The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds Part 57

Mr. Benjamin Aitken writes:--"This is a very familiar bird, and builds readily in some roadside tree, where men and carts are pa.s.sing all day long. I have the following notes of its nests:--

"1st-8th May, 1869. Nest and three eggs taken at Khandalla, above the Bh.o.r.e Ghat.

"12th May, 1871. Nest and four eggs at Poona.

"16th-18th May, 1871. Nest and four eggs at Khandalla. This nest was in a corinda bush, placed about 1 feet from the ground.

"13th May, 1873. A clutch of young birds left the nest this morning at Poona.

"19th May, 1873. I found a nest of half-fledged young birds this day at Poona. The tree was almost denuded of leaves, and the heat of the sun being very intense, the parent bird was nevertheless sitting close. Its eyes were closed, and it was gasping hard. One of the young ones had crawled out from under the parent, and was sitting on the edge of the nest, also gasping hard.

"I do not exactly gather from your notes in the 'Rough Draft' what form the spots usually take. In my nest taken on the 12th May all four eggs had the zone quite as distinct as the eggs of a Fan-tailed Flycatcher. The seven eggs taken from two nests at Khandalla, on the other hand, had not the least appearance of a zone, but were spotted, after the manner of Sparrows' eggs. In both the latter cases I saw the old bird fly off the nest and alight on a tree a few yards off.

"I remember one little Shrike of this species which used to come down every day to pick up crumbs of bread and pieces of potatoe put out for the Sparrows. (Being a true naturalist I love Sparrows.)

"My brother on one occasion saw one of these Shrikes trying to catch a garden lizard--not a gecko.

"Of course you know that the young of this handsome and brightly coloured Shrike have a plain and curiously marked plumage, reminding one a little of the _pateela_ Partridge. I never saw this Shrike in Bombay."

The eggs of this, the smallest of all our Indian Shrikes, differ in no particular, so far as shape, colour, and markings go, from those of its larger congeners; that is to say, for every egg of this species an exactly similar one might be picked out from a large series of _L.

lahtora_ or _L. erythronotus_; but at the same time there is no doubt that pale-creamy and pale-brownish stone-coloured grounds predominate more amongst the eggs of this species than in those of the two above-named. The markings are also, as a rule, more minute and less well-defined; indeed, in the large series I possess there is not one which exhibits the bold sharp blotches common in the eggs of _L.

lahtora_, and not uncommon in those of _L. erythronotus_.

In length they vary from 075 to 095 inch, and in breadth from 062 to 071 inch; but the average of forty-five eggs is 083 by 066 inch nearly.

475. Lanius nigriceps (Franklin). _The Black-headed Shrike_.

Lanius nigriceps (_Frankl.), Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 404.

Collyrio nigriceps, _Frankl., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 259.

I have never myself taken the eggs or nests of the Black-headed Shrike.

Mr. E. Thompson says:--"This Shrike breeds all along the south-western termination of the k.u.maon and Gurhwal forests, and is usually found in swampy, high gra.s.sy lands. It lays in July, August, and September, building a large cup-shaped nest, composed of roots and fine gra.s.ses, in small trees or shrubs in low, open gra.s.s-covered country.

"I found this the Common Shrike in the hilly jungly tracts in Southern Mirzapore, but I do not know whether it breeds there. The cry is quite like that of _L. erythronotus_.

"The southern limit of _Lanius nigriceps_ is interesting and remarkable. It disappears after you go south-west of the Mykle Range, and on the Range itself it is found only near marshy places. This Mykle Range extends as far east as Ummerkuntuk, with a spur going off north of that, and joining on with the Kymore Range, parts of which I explored in March last in Pergunnahs Agrore and Singrowlee. Down in those places this _Lanius_ was the Common Shrike, but south and west of Ummerkuntuk all the Shrikes disappear more or less, and _L.

nigriceps_ entirely."

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and figures this species breeds in the Valley of Nepal, laying in April and May, and building in th.o.r.n.y bushes, hedges, and trees, often in the immediate neighbourhood of villages. The following are two of Mr. Hodgson's notes:--

"Valley, May 18th.--Nest near the top of a fir of mean size, fixed securely in the midst of several diverging branches, made compactly of dry gra.s.ses, of which the inner ones, which const.i.tute the lining, are hard and elastic, and well fitted to preserve the shape, which is a deep cup with an internal cavity 35 inches in diameter and nearly 3 deep. It contained six eggs, milk-and-water white, with pale olive spots, chiefly at the large end, measuring 095 by 068 inch.

"Jahar Powah, May 16th.--Ascent of Sheopoori, skirts of large forