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

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The eggs belong to at least two very distinct types. Both are
typically rather slender ovals, a good deal compressed towards one
end; but in both somewhat broader and more or less pyriform varieties
occur. In both the shell is exquisitely fine and glossy; in some
specimens it is excessively glossy. In both the ground-colour is a
very delicate pale greenish blue, _occasionally_ so pale that
the ground is all but white--in one type entirely unspeckled and
unspotted, in the other finely and thickly speckled everywhere, and
towards the large end more or less spotted, with brownish or purplish
red. The markings are densest towards the large end, where they either
actually form, or exhibit a strong tendency to form, a more or less
conspicuous speckled, semi-confluent zone.

Out of fifty-six eggs, twenty-one belong to the latter type. As in
_Dicrurus ater_, the two types never appear to be found in the same
nest; but the nests in which the two types are found are precisely
similar, and the parent birds are identical.

In length the eggs vary from 0.53 to 0.62, and in width from 0.4 to
0.45; but the average of fifty-six eggs is 0.58 by 0.42. There is no
difference whatever in the size of the two types.

383. Franklinia rufescens (Blyth). _Beavan's Wren-Warbler_.

Prinia beavani, _Wald., Hume, cat._ no. 538 bis.

Mr. Oates, who found the nest of this Warbler in Pegu, says:--"June
29th. Found a nest sewn into a broad soft leaf of a weed in forest
about 2 feet from the ground. The edges of the leaf are drawn together
and fastened by white vegetable fibres. The nest is composed entirely
of fine grass, no other material entering into its composition. For
further security the nest is stitched to the leaves in a few places;
the depth of the nest is about 3 inches, and internal diameter all the
way down about 11/2. Eggs three, very glossy, pale blue, with specks and
dashes of pale reddish brown, chiefly at the larger end, where they
form a cap. Size .58, .62, .61, by .47."

Mr. Mandelli sends me a regular Tailor-bird's nest as that of this
species. It was found below Yendong in Native Sikhim on the 1st May,
and contained three fresh eggs. The nest itself is a beautiful
little cup, composed of silky vegetable down and excessively fine
grass-stems, and a very little black hair firmly felted together, and
is placed between two living leaves of a sapling neatly sewn together
at the margins with bright yellow silk.

The eggs are rather elongated, very regular ovals. The shell stout for
the size of the egg, but very fine and compact, and with a moderate
gloss. The ground-colour is a very delicate pale greenish blue. At or
round the larger end there is very generally a mottled cap or zone
(more commonly the latter) of duller or brighter brownish red, while
irregular blotches, streaks, spots, and specks of the same colour, but
usually a slightly paler shade, are more or less sparsely scattered
over the rest of the surface of the egg, sometimes they are almost
wholly wanting. Occasionally the zone is at the small end.

The eggs measure from 0.60 to 0.62 in length, by 0.43 to 0.48 in
breadth; but the average of six eggs is 0.61 by 0.45.

384. Franklinia buchanani (Blyth). _The Rufous-fronted
Wren-Warbler_.

Franklinia buchanani (_Blyth), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 186; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 551.

The Rufous-fronted Wren-Warbler breeds throughout Central India,
the Central Provinces, the North-western Provinces, the Punjab, and
Rajpootana. It affects chiefly the drier and warmer tracts, and,
though said to have been obtained in the Nepal Terai, has never been
met with by _me_ either there or in any very moist, swampy locality.
The breeding-season extends from the end of May until the beginning of
September.

The nests, according to my experience, are always placed at heights of
from a foot to 4 feet from the ground, in low scrub-jungle or bushes.
They vary greatly in size and shape, according to position. Some are
oblate spheroids with the aperture near the top, some are purse-like
and suspended, and some are regular cups. One of the former
description measured externally 5 inches in diameter one way by 31/4
inches the other. One of the suspended nests was 7 inches long by 3
wide, and one of the cup-shaped nests was nearly 4 inches in diameter
and stood, perhaps, at most 21/2 inches high. The egg-cavity in the
different nests varies from 13/4 to 21/4 inches in diameter, and from less
than 2 to fully 3 inches in depth. Externally the nest is very loosely
and, generally, raggedly constructed of very fine grass-stems and
tow-like vegetable fibre used in different proportions in different
nests; those in which grass is chiefly used being most ragged and
straggling, and those in which most vegetable fibre has been made use
of being neatest and most compact. In all the nests that I have seen
the egg-cavity has been lined with something very soft. In many of the
nests the lining is composed of small felt-like pieces of some dull
salmon-coloured fungus, with which the whole interior is closely
plastered; in others there is a dense lining of soft silky vegetable
down; and in others the down and fungus are mingled. They lay from
four to five eggs, never more than this latter number according to my
experience.

"At the end of June 1867," writes Mr. Brooks, "I took two nests of
this bird at Chunar in low ber bushes about 2 feet from the ground.
They were little spheres of fine grass with a hole at the side. One
contained four eggs; these were of a greyish-white ground or nearly
pure white, finely speckled over with reddish brown, some of the eggs
exhibiting a tendency to form a zone round the large end, and others
with a complete zone."

"At Sambhur," Mr. Adam says, "this Wren-Warbler is always found
wherever there are low bushes. It breeds just before the rains, but I
have not recorded the date. I had a nest with the bird and five eggs
sent to me. The eggs are pale bluish white, with reddish-brown spots
and freckles all over them."

"During July, August, and the early part of September," remarks Mr. W.
Blewitt, "I found a great number of the nests and eggs of this bird in
the jungle-preserves of Hansie and its neighbourhood. The nests, of
which I have already sent you several, were mostly in ber (_Zizyphus
jujuba_) and hinse (_Capparis aphylla_) bushes, at heights of from 3
to 4 feet from the ground. Five was the largest number of eggs that I
found in any one nest."

Major C.T. Bingham remarks:--"I found several nests of this bird in
the beginning of October at Delhi in the jherberry bushes so plentiful
on the Ridge. Both nests and eggs are very like those of _Cisticola
cursitans_ before described; the only difference I could find was that
the entrance in the nest of _C. cursitans_ that I found was at the
top, and in all the nests of _F. buchanani_ at the side rather low
down; the nests of the latter are also firmer and more globular in
shape. The eggs are, to my eye, identical in colour and form."

Mr. G. Reid informs us that at Lucknow it is fairly common and a
permanent resident. It makes an oblong, loosely constructed nest with
the aperture near the top, and lays three or four white eggs minutely
spotted with dingy red.

Mr. J. Davidson writes that in Western Khandeish this Warbler is the
commonest bird, breeding about Dhulia in July, August, and September.

Colonel E.A. Butler writes:--"I found a nest of the Rufous-fronted
Wren-Warbler at Deesa on the 27th July, 1875. It was in a grass beerh,
and placed in a heap of dead thorns overgrown with grass and about a
foot from the ground. It was composed externally of dry grass-stems,
with lumps of silky white vegetable down (_Calotropis_) scattered
sparingly over the whole nest. The lining consisted of very fine
dry grass neatly put together and felted with silky down, and a
considerable amount of the dull salmon-coloured fungus or lichen
referred to in the 'Rough Draft of Nests and Eggs,' p. 359. In shape
the nest is nearly spherical, being slightly oval however, with a
small aperture near the top. The entrance was 11/2 inches in diameter,
and the nest itself roughly measured from the outside 41/2 inches in
length and 4 in width. The eggs, usually four in number, are white,
closely speckled over with pale rusty red, intermingled with a few
pale washed-out inky markings, in some cases at the large end, which
is surrounded by a zone clear and well-marked in some instances, less
distinct in others. I found other nests in the same neighbourhood as
below:--

"Aug. 24, 1875. A nest containing 4 fresh eggs.
July 20, 1876. " " 4 " "
July 28, " " " 4 young birds.
Aug. 4, " " " 4 fresh eggs.
Aug. 5, " " " 4 " "
Aug. 5, " " " 4 " "
Aug. 5, " " " 5 " "
Aug. 8, " " " 5 " "
Aug. 14, " " " 5 " "

"In every one of the above instances the nest was exactly similar to
the one I have described, and built in the same kind of situation,
i.e. in heaps of dead thorns overgrown with long grass. The eggs are
all much the same, the spots being larger in some than in others and
more numerous in some cases than in others. In one set I have the
ground is very pale bluish white (skimmed milk) instead of being pure
white. As a rule the eggs are almost exactly like the eggs of _C.
cursitans_, and if mixed I doubt very much if any person could
separate them. On examining the salmon-coloured fungus-lining it
appears to me to be nothing more nor less than small pieces of dried
ber leaves, and I have never examined a nest without finding some of
this material at the bottom of it."

"The Rufous-fronted Wren-Warbler," writes Lieut. Barnes, "breeds in
Rajpootana during July, August, and the early part of September. The
nest, composed of grass, is loosely constructed, and placed in low
bushes or scrub."

The eggs vary somewhat in size and shape; a moderately broad oval,
slightly compressed towards the larger end, being, however, the
commonest type. Examining a large series, it appears that variations
from this type are more commonly of an elongated than a spherical
form. The eggs are of the same character as those of _Cisticola
cursitans_ (p. 236), but yet differ somewhat. The eggs are many
of them fairly glossy, the shells very delicate and fragile; the
ground-colour white, usually slightly greyish, but in some specimens
faintly tinged with very pale green or pink. Typically they are very
thickly and very finely speckled all over with somewhat dingy red or
purplish red. In three out of four eggs the markings are densest and
largest towards the large end; and, to judge from the large series
before me, at least one in four exhibits a more or less well-defined
mottled zone or cap at this end, formed by the partial confluence of
multitudinous specks.

In some specimens the markings are pale inky purple, and in some
slightly purplish brown, but these are abnormal varieties. In one or
two eggs fairly-sized spots and blotches are intermingled with the
minute specklings, but this also is rare. Of course in different
specimens the density of the speckling varies greatly: in some eggs
not a fifth of the surface is covered with the markings, while in some
it appears as if there were more of these than of the ground-colour.

In length the eggs vary from 0.55 to 0.66, and in breadth from 0.43 to
0.52; but the average of eighty-seven eggs is 0.62 by 0.48.

385. Franklinia cinereicapilla (Hodgs.). _Hodgson's Wren-Warbler_.

Prinia cinereocapilla, _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 172; _Hume,
Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 537.

Captain Hutton says[A]:--"In this species the structure of the nest
is somewhat coarser than in _P. stewarti_, and it is more loosely put
together, but like that species it is also a true Tailor-bird.

[Footnote A: I reproduce this note as it appeared in the 'Rough
Draft,' but I have no faith in the identification of this rare bird by
Capt Hutton. Mr. Hume is apparently of the same opinion, as he does
not quote the Dhoon as one of the localities in which, this species
occurs (S.F. ix, p. 286). It may be well, however, to point out that
Mr. Brooks procured this species at Dhunda, in the Bhagirati valley,
so that it is not unlikely to occur in the Dhoon.--ED.]

"In the specimen before me two large leaves are stitched together at
the edges, and between these rests the cup-shaped nest composed of
grass-stalks and fine roots, as in _P. stewarti_, and without any
lining, while, being more completely surrounded by or enfolded in the
leaves, the cottony seed-down which binds together the fibres in the
others is here dispensed with.

"The eggs were three in number, of a pale bluish hue, irrorated with
specks of rufous-brown, and chiefly so at the larger end, where they
form an ill-defined ring.

"The eggs measured 0.62 by 0.44.

"The nest was found hanging on a large-leafed annual shrub growing in
the Dhoon, and was placed about 2 feet from the ground. It was taken
on 22nd July."

386. Laticilla burnesi (Bl.). _The Long-tailed Grass-Warbler_.
Eurycercus burnesii, _Bl., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 74.

Mr. S.B. Doig appears to be the only ornithologist who has found the
nest of the Long-tailed Grass-Warbler. Writing of the Eastern Narra
District, in Sind, he says:--

"This bird is in certain localities very numerous, but invariably
confines itself to dense thickets of revel and tamarisk jungle. The
discovery of my first nest was as follows:

"On the 13th March, while closely searching some thick grass along the
banks of a small canal, I heard a peculiar twittering which I did not
recognize. After standing perfectly still for a short while, I at
length caught sight of the bird, which I at once identified as _L.
burnesi_. Leaving the bed of the canal in which I was walking and
making a slight detour, I came suddenly over the spoil-bank of the
canal on to the place where the bird had been calling. My sudden
appearance caused the bird to get very excited, and it kept on
twittering, approaching me at one time until quite close and then
going away again a short distance; I at once began searching for its
nest, and out of the first tussock of grass I touched, close to where
I was standing, flew the female, who joined her mate, after which both
birds kept up a continuous and angry twittering. On opening out the
grass, I found the nest with three fresh eggs in it, placed right in
the centre of the tuft and close to the ground. The eggs were of a
pale green ground-colour, covered with large irregular blotches of
purplish brown, and not very unlike some of the eggs of _Passer
flavicollis_. After this I found several nests, but they were all
building, and were one and all deserted, though in many instances I
never touched the nest, often never saw it, as on seeing the birds
flying in and out of the grass with building material in their bills
I left the place and returned in ten days' time, but only to find the
nest deserted. In one case where a single egg had been laid, I found
that the bird before deserting the nest had broken the egg. In July I
again got a nest and shot the parent birds; the eggs in this nest were
quite of a different type, being of a very pale cream ground-colour,
with large rusty blotches, principally confined to the larger end.
The nests of this bird are composed of coarse grass, the inside being
composed of the finer parts; they are 4 to 5 inches external diameter
and 21/2 inches internal diameter, the cavity being about 11/2 inches
deep. The months in which they breed are, as far as I at present know,
March, June, and September. The eggs vary in size from .65 to .80 in
length and from .50 to .55 in breadth. The average of seven eggs is
.72 in length and .54 in breadth."

The eggs of this species vary somewhat in size and shape, but they are
typically regular rather elongated ovals, rather obtuse at both ends,
and often slightly compressed towards the small end. The shell is fine
and compact and has a slight gloss; the ground-colour is sometimes
greenish white, sometimes faintly creamy. The eggs are generally
pretty thickly and finely speckled and scratched all over, and besides
the fine markings there are a greater or smaller number of more or
less large irregular blotches and splashes, chiefly confined to the
large end. These markings, large and small, are brown, very variable
in shade, in some eggs reddish, in some chocolate, in some raw sienna,
&c. Besides these primary markings most eggs exhibit a number of
paler subsurface secondary markings, varying in colour from sepia to
lavender or pale purple; these are mostly confined to the large end
(though tiny spots of the same tint occur occasionally on all parts of
the egg), where with the large blotches they often form a more or less
conspicuous and more or less confluent but always ill-defined zone or
even cap. Here and there an egg absolutely wants the larger blotches,
but even in such cases the specklings are more crowded about the large
end, and these with the lilac clouds still combine to indicate a sort
of zone.

The eggs I possess of this species, sent me by Mr. Doig, vary from
0.71 to 0.81 in length by 0.52 to 0.59 in breadth; but the average of
seven eggs is 0.72 by 0.55.

388. Graminicola bengalensis, Jerd. _The Large Grass-Warbler_.

Graminicola bengalensis, _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 177.
Drymoica bengalensis (_Jerd.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 542.

Long ago the late Colonel Tytler gave me the following note on this
species:--"I shot these birds at Dacca in 1852, and sent a description
and a drawing of them to Mr. Blyth. They were named after my esteemed
friend Jules Verreaux, of Paris. They are not uncommon at Dacca in
grass-jungle. I think the bird Dr. Jerdon gives in his 'Birds of
India' as _Graminicola bengalensis_, Jerdon, No. 542, p. 177, vol.
ii., is meant for this species. The genus _Graminicola_, under which
he places this bird, appears to be a genus of Dr. Jerdon's own, for
it is not in Gray's 'Genera and Subgenera of Birds in the British
Museum,' printed in 1855. If it is the same bird as Dr. Jerdon's, then
my name, which I communicated in 1851-52 not only to Mr. Blyth
but also to Prince Bonaparte and M. Jules Verreaux, and which was
published in my Fauna of Dacca, has, it seems to me, the priority."

The birds _are_ identical. Jerdon gave me one of his Cachar specimens,
and I compared it with Tytler's types, and certainly Tytler's name was
published ten years before Jerdon's (_vide_ Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist.,
Sept. 1854, p. 176); but no description was published, and I fear
therefore that the name given by Colonel Tytler cannot be maintained,
unless indeed, which I have been unable to ascertain, either Bonaparte
or Verreaux figured or described the specimens Tytler sent them in
some French work.

I have only one supposed nest of this species, brought me from Dacca
by a native collector who worked there for me under Mr. F.B. Simson.
He did not take it himself; it was brought to him with one of the
parent birds by a shikaree. The evidence is, therefore, very bad, but
I give the facts for what they are worth.

The nest is a rather massive and deep cup, the lower portion prolonged
downwards so as to form a short truncated cone. It is fixed between
three reeds, is constructed of sedge and vegetable fibre firmly wound
together and round the reeds, and is lined with fine grass-roots.
It measures externally 5 inches in height and nearly 4 inches in
diameter, measuring outside the reeds which are incorporated in the
outer surface of the nest. The cavity is about 21/2 inches in diameter
and nearly 2 inches deep. It contained four eggs, hard-set; only one
could be preserved, and that was broken in bringing up-country; so I
could not measure it, but the shell was a sort of pale greenish grey
or dull greenish white, rather thickly but very faintly speckled and
spotted with very dull purplish and reddish brown, with some grey
spots intermingled. The nest was obtained (no date noted) between the
middle of July and the middle of August. I note that the eggs were
on the point of hatching, so that the fresh egg would probably be
somewhat brighter coloured.

389. Megalurus palustris, Horsf. _The Striated Marsh-Warbler_.

Megalurus palustris, _Horsf., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 70; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 440.

Nothing has hitherto been recorded of the nidification of the Striated
Marsh-Warbler, although it has a very wide distribution and is very
common in suitable localities.

The Striated Marsh-Babbler, as Jerdon calls it, has nothing of the
Babbler in it. It rises perpendicularly out of the reeds, sings rather
screechingly while in the air, and descends suddenly. It has much more
of a song than any of the Babblers, a much stronger flight, and its
sudden, upward, towering flight and equally sudden descent are unlike
anything seen amongst the Babblers.

Mr. E.C. Nunn procured the nest and an egg of this species (which
along with the parent birds he kindly forwarded to me) at Hoshungabad
on the 4th May, 1868. The nest was round, composed of dry grass, and
situated in a cluster of reeds between two rocks in the bed of the
Nerbudda. It contained a single fresh egg.

Writing from Wau, in the Pegu District, Mr. Oates remarks:--"I found
a nest on the 19th May containing four eggs recently laid. The female
flew off only at the last moment, when my pony was about to tread on
the tuft of grass she had selected for her home.

"The nest was placed in a small but very dense grass-tuft about a
foot above the ground. It was made entirely of coarse grasses, and
assimilated well with the dry and entangled stems among which it lay.
The nest was very deep and purse-shaped. It was about 8 inches in
total height at the back, and some 2 inches lower in front, the upper
part of the purse being as it were cut off slantingly, and thus
leaving an entrance which was more or less circular. The width is 61/2
inches, and the breadth from front to back 4 inches. The interior is
smooth, lined with somewhat finer grass, and measures 4 inches in
depth by 3 inches from side to side, and by 2 inches from front to
back.

"_Megalurus palustris_ is very common throughout the large plains
lying between the Pegu and Sittang Rivers. At the end of May they were
all breeding. The nest is, however, difficult to find, owing to the
vast extent of favourable ground suited to its habits. Every yard of
the land produces a clump of grass likely enough to hold a nest, and
as the female sits still till the nest is actually touched, it becomes
a difficult and laborious task to find the nest."

He subsequently remarks:--"May seems to be the month in which these
birds lay here. The nest is very often placed on the ground under the
shelter of some grass-tuft."

Mr. Cockburn writes to me:--"I found a nest of this bird on the north
bank of the Bramaputra, near Sadija. One of the birds darted off the
nest a foot or two from me in an excited way, which led me to search.
The nest was almost a perfect oval, with a slice taken off at the top
on one side, built in a clump of grass, and only 9 or 10 inches from
the ground. It was made of sarpat-grass, and lined internally with
finer grasses. The grass had a bleached and washed-out appearance,
while the clump was quite green. This was on the 29th May. I noticed
at the same time that the nest was not interwoven with the living
grass. I removed it easily with the hand."

Mr. Cripps says:--"They breed in April and May in the Dibrugarh
district, placing their deep cup-shaped nests in tussocks of grass
wherever it is swampy, in some instances the bottoms of the nests
being wet. Four seems to be the greatest number of eggs in a nest."

The eggs are much the same shape and size as those of _Acrocephalus
stentoreus_. They have a dead-white ground, thickly speckled and
spotted with blackish and purplish brown, and have but a slight gloss;
the speckling, everywhere thick, is generally densest at the large
end, and there chiefly do spots, as big as an ordinary pin's head,
occur. At the large end, besides these specklings, there is a cloudy,
dull, irregular cap, or else isolated patches, of very pale inky
purple, which more or less obscure the ground-colour. In the peculiar
speckly character of the markings these eggs recall doubtless some
specimens of the eggs of the different Bulbuls, but their natural
affinities seem to be with those of the _Acrocephalinae_.

The eggs vary from 0.8 to 0.97 in length, and from 0.61 to 0.69 in
breadth; but the average of twelve eggs is 0.85 by 0.64.

390. Schoenicola platyura (Jerd.). _The Broad-tailed Grass-Warbler_.

Schoenicola platyura (_Jerd.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 73.

Colonel E.A. Butler discovered the nest of the Broad-tailed
Grass-Warbler at Belgaum. He writes:--

"On the 1st September, 1880, I shot a pair of these birds as they rose
out of some long grass by the side of a rice-field; and, thinking
there might be a nest, I commenced a diligent search, which resulted
in my finding one. It consisted of a good-sized ball of coarse blades
of dry grass, with an entrance on one side, and was built in long
grass about a foot from the ground. Though it was apparently finished,
there were unfortunately no eggs, but dissection of the hen proved
that she would have laid in a day or two. On the 10th instant I found
another nest exactly similar, built in a tussock of coarse grass, near
the same place; but this was subsequently deserted without the bird
laying. On the 19th September I went in the early morning to the same
patch of grass and watched another pair, soon seeing the hen disappear
amongst some thick tussocks. On my approaching the spot she flew off
the nest, which contained four eggs much incubated. The nest was
precisely similar to the others, but with the entrance-hole perhaps
rather nearer the top, though still on one side. The situation in the
grass was the same--in fact it was very similar in every respect to
the nest of _Drymoeca insignis_. The eggs are very like those of
_Molpastes haemorrhous_, but smaller, having a purplish-white ground,
sprinkled all over with numerous small specks and spots of purple and
purplish brown, with a cap of the same at the large end, underlaid
with inky lilac.