The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds Part 45

"The nest was placed in a small but very dense gra.s.s-tuft about a foot above the ground. It was made entirely of coa.r.s.e gra.s.ses, and a.s.similated 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 6 inches, and the breadth from front to back 4 inches. The interior is smooth, lined with somewhat finer gra.s.s, and measures 4 inches in depth by 3 inches from side to side, and by 2 inches from front to back.

"_Megalurus pal.u.s.tris_ 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 gra.s.s 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 gra.s.s-tuft."

Mr. c.o.c.kburn 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 gra.s.s, and only 9 or 10 inches from the ground. It was made of sarpat-gra.s.s, and lined internally with finer gra.s.ses. The gra.s.s 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 gra.s.s. 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 gra.s.s 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 08 to 097 in length, and from 061 to 069 in breadth; but the average of twelve eggs is 085 by 064.

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

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

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

"On the 1st September, 1880, I shot a pair of these birds as they rose out of some long gra.s.s 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 coa.r.s.e blades of dry gra.s.s, with an entrance on one side, and was built in long gra.s.s 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 coa.r.s.e gra.s.s, 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 gra.s.s 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 gra.s.s 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.

"These birds closely resemble _Chaetornis striatus_ in their actions and habits, and in the breeding-season rise constantly into the air, chirruping like that species, and descending afterwards in the same way on to some low bush or tussock of gra.s.s, sometimes even on to the telegraph-wires. They are fearful little skulks, however, if you attempt to pursue them, and the moment you approach disappear into the gra.s.s like a shot, from whence it is almost impossible to flush them again unless you all but tread on them. It is perfectly marvellous the way they will hide themselves in a patch of gra.s.s when they have once taken refuge in it; and although you may know within a yard or two of where the bird is, you may search for half an hour without finding it.

If you shoot at them and miss, they drop to the shot into the gra.s.s as if killed, and nothing will dissuade you from the belief that they are so until, after a long search, the little beast gets up exactly where you have been hunting all along, from almost under your feet, and darts off to disappear, after another short flight of fifteen or twenty yards, in another patch of gra.s.s, from whence you may again try in vain to dislodge it."

The eggs of this species, though much smaller, are precisely of the same type as those of _Megalurus pal.u.s.tris_ and _Chaetornis striatus_; moderately broad ovals with a very fine compact sh.e.l.l, with but little gloss, though perhaps rather more of this than in either of the species above referred to. The ground-colour is white, with perhaps a faint pinkish shade, and it is profusely speckled and spotted with brownish red, almost black in some spots, more chestnut in others.

Here and there a few larger spots or small irregular blotches occur.

Besides these markings, clouds, streaks, and tiny spots of grey or lavender-grey occur, chiefly about the large end, where, with the markings (often more numerous there than elsewhere), they form at times a more or less confluent but irregular and ill-defined cap.

One egg measured 073 by 06.

391. Acanthoptila nepalensis (Hodgs.). _The Spiny Warbler_.

Acanthoptila nipalensis (_Hodgs.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p 57.

Acanthoptila pellotis, _Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 431 bis.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and figures, this species builds, in a fork of a tree, a very loose, shallow gra.s.s nest. One is recorded to have measured 487 in diameter and 175 in height externally, and internally 337 in diameter and an inch in depth. The eggs are verditer-blue, and are figured as 11 by 065.

I may here note that _Acanthoptila pellotis_ and _A. leucotis_ are totally distinct, as Mr. Hodgson's figures clearly show. Hodgson published _A. leucotis_ apparently under the name of _A. nipalensis_, so that the two will stand as _A. pellotis_ and _A. nipalensis_.[A]

[Footnote A: I do not agree with. Mr. Hume on this point. It seems to me that this bird has both a summer and a winter plumage, and Hodgson's two names refer to one and the same bird.--ED.]

392. Chaetornis locustelloides (Bl.). _The Bristled Gra.s.s-Warbler_.

Chaetornis striatus (_Jerd.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p. 72; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 441.

Dr. Jerdon remarks that Mr. Blyth mentions that the nest of the Gra.s.s-Babbler, as he calls it, nearly accords with that of _Malacocercus_, and that the eggs are blue.

I cannot find the pa.s.sage in which Blyth states this, and I cannot help doubting its correctness. This bird, like the preceding, is not a bit of a Babbler. I have often watched them in Lower Bengal amongst comparatively low gra.s.s and rush along the margins of ponds and jheels, not, as a rule, affecting high reed or seeking to conceal themselves, but showing themselves freely enough, and with a song and flight wholly unlike that of any Babbler.

They are very restless, soaring about and singing a monotonous song of two notes, somewhat resembling that of a Pipit, but clear and loud.

They do not soar in one spot like a Sky-Lark, as Jerdon says, but rise to the height of from 30 to 50 yards, fly rapidly right and left, over perhaps one fourth of a mile, and then suddenly drop on to the top of some little bush or other convenient post, and there continue their song.

Mr. Brooks remarks:--"On the 28th August, 1869, I observed at the side of the railway, at Jheenjuck Jheel, on the borders of the Etawah and Cawnpoor Districts, several pairs of _Chaetornis_. A good part of the jheel was covered with gra.s.s about 18 inches high, and to this they appeared partial, though occasionally I found them among the long reeds. The part of the jheel where they were found was drier than the rest, there being only about an inch of water in places, while other portions were quite dry.

"I noticed the bird singing while seated on a bush or large clump of gra.s.s, and sometimes it perched on the telegraph-wires alongside of the line of railway, continuing its song while perched.

"By habits and song it seems more nearly allied to the Pipits than the Babblers. Males shot early in September were obviously breeding, and a female shot on the 13th of that month contained a nearly full-sized egg."

It does not do to be too positive, but I should be inclined to believe that the eggs are not uniform coloured, blue and glossy like a Babbler's, but dull, dead, or greenish white, with numerous small specks and spots[A].

[Footnote A: The discovery of this bird's eggs has proved Mr. Hume to be right in his conjecture.--ED.]

Colonel E.A. Butler, who was the first to discover the eggs of the Bristled Gra.s.s-Warbler, writes:--

"The Gra.s.s-Babbler is not uncommon about Deesa in the rains, at which season it breeds. I found a nest containing four eggs on the 18th August, 1876. It consisted of a round ball of dry gra.s.s with a circular entrance on one side, near the top, was placed on the ground in the centre of a low scrubby bush in a gra.s.s Bheerh, and when the hen-bird flew off, which was not until I almost put my foot on the nest, I mistook her for _Argya caudata_. On looking, however, into the bush, I saw at once by the eggs that it was a species new to me. I left the spot and returned again in about an hour's time, when, to my disappointment, I found that three of the eggs had hatched. The fourth egg being stale, I took it and added it to my collection. The eggs are about the size of the eggs of _A. caudata_, but in colour very like those of _Franklinia buchanani_, namely, white, speckled all over with reddish brown and pale lavender, most densely at the large end. This bird has a peculiar habit in the breeding-season of rising suddenly into the air and soaring about, often for a considerable distance, uttering a loud note resembling the words 'chirrup, chirrup-chirrup,'

repeated all the time the bird is in the air, and then suddenly descending slowly into the gra.s.s with outspread wings, much in the style of _Mirafra erythroptera_. This bird is so similar in appearance, when flying and hopping about in the long gra.s.s, to _A.

caudata_, that I have no doubt it is often mistaken for that species.

I have invariably found it during the rains in gra.s.s Bheerhs overgrown with low th.o.r.n.y bushes (_Zizyphus jujuba_, &c.). Whether it remains the whole year round I cannot say; at all events, if it does, its close resemblance to _A. caudata_ enables it to escape notice at other seasons."

