The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds Part 49

438. Cryptolopha cantator (Tick.). _Tickell's Flycatcher-Warbler_.

Culicipeta cantator (_Tick.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 200.

Abrornis cantator (_Tick.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 570.

A nest containing a single egg has been sent me as that of Tickell's Flycatcher-Warbler. It was found in May in Native Sikhim, at an elevation, it is said, of 12,000 feet. It was suspended to the tip of a branch of a tree at a height of about 8 feet from the ground. The nest is a most lovely one; but I confess that I have doubts as to its really belonging to this species.

The nest is, for the size of the bird, a large watch-pocket, some 6 inches in total length and 35 in breadth, composed entirely of white, satiny seed-down, densely felted together to the thickness of half an inch. The lower part, sides, and back very thinly, and the upper portion and the margin of the mouth of the pocket thickly, coated with excessively fine green moss and very fine soft vegetable fibre.

My sole reason for doubting the authenticity of the nest is that another _precisely_ similar one was sent me by another collector, a European, as belonging to an _Aethopyga_, together with the female which he shot off the nest.

The present nest contained a pure white egg; the other spotted eggs.

Both collectors I have no doubt were fully a.s.sured of the correctness of their identification, and it may be that both species of birds construct similar nests; but I entertain considerable doubts on this subject, and think it right to note the fact.

The egg is a very broad oval, pure white, and very glossy, and measures 06 by 049.

Mr. Mandelli sends me a lovely nest, which he says belongs to this species. It was found in May in Native Sikhim, at about 12,000 feet elevation. It was suspended from the tiny branch of a tree at a height of about 8 feet from the ground. The nest is a perfect watch-pocket, composed entirely of white silky down belonging to one of the bombaxes, thinly coated here and there with strings of moss to keep it together, and more thickly so with this and vegetable fibre at and about the point of suspension and round the rim of the mouth of the pocket. The nest is altogether about. 6 inches long and about 3 inches in diameter at its broadest; the lower edge of the aperture into the pocket is 2 inches from the bottom of the nest, and the aperture is about 2 inches wide. It is altogether one of the loveliest nests I have ever seen: but I cannot feel certain that the nest really belongs to this species; for I have had a precisely similar nest, also found in Sikhim, on the 20th May, similarly suspended at a height of about 5 feet from the ground, sent me as belonging to another species of _Abrornis_; and though Mr. Mandelli is usually right, I think the matter requires further confirmation.

440. Abrornis superciliaris, Tick. _The Yellow-bellied Flycatcher-Warbler_.

Abrornis flaviventris, _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 203.

Writing from Tena.s.serim, Major T.C. Bingham says:--

"I have shot this bird on the Zammee choung, where I got a nest with eggs; and I have more than once seen it in the Thoungyeen forests.

"The following is an account of the nest I found, recorded in my note-book:--

"Khasat village--Khasat choung, Zammee river, 9th March, 1878.--My camp to-day was pitched in the midst of a dense bamboo-break, close to a path leading to the village.

"About ten feet from my tent on this path, pa.s.sers-by had cut one of the bamboos in a clump and left it leaning up against the clump; between two knots of this a rough hack had broken an irregular hole into a joint.

"Sitting outside my tent and looking carelessly about, my attention was attracted by what I took to be a leaf flutter down close to the above-mentioned bamboo, and to my surprise disappear before it reached the ground. Wondering at this, I got up and approached the place, when from the aforementioned hole in the bamboo out darted a little bird; and looking in I saw a neat little nest of fibres placed on the lower knot with three eggs, white densely speckled, chiefly in a ring at the larger end, with pinkish claret spots.

"I went back to my tent, watched the bird return, and shot her as on being frightened off she flew out a second time. It proved to be the above species.

"I took the nest and eggs. The latter, I regret to say, were lost subsequently through the carelessness of a servant, but I had luckily measured and taken a description of them.

"Their dimensions were respectively 057 x 042, 059 x 042, and 059 x 044."

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"I took a nest of this Warbler on the 15th June at 1800 feet elevation. It was inside a bamboo-stem near the banks of the Ryeng stream. Just under a node some one had cut out a notch, which the birds made their entrance. The nest rested on the node below and fitted the hollow of the bamboo. It was made of dry bamboo-leaves, and lined with soft, fibrous material. It measured 5 inches deep and 3 inches wide, with an egg cavity of 2 inches in depth, by 1 inch in width. The eggs, which were hard-set, were but three in number."

The eggs are rather long ovals, the sh.e.l.l fine but with very little gloss; the ground-colour is a dull white or pinky white, and it is thickly freckled and mottled about the large end and thinly elsewhere with red, in some cases slightly browner, in others purple. The markings have a tendency to form a cap or zone about the large end, and here, where the markings are densest, some little lilac or purplish-grey spots and clouds are intermingled.

An egg measures 061 by 043.

441. Abrornis schisticeps (Hodgs.). _The Black-faced Flycatcher-Warbler_.

Abrornis schisticeps, _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 201; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 571.

Captain Hutton tells us that the Black-faced Flycatcher-Warbler is "a common species in the neighbourhood of Mussoorie, at 5000 feet, and commences building in March. A pair of these birds selected a thick China rose-bush trained against the side of the house, and had completed the nest and laid one egg when a rat destroyed it. I subsequently took two other nests in May, both placed on the ground in holes in the side of a bank by the roadside. In form the nest is a ball, with a round lateral entrance, and is composed externally of dried gra.s.ses and green moss, lined with bits of wool, cotton, feathers, thread, and hair. The eggs are three in number."

Two eggs of this species, sent to me by Captain Hutton, are very perfect ovals, pure white[A], and rather glossy.

[Footnote A: There can be little doubt that Capt. Hutton's eggs were wrongly identified.--ED.]

They both measure 062 by 048.

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"The only nest I ever found of this Warbler was in a natural hole in a small tree in an open part of a large forest, at 5500 feet above the sea. In a cleft, five feet from ground, where a limb had been lopped off, there was a small hole, barely large enough, at entrance to admit the bird, but gradually widening out for the seven or eight inches of its depth. In the bottom of this cavity was a loose lining of dry bamboo-leaves, on which lay five eggs. They do not agree with those taken by Captain Hutton, which were 'pure white,' but I am absolutely certain of the authenticity of the eggs taken by me. They were well-set, so five is probably the full complement. They were taken on the 26th May."

The eggs sent by Mr. Gammie, for the authenticity of which he vouches, are moderately broad ovals, somewhat compressed and pyriform towards the small end. They have but little gloss, and are of the same type as _A. superciliaris_ and _A. albigularis_. The ground is a dull pinkish white, and they are profusely mottled and streaked with red, which in some eggs is brownish, in some purplish. The markings are densest at the large end, where they have a tendency to form an irregular zone, which in some specimens is very conspicuous.

These eggs vary from 056 to 057 in length, and from 041 to 042 in breadth.

442. Abrornis albigularis, Hodgs. _The White-throated Flycatcher-Warbler_.

Abrornis albigularis, _Hodgs._, _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 204.

A nest of this species found in Native Sikhim, below Namtchu, on the 28th July, is a regular Tailor-bird's nest, absolutely undistinguishable from the one also sent me by Mr. Mandelli as belonging to _Orthotomus atrigularis_, so that for the moment I have some doubts as to the authenticity of this nest. Two leaves, precisely of the same species as those made use of by the Tailor-bird in question, have been sewn together with the same bright yellow silk, and the little deep cup-shaped nest within is composed exactly of the same excessively fine gra.s.s. Another nest, also said to belong to this species, but of a very different character, has been sent me by Mr.

Mandelli. This was found at Yendong, in Native Sikhim, on the 6th July, and contained four fresh eggs precisely of the type of those of _A. schisticeps_. The nest was placed in the cavity of a truncated bamboo about 4 feet from the ground, and was a loose cup, the basal portion composed of dry bamboo-leaves, and the rest of the nest being made of excessively fine gra.s.s, flower-stems, similar to those used in the Tailor-bird-like nest above described, but with a quant.i.ty of feathers mingled with this in the lining of the nest.

The eggs of this species are of precisely the same type as those of _A. schisticeps_ and _A. superciliaris_, but they are the smallest of all. They are little regular oval eggs, with a white, greyish, or pinky white ground, with deep red freckled and mottled markings, which are densely set about the large end, where they generally form a cap or zone, and usually much less dense elsewhere.

The eggs sent me measured 055 and 057 by 043.

445. Scotocerca inquieta (Cretzschm.). _The Streaked Scrub-Warbler_.

Scotocerca inquieta (_Rupp._), _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 550 bis.

The Streaked Scrub-Warbler is a permanent resident of the bare stony hills which, under many names and broken into mult.i.tudinous ranges, run down from the Khyber Pa.s.s to the sea, dividing the Punjab and Sind from Afghanistan and Khelat.

An account of its nidification is contained in the following note furnished me by the late Captain c.o.c.k:--

"I first discovered this bird breeding in February in the Khuttuck Hills. It is common throughout the range of stony hills between Peshawur and Attock, and I have seen it on the hills between Jhelum and Pindi, but never took their nest in this latter locality. At Nowshera it is very common, and towards the end of February a collector could take four or five nests in a day. It builds in a low th.o.r.n.y shrub, about 1 feet from the ground, makes a largish globular nest of thin dry gra.s.s-stems, with an opening in the side, thickly lined with seed-down, and containing four or five eggs. Their nesting-operations are over by the end of March."

Lieut. H.E. Barnes, who observed the bird at Chaman in Afghanistan, says:--"These birds are quite common about here on the plains, but I have not observed them on the hills. They commence breeding towards the end of March; the nest is globular in shape, not unlike that of _Franklinia buchanani_, but somewhat larger, built invariably in stunted bushes about two feet from the ground. It is well lined with feathers and fine gra.s.s, the outer portion being composed of fibres and coa.r.s.e gra.s.s. The normal number of eggs is six. I have found less, but never more, and whenever a lesser number has been taken they have always proved to be fresh laid.

"The eggs are oval in shape, white, with a pinkish tinge when fresh, very minutely spotted and speckled with light red, most densely at the larger end. The average of twelve eggs is 062 by 043."

The eggs are moderately broad and regular ovals, usually somewhat compressed towards one end, but occasionally exhibiting no trace of this. The sh.e.l.l is very fine and delicate, but, as a rule, entirely devoid of gloss. The ground-colour varies from pure to pinky white.

The markings are always minute, but in some they are comparatively much bolder and larger than in others, and they vary in colour from reddish pink to a comparatively bright red. In many eggs the markings are much more dense towards the large end, where they form, or exhibit a strong tendency to form, an irregular, more or less confluent zone; and wherever the markings are dense there a certain number of tiny pale purple or lilac spots or clouds will be found intermingled with and underlying the red markings. Some eggs show none of these spots and exhibit no tendency to form a zone, being pretty uniformly speckled and spotted all over. Some are not very unlike eggs of the Gra.s.shopper and Dartford Warblers; others, again, are almost counterparts of the eggs of _Franklinia buchanani_.

In length the eggs vary from 06 to 068, and in breadth from 046 to 051.

446. Neomis flavolivaceus, Hodgs.[A] _The Aberrant Warbler_.