The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds Part 3

The eggs are of the ordinary Indian Magpie type, scarcely, if at all, smaller than those of _U. occipitalis_, and larger than the average of eggs of either _Dendrocitta rufa_ or _D. himalayensis_. Doubtless all kinds of varieties occur, as the eggs of this family are very variable; but I have only seen two types--in the one the ground is a pale dingy yellowish stone-colour, profusely streaked, blotched, and mottled with a somewhat pale brown, more or less olivaceous in some eggs, the markings even in this type being generally densest towards the large end, where they form an irregular mottled cap: in the other type the ground is a very pale greenish-drab colour; there is a dense confluent raw-sienna-coloured zone round the large end, and only a few spots and specks of the same colour scattered about the rest of the egg. All kinds of intermediate varieties occur. The texture of the sh.e.l.l is fine and compact, and the eggs are mostly more or less glossy.

The eggs vary from 122 to 148 in length, and from 08 to 096 in breadth; but the average of twenty-seven eggs is 13 by 092.

14. Cissa chinensis (Bodd.). _The Green Magpie_.

Cissa sinensis (_Briss._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 312.

Cissa speciosa (_Shaw_), _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 673.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes the Green Magpie breeds in Nepal in the lower valleys and in the Terai from April to July. The nest is built in clumps of bamboos and is large and cup-shaped, composed of sticks and leaves, coated externally with bamboo-leaves and vegetable fibres, and lined inside with fine roots. It lays four eggs, one of which is figured as a broad oval, a good deal pointed towards one end, with a pale stone-coloured ground freckled and mottled all over with sepia-brown, and measuring 127 by 089.

Mr. Oates writes:--"In the Pegu Hills on the 19th April I found the nest of the Green Magpie, and shot the female off it.

"The nest was placed in a small tree, about 20 feet from the ground, in a nullah and well exposed to view. The nest was neatly built, exteriorly of leaves and coa.r.s.e roots, and finished off interiorly with finer fibres and roots; depth about 2 inches; inside diameter 6 inches. Contained three eggs nearly hatched; all got broken; I have the fragments of one. The ground-colour is greenish white, much spotted and freckled with pale yellowish-brown spots and dashes, more so at the larger end than elsewhere."

Sundry fragments that reached me, kindly sent to me by Mr. Oates, had a dull white ground, very thickly freckled and mottled all over, as far as I could judge, with dull, pale, yellowish brown and purplish grey, the former preponderating greatly. As to size and shape, this deponent sayeth nought.

Major Bingham writes from Tena.s.serim:--"On the 18th April I found a nest of this most lovely bird placed at a height of 5 feet from the ground in the fork of a bamboo-bush. It was a broad, ma.s.sive, and rather shallow cup of twigs, roots, and bamboo-leaves outside, and lined with finer roots. It contained three eggs of a pale greenish stone-colour, thickly and very minutely speckled with brown, which tend to coalesce and form a cap at the larger end. I shot the female as she flew off the nest."

Major Bingham subsequently found another nest in Tena.s.serim, about which he says:--

"Crossing the Wananatchoung, a little tributary of the Thoungyeen, by the highroad leading from Meeawuddy to the sources of the Thoungyeen, I found in a small th.o.r.n.y tree on the 8th April a nest of the above bird--a great, firmly-built but shallow saucer of twigs, 6 feet or so above the ground, and lined with fine black roots. It contained three fresh eggs of a dingy greyish white, thickly speckled chiefly at the large end, where it forms a cap, with light purplish brown. The eggs measure 125 x 089, 118 x 092, and 120 x 090."

Mr. James Inglis notes from Cachar:--"This Jay is rather rare; it frequents low quiet jungle. In April last a Kuki brought me three young ones he had taken from a nest in a clump of tree-jungle; he said the nest was some 20 feet from the ground and made of bamboo-leaves and gra.s.s."

A nest of this species taken below Yendong in Native Sikhim, on the 28th April, contained four fresh eggs. It was placed on the branches of a medium-sized tree at a height of about 12 feet from the ground; it was a large oval saucer, 8 inches by 6, and about 25 in depth, composed mainly of dry bamboo-leaves, bound firmly together with fine stems of creepers, and was lined with moderately fine roots; the cavity was 5 inches by 4, and about 1 in depth.

The eggs received from Major Bingham, as also others received from Sikhim, where they were procured by Mr. Mandelli on the 21st and 28th of April, are rather broad ovals, somewhat pointed towards the small end. The sh.e.l.l is fine, but has only a little gloss. The ground-colour is white or slightly greyish white, and they are uniformly freckled all over with very pale yellowish and greyish brown. The frecklings are always somewhat densest at the large end, where in some eggs they form a dull brown cap or zone. In some eggs the markings are everywhere denser, in some spa.r.s.er, so that some eggs look yellower or browner, and others paler.

The eggs are altogether of the _Garruline_ type, not of that of the _Dendrocitta_ or _Urocissa_ type. I have eggs of _G. lanceolatus_, that but for being smaller precisely match some of the _Cissa_ eggs.

Jerdon is, I think, certainly wrong in placing _Cissa_ between _Urocissa_ and _Dendrocitta_, the eggs of which two last are of the same and quite a distinct type[A].

[Footnote A: I am responsible, and not Mr. Hume, for calling this bird a Magpie. Jerdon calls it a Jay, but places it among the Magpies, which is, I consider, its proper position, notwithstanding the colour of its eggs.--ED.]

The eggs vary from 115 to 126 in length, and from 09 to 095 in breadth, but the average of eight is 121 by 092.

15. Cissa ornata (Wagler). _The Ceylonese Magpie_.

Cissa ornata (_Wagl._), _Hume, Cat._ no. 673 bis.

Colonel Legge writes in his 'Birds of Ceylon':--"This bird breeds during the cool season. I found its nest in the Kandapolla jungles in January; it was situated in a fork of the top branch of a tall sapling, about 45 feet in height, and was a tolerably bulky structure, externally made of small sticks, in the centre of which was a deep cup 5 inches in diameter by 2 in depth, made entirely of fine roots; there was but one egg in the nest, which unfortunately got broken in being lowered to the ground. It was ovate and slightly pyriform, of a faded bluish-green ground thickly spotted all over with very light umber-brown, over larger spots of bluish-grey. It measured 098 inch in diameter by _about_ 13 in length."

16. Dendrocitta rufa (Scop.). _The Indian Tree-pie_.

Dendrocitta rufa (_Scop._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 314; _Hume, Rough Notes N. & E._ no. 674.

The Indian Tree-pie breeds throughout the continent of India, alike in the plains and in the hills, up to an elevation of 6000 or 7000 feet.

I personally have found the nest with eggs in May, June, July, and during the first week of August, in various districts in the North-West Provinces, and have had them sent me from Saugor (taken in July) and from Hansi (taken in April, May, and June); but perhaps because the bird is so common scarcely any one has sent me notes about its nidification, and I hardly know whether in other parts of India and Burma its breeding-season is the same as with us.

The nest is always placed in trees, generally in a fork, near the top of good large ones; babool and mango are very commonly chosen in the North-West Provinces, though I have also found it on neem and sisso trees. It is usually built with dry twigs as a foundation, very commonly th.o.r.n.y and p.r.i.c.kly twigs being used, on which the true nest, composed of fine twigs and lined with gra.s.s-roots, is constructed. The nests vary much: some are large and loosely put together, say, fully 9 inches in diameter and 6 inches in height externally; some are smaller and more densely built, and perhaps not above 7 inches in diameter and 4 inches in depth. The egg-cavity is usually about 5 inches in diameter and 2 inches in depth, but they vary very much both in size and materials; and I see that I note of one nest taken at Agra on the 3rd August--"A very shallow saucer some 6 inches in diameter, and with a central depression not above 1 inch in depth. It was composed _exclusively_ of roots; externally somewhat coa.r.s.e, internally of somewhat finer ones. It was very loosely put together."

Five is the full complement of eggs, but it is very common to find only four fully incubated ones.

Mr. W. Blewitt writes that he "found several nests in the latter half of April, May, and the early part of June in the neighbourhood of Hansie.

"Four was the greatest number of eggs I found in any nest.

"The nests were placed in neem, keekur, and s.h.i.+shum trees, at heights of from 10 to 17 feet from the ground, and were densely built of twigs mostly of the keekur and s.h.i.+shum, and more or less thickly lined with fine straw and leaves. They varied from 6 to 8 inches in diameter and from 2 to 3 inches in depth."

Mr. A. Anderson writes:--"The Indian Magpie lays from April to July, and I have once actually seen a pair building in February. Their eggs are of two very distinct types,--the one which, according to my experience, is the ordinary one, is covered all over with reddish-brown spots or rather blotches, chiefly towards the big end, on a pale greenish-white ground, and is rather a handsome egg; the other is a pale green egg with _faint brown_ markings, which are confined almost entirely to the obtuse end. I have another clutch of eggs taken at Budaon in 1865, which presents an intermediate variety between the above two extremes; these are profusely blotched with russet-brown on a dirty-white ground.

"The second and third nests above referred to contained five eggs; but the usual complement is not more than four. On the 2nd August, 1872, I made the following note relative to the breeding of this bird:--The bird flew off immediately we approached the tree, and never appeared again. The nest viewed from below looked larger; this is owing to dry _babool_ twigs or rather small branches (some of them having thorns from an inch to 2 inches long!) having been used as a foundation, and actually encircling the nest, no doubt by way of protection against vermin; some of these th.o.r.n.y twigs were a foot long, and they had to be removed piecemeal before the nest proper could be got at. The egg-cavity is deep, measuring 5 inches in depth by 4 in breadth inside measurement; it is well lined with khus gra.s.s."

Major Bingham says:--

"Common as is this bird I have only found one nest, and that was at Allahabad on the 9th July, and contained one half-fledged young one and an addled egg. The nest, which was placed at the very top of a large mango-tree, was constructed of branches and twigs of the same lined with fine gra.s.s-roots. The egg is a yellowish white, thickly speckled, chiefly at the large end, with rusty. Length 110 by 082 in breadth."

Colonel Butler tells us that it "breeds in Sind, in the hot weather.

Mr. Doig took a nest containing three fresh eggs on the 1st May, 1878.

The eggs, which seem to me to be remarkably small for the size of the bird, are of the first type mentioned in Rough Draft of 'Nests and Eggs,' p. 422."

Lieut. H.E. Barnes says in his 'Birds of Bombay:'--"In Sind they breed during May and June, always choosing babool trees, placing the nest in a stoutish fork near the top; they are composed at the bottom of th.o.r.n.y twigs, which form a sort of foundation upon which the true nest is built; the latter consists of fine twigs lined with gra.s.s-roots; the nest is frequently of large size."

Mr. G.W. Vidal, writing of the South Konkan, says:--"Common about all well-wooded villages from coast to Ghats. Breeds in April."

With regard to Cachar Mr. Inglis writes:--"This Magpie is very common in all the neighbouring villages, but I have not often seen it in the jungles. It remains all the year and breeds during April and May."

The eggs are typically somewhat elongated ovals, a good deal pointed towards the small end. They vary extraordinarily in colour and character, as well as extent of markings, but, as remarked when speaking of the Raven, all the eggs out of the same nest closely resemble each other, while the eggs of different nests are almost invariably markedly distinct. There are, however, two leading types--the one in which the markings are bright red, brownish red, or pale pinkish purple; and the other in which they are olive-brown and pale purplish brown. In the first type the ground-colour is either pale salmon, or else very pale greenish white, and the markings are either bold blotches, more or less confluent at the large end, where they are far most numerous, and only a few specks and spots towards the smaller end, or they are spots and small blotches thickly distributed over the whole surface, or they are streaky smudges forming a mottled ill-defined cap at the large end, and running down thence in streaks and spots longitudinally; in the other type the ground-colour is greenish white or pale yellowish stone-colour, and the character of the markings varies as in the preceding type. Besides these there are a few eggs with a dingy greyish-white ground, with very faint, cloudy, ill-defined spots of pale yellowish brown pretty uniformly distributed over the whole surface. In nine eggs out of ten, the markings are most dense at the large end, where they form irregular, more or less imperfect caps or zones. A few of the eggs are slightly glossy.

Of the salmon-pink type some specimens in their coloration resemble eggs of _Dicrurus longicaudatus_ and some of our Goatsuckers, while of those with the greenish-white ground-colour some strongly recall the eggs of _Lanius lahtora_.

In length the eggs vary from 10 to 13, and in breadth from 078 to 095; but the average of forty-four eggs is 117 by 087.

17. Dendrocitta leucogastra, Gould. _The Southern Tree-pie_.

Dendrocitta leucogastra, _Gould, Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 317; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 678.

From Travancore Mr. Bourdillon has kindly sent me an egg and the following note on the nidification of the Southern Tree-pie:--

"Three eggs, very hard-set, of an ashy-white colour, marked with ashy and greenish-brown blotches, 112 long and 087 broad, were taken on 9th March, 1873, from a nest in a bush 8 or 10 feet from the ground.

The nest of twigs was built after the style of the English Magpie's nest, minus the dome. It consisted of a large platform 6 inches deep and 8 or 10 inches broad, supporting a nest 1 inch deep and 3 inches broad. The bird is not at all uncommon on the a.s.samboo Hills between the elevations of 1500 and 3000 feet above the sea, seeming to prefer the smaller jungle and more open parts of the heavy forest."

Later he writes:--"On the 8th April I found another nest containing three half-fledged Magpies (_D. leucogastra_). The nest was entirely composed of twigs, roughly but securely put together; interior diameter 3 inches and depth 2 inches, though there was a good-sized base or platform, say, 5 inches in diameter. The nest was situated on the top fork of a sapling about 12 feet from the ground. I tried to rear the young birds, but they all died within a week."

The egg is very like that of our other Indian Tree-pies. It is in shape a broad and regular oval, only slightly compressed towards one end. The sh.e.l.l is fine and compact and is moderately glossy. The ground is a creamy stone-colour. It is profusely blotched and streaked with a somewhat pale yellowish brown, these markings being most numerous and darkest in a broad, irregular, imperfect zone round the large end, and it exhibits further a number of pale inky-purple clouds and blotches, which seem to underlie the brown markings, and which are chiefly confined to the broader half of the egg. The latter measures 113 by 086.