Mr. Cripps, writing from Fureedpore, says:--"Very common in long gra.s.s fields. Permanent resident. It utters its soft notes while on the wing, not only in the cold season but the year through; it is very noisy during the breeding-time. Breeds in clumps of gra.s.s a few inches above as well as on the ground. I found five nests in the month of May from 23rd to 28th: one was on the ground in a field of indigo; the rest were in clumps of 'sone' gra.s.s and from the same field composed of this gra.s.s. One nest contained three half-fledged young, and the rest had four eggs slightly incubated in each. Although they nest in 'sone' gra.s.s which is rarely over three feet in height, it is very difficult to find the nest, as the gra.s.s generally overhangs and hides it. Only when the bird rises almost from your feet are you able to discover the whereabouts. On several occasions I have noticed this species perching on bushes."

The eggs, which, to judge from a large series sent me by Mr. Cripps, do not appear to vary much in shape, are moderately broad ovals, more or less pointed towards one end. The sh.e.l.l is fine and fragile but entirely devoid of gloss; the ground-colour is white with a very faint pinky or lilac tinge, and they are thickly speckled all over with minute markings of two different shades--the one a sort of purplish brown (they are so small that it is difficult to make certain of the exact colour), and the other inky purple or grey. In most eggs the markings are most dense at or about the large end, and occasionally a spot may be met with larger than the rest, as big as a pin's head say, and some of these seem to have a reddish tinge, while some are more of a sepia.

The eggs vary from 075 to 086 in length and from 059 to 062 in breadth, but the average of twelve eggs is almost exactly 08 by 06.

394. Hypolais rama (Sykes). _Sykes's Tree-Warbler_.

Phyllopneuste rama (_Sykes), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 189.

Iduna caligata, _Licht., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 553.

I have never myself obtained the nest and eggs of Sykes's Tree-Warbler, _P. rama, apud Jerd._[A] On the 1st April, at Etawah, my friend Mr. Brooks shot a male of this species off a nest; and I saw the bird, nest, and eggs within an hour, and visited the spot later.

The nest was placed in a low th.o.r.n.y bush, about a foot from the ground, on the side of a sloping bank in one of the large dry ravines that in the Etawah District fringe the River Junina for a breadth of from a mile to four miles. The nest was nearly egg-shaped, with a circular entrance near the top. It was loosely woven with coa.r.s.e and fine gra.s.s, and a little of the fibre of the "sun" (_Crotalaria juncea_), and very neatly felted on the whole interior surface of the lower two thirds with a compact coating of the down of flowering-gra.s.ses and little bits of spider's web. It was about 5 inches in its longest and 3 inches in its shortest diameter. It contained three fresh eggs, which were white, very thickly speckled with brownish pink, in places confluent and having a decided tendency to form a zone near the large end. Three or four days later we shot the female at the same spot.

[Footnote A: I reproduce the note on this bird as it appeared in the 'Rough Draft,' but I think some mistake has been made, as Mr. Hume himself suggests. Full reliance, however, may be placed on Mr. Doig's note, which is a most interesting contribution.--ED]

A similar nest and two eggs, taken in Jhansi on the 12th August, were sent me with one of the parent birds by Mr. F.R. Blewitt, and, again, another nest with four eggs was sent me from Hoshungabad.

There ought to be no doubt about these nests and eggs, the more so that I have several specimens of the bird from various parts of the North-Western Provinces and Central Provinces killed in August and September, but somehow I do not feel quite certain that we have not made some mistake. Beyond doubt the great ma.s.s of this species migrate and breed further north. I have never obtained specimens in June or July; and if these nests really, as the evidence seems to show, belonged to the birds that were shot on or near them, these latter must have bred in India before or after their migration, as well as in Northern Asia.

Though one may make minute differences, I do not think either of the three nests or sets of eggs could be certainly separated from those of _Franklinia buchanani_, which might well have eggs about both in April and August; and I am not prepared to say that in each of these three cases _Hypolais rama_, which frequents precisely the same kind of bushes that _F. buchanani_ breeds in, may not accidentally have been shot in the immediate proximity to a nest of the latter, the owner of which had crept noiselessly away, as these birds so often do.

Dr. Jerdon says:--"I have obtained the nest and eggs of this species on one occasion only at Jaulnah in the Dekhan; the nest was cup-shaped, made of roots and gra.s.s, and contained four pure white eggs."