. Mr. Oates, writing
of the breeding of this bird in Southern Pegu, where it is common,
says:--"Breeding-operations commence in the middle of May; on the 28th
of this month I found two nests, one containing four eggs slightly
incubated, and the other two, quite fresh.

"The nest is a small bag about 4 inches in height and 2 or 3 in
diameter, with an opening about an inch in diameter near the top. The
general shape of the nest is oval. It is composed entirely of the
white feathery flowers of the thatch-grass. The walls of the nest
are very thin but strong. The nest is placed about one foot from the
ground in a bunch of grass, and, in the two instances where I found
it, against a weed, with one or two leaves of which the materials of
the nest were slightly bound.

"The eggs are very glossy pale blue, spotted all over with large and
small blotches of rusty brown. I have no eggs of _C. cursitans_ which
match them, in that species the spots being always minute and thickly
scattered over the shell, whereas in _O. volitans_ the marks are large
and fewer in number. Six eggs measured in length from .54 to .57, and
in breadth from .42 to .43."

381. Cisticola cursitans (Frankl). _The Rufous Fantail-Warbler_.

Cisticola schoenicola, _Bp., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 174; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 539.

The Rufous Fantail-Warbler breeds pretty well all over India and
Ceylon, confining itself, as far as my experience goes, to the low
country, and never ascending the mountains to any great elevation.

The breeding-season lasts, according to locality, from April to
October, but it never breeds with us in dry weather, always laying
during rainy months. Very likely at the Nicobars, where it rains
pretty well all the year round, March being the only fairly dry month,
it may breed at all seasons.

I have myself taken several, and have had a great many nests sent to
me. With rare exceptions all belonged to one type. The bird selects a
patch of dense fine-stemmed grass, from 18 inches to 2 feet in height,
and, as a rule, standing in a moist place; in this, at the height of
from 6 to 8 inches from the ground, the nest is constructed; the sides
are formed by the blades and stems of the grass, _in situ_, closely
tacked and caught together with cobwebs and very fine silky vegetable
fibre. This is done for a length of from 2 to nearly 3 inches, and,
as it were, a narrow tube, from 1 to 1.5 in diameter, formed in the
grass. To this a bottom, from 4 to 6 inches above the surface of the
ground, is added, a few of the blades of the grass being bent across,
tacked and woven together with cobwebs and fine vegetable fibre. The
whole interior is then closely felted with silky down, in Upper India
usually that of the mudar (_Calotropis hamiltoni_). The nest thus
constructed forms a deep and narrow purse, about 3 inches in depth,
an inch in diameter at top, and 1.5 at the broadest part below. The
tacking together of the stems of the grass is commonly continued a
good deal higher up on one side than on the other, and it is through
or between the untacked stems opposite to this that the tiny entrance
exists. Of course above the nest the stems and blades of the grass,
meeting together, completely hide it. The dimensions above given are
those of the interior of the nest; its exterior dimensions cannot be
given. The bird tacks together not merely the few stems absolutely
necessary to form a side to the nest, but most of the stems all
round, decreasing the extent of attachment as they recede from the
nest-cavity. It does this, too, very irregularly; on one side of the
nest perhaps no stem more than an inch distant from the interior
surface of the nest will be found in any way bound up in the fabric,
while on the opposite side perhaps stems fully 3 inches distant,
together with all the intermediate ones, will be found more or less
webbed together. Occasionally, but rarely, I have found a nest of a
different type. Of these one was built amongst the stems of a common
prickly labiate marsh-plant which has white and mauve flowers. There
was a straggling framework of fine grass, firmly netted together with
cobwebs, and a very scanty lining of down. The nest was egg-shaped,
and the aperture on one side near the top. Mr. Brooks, I believe, once
obtained a similar one; but the vast majority of the others that any
of us have ever got have been of the type first described, which
corresponds closely with Passler's account.

Five is the usual complement of eggs; at any rate I have notes of more
than a dozen nests that contained this number, and in more than half
the cases the eggs were partly incubated. I have no record of more
than five, and though I have any number of notes of nests containing
one, two, three, and four eggs, yet these latter in almost all these
cases were fresh.

Mr. Blyth says that this species is "remarkable for the beautiful
construction of its nest, _sewing_ together a number of growing stems
and leaves of grass, with a delicate pappus which forms also the
lining, and laying four or five translucent white eggs, with
reddish-brown spots, more numerous and forming a ring at the large
end, very like those of _Orthotomus sutorius_. It abounds in suitable
localities throughout the country."

I must here note that Mr. Blyth never paid special attention to eggs,
or he would have hardly said this, because the character of the
markings are essentially different. Those of the Tailor-bird are
typically _blotchy_, of the present species _speckly_.

Colonel W. Vincent Legge writes to me from Ceylon that "in the Western
Province it breeds from May until September, and constructs its nest
either in paddy-fields or in guinea-grass plots attached to bungalows."

The nest is so beautiful and so neatly constructed that perhaps a
short description of it will not be out of place. A framework of
cotton or other fibrous material is formed round two or three upright
stalks, about 2 feet from the ground, the material being sewn into the
grass and passed from one stalk to the other until a complete net
is made. This takes the bird from one to two days to construct[A].
Several blades, belonging to the stalks round which the cotton is
passed, are then bent down and interlaced across to form a bottom
on which, and inside the cotton network, a neat little nest of fine
strips of grass torn off from the blade is built; this is most
beautifully lined with cotton or other downy substance, which appears
to be plastered with the saliva of the bird, until it takes the
appearance and texture of soft felt.

[Footnote A: Numbers of these birds used to build in a guinea-grass
field attached to my bungalow at Colombo, and I had full opportunity
of watching the construction of the nest on many occasions.--W.V.L.]

"The average dimensions of the interior or cup are 2 inches in depth
by 11/4 in breadth. The whole structure is generally completed in about
five days, and the first egg laid on the fifth or sixth day from the
commencement. The number of eggs varies from two to four, most nests
containing three. The time of incubation is, as a rule, from nine to
eleven days.

"I have found but little variation in the eggs of this species either
as regards size or colour. They are white or pale greenish white,
spotted and blotched in a zone round the larger end with red and
reddish grey, a few spots extending towards the point: axis 0.63 inch;
diameter 0.51 inch.

"From close observation I can certify that this and many other small
birds do not here sit during the daytime. I scarcely ever found a
_Cisticola_ on the nest between sunrise and sunset,"

Colonel E.A. Butler writing from Deesa says:--"The Rufous
Fantail-Warbler breeds in the plains during the monsoon, making a long
bottle-shaped nest of silky-white vegetable down, with an entrance at
the top, in a tuft of coarse grass a few inches from the ground. I
have taken nests on the following dates:--

"July 29, 1875. A nest containing 4 fresh eggs.
Aug. 1, 1876. " " 5 fresh eggs.
Aug. 5, 1876. " " 4 fresh eggs.
Aug. 5, 1876. " " 3 fresh eggs.
Aug. 5, 1876. " " 4 fresh eggs.
Aug. 5, 1876. " " 5 fresh eggs.
Aug. 7, 1876. " " 5 fresh eggs.
Aug. 8, 1876. " " 4 fresh eggs."

And he adds the following note:--"Belgaum, 22nd July, 1879. Four fresh
eggs. Same locality, numerous other nests in August and September."

Major C.T. Bingham notes:--"I have not yet observed this bird at
Delhi. At Allahabad I procured one nest in the beginning of March,
shooting the birds. The nest was made of very fine dry grass, and
contained four small white eggs, speckled thickly with minute points
of brick-red. The average of the four eggs is 0.60 by 0.41 inch."

Mr. Cripps informs us that in Eastern Bengal this bird is very common
and a permanent resident. Eggs are found from the beginning of May to
the end of June, in grass-jungle almost on the ground. The nest is a
deep cup, externally of fine grasses, internally of the downy tops of
the sun-grass.

In the Deccan, Messrs. Davidson and Wenden state that it is "common in
all grass-lands. It breeds in the rainy season."

Mr. Oates, writing on the breeding of this bird in Pegu, says:--"The
majority of birds begin laying at the commencement of June, and
probably nests may be found throughout the rains. I procured a nest
on the 2nd of November, a very late date I imagine. It contained four
eggs."

I have taken the eggs of this bird myself on many occasions. I have
had them sent me with the nest and bird by Mr. Brooks from Etawah, and
Mr. F.R. Blewitt from Jhansi. From first to last I have seen fully
fifty authentic eggs of this species. All were of one and the same
type, and that type widely different from any one of those that Dr.
Bree, following European ornithologists, figures. Dr. Bree's three
figures all represent a perfectly spotless egg--one pink, the other
bluish white, and the third a pretty dark bluish green. Our eggs, on
the contrary, are _spotted_; the ground is white with, when fresh and
unblown, a delicate pink hue, due not to the shell itself, but to its
contents, which partially show through it. Occasionally the white
ground has a _faint_ greenish tinge.

_Every_ egg is spotted, and most densely so towards the large end,
with, as a rule, excessively minute red, reddish-purple, and pale
purple specks, thus resembling, though smaller, more glossy, and far
less densely speckled, the eggs of _Franklinia buchanani_. These are
beyond all question the eggs of our Indian species, and the only type
of them that I have yet observed; but the question remains--Is our
Indian _Prinia cursitans_, Franklin, really identical with the
European _C. schoenicola_, Bonaparte? [A]--and this can only be
settled by careful comparison of an enormous series of good specimens
of each bird. For my part I personally have little doubts as to the
identity of the two. At the same time differences in the eggs may
indicate difference of species. Thus of the closely allied _C.
volitans_, Swinhoe, the latter gentleman informs us that "the eggs of
our bird vary from three to five, are thin and fragile, and of a pale
clear greenish blue"[B]. He called it _C. schoenicola_ when he wrote,
but he really referred to the Formosan bird, which he has since
separated.

[Footnote A: The Indian and European birds are now generally allowed
to be perfectly identical, notwithstanding the alleged difference
in the colour of the eggs; and Mr. Hume is now, I think, of this
opinion.--ED.]

[Footnote B: But _C. volitans_, or the closely allied race which
occurs in Pegu, assuredly lays spotted eggs. I found two nests of this
bird, both with spotted eggs _vide_ (p. 236).--ED.]

The eggs of course vary somewhat. Of one nest I wrote at the time I
found it--"The eggs are a rather short oval, slightly pointed at one
end, with a white ground, thickly sprinkled with numerous specks and
tiny spots of pale brownish red. They measured .58 by .46." Of
another I say--"The ground had a faint pearly tinge, and there was a
well-marked, though, irregular and ill-defined, zone towards the large
end, formed by the agglomeration there of multitudinous specks, which
in places were almost confluent." Of another set--"The eggs were much
glossier and had a china-white ground; but instead of a multitude
of small specks over the whole surface, they had nearly the whole
colouring-matter gathered together at the large end in a cap of bold,
almost maroon-red spots, only a very few spots of the same colour
being scattered over the rest of the egg."

The eggs measure from .53 to .62 in length, and from .43 to .48 in
breadth; but the average dimensions of a large number measured were
.59 by .46.

382. Franklinia gracilis (Frankl.). _Franklin's Wren-Warbler_.

Prinia gracilis, _Frankl. Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p. 172; _Hume,
Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 536.
Prinia hodgsoni, _Bl., Jerd. t.c._ p. 173; _Hume, t.c._ no. 538.

I have never myself succeeded in finding a nest of Franklin's
Wren-Warbler, but my friend Mr. F.R. Blewitt has sent me no less than
forty nests and eggs, with the parents; so that, although the eggs
belong to two, I might even say three, very different types, I
entertain no doubt that he is correct in assigning them to the same
species, the more so as, although the eggs vary, the nests are
identical. He has sent me several notes in regard to this species.
He says:--"On the 1st July, three miles south of the village of
Doongurgurh in the Raipoor District, I found a nest of Franklin's
Wren-Warbler, containing three fresh eggs. It was on rocky ground
between a footpath and a water-course, about 2 feet from the ground,
and firmly sewn to a single leaf of a murori plant. The nest was
constructed exclusively of very fine grass, with spiders' web affixed
in places to the exterior. It was somewhat cup-shaped, 3.3 inches in
depth and 2.4 in breadth externally. The egg-cavity was about 1.4 in
diameter, and about the same depth. The eggs were a delicate pale
unspotted blue.

"About 100 yards from the first, a second precisely similar, and
similarly situated, nest of this same species was found, which
contained three hard-set eggs, exactly similar in shape, texture, and
ground-colour to those in the first nest, but everywhere excessively
finely and thickly speckled with red, the specks exhibiting a strong
tendency to coalesce in a zone round the large end.

"On the 12th and 13th July we obtained ten nests of Franklin's
Wren-Warbler, all in the neighbourhood of Doongurgurh. From what I
have seen, I gather that this species breeds from the middle of June
to the middle of August in this part of the country. They appear to
resort to tracts at some little elevation, where the murori and kydia
bushes are abundant, and where grass grows rapidly in the early part
of the rains. The nests, very ingeniously made, are invariably sewn to
one or two leaves in the centre of one of the above-named bushes,
the entrance above, just as in the nest of an _Orthotomus_. They are
placed at heights of from a foot to 3 feet from the ground. Fine
grass, vegetable fibres, and other soft materials are chiefly used in
their construction, a little cobweb being often added. The eggs are
laid daily, and four is the normal number, though three hard-set ones
are sometimes found. The nest is prepared annually. As far as I know
they have only one brood. Both parents unite in building the nest and
in hatching and feeding the young.

"Of the ten nests now taken four contained speckled and six unspeckled
eggs. The two types are never found in the same nest. I send all the
nests, eggs, and birds."

Dr. Jerdon says:--"I found the nest of this species at Saugor, very
like that of the Tailor-bird but smaller, made of cotton, wool, and
various soft vegetable fibres, and occasionally bits of cloth, and I
invariably found it sewn to one leaf of the kydia, so common in the
jungles there. The eggs were pale blue, with some brown or reddish
spots often rarely visible."

Colonel E.A. Butler writes from Deesa:--

"July 26, 1876. A nest containing 3 fresh eggs.
Aug. 1, 1876. " " 4 fresh eggs.
Aug. 15, 1876. " " 2 fresh eggs.
Sept. 3, 1876. " " 4 incubated eggs.

"All of the above nests were exactly alike, being composed of fine dry
grass without any lining, felted here and there exteriorly with small
lumps of woolly vegetable down, and built between two leaves carefully
sewn to the nest in the same way as the nests of _Orthotomus
sutorius_. The eggs, three or four in number, are white, sparingly
speckled with light reddish chestnut, with a cap more or less dense
of the same markings at the large end. All of the eggs in the
above-mentioned nests were of this type. I found the nests in a
grass Beerh near Deesa, studded over with low ber bushes (_Zizyphus
jujuba_), generally about 2 or 3 feet from the ground, and in similar
situations to those selected by _Prinia socialis_, often amongst dry
nullahs overgrown with low bushes and long grass."

Mr. Vidal notes in his list of the Birds of the South Konkan:--"Common
in mangrove-swamps, reeds, hedgerows, thickets, and bush-jungle
throughout the district. Breeds during the rainy months."

Mr. Oates writes from Pegu:--"Nest with three fresh eggs on the 19th
August; no details appear necessary except the colour of the eggs,
since this bird appears to lay two kinds of eggs. My eggs are very
glossy, of a light blue speckled with minute dots of reddish brown,
more thickly so at the large end than elsewhere."

The nests sent by Mr. Blewitt are regular Tailor-birds' nests,
composed chiefly of very fine grass, about the thickness of fine human
hair, with no special lining, carefully sewn with cobwebs, silk from
cocoons, or wool, into one or two leaves, which often completely
envelop it, so as to leave no portion of the true nest visible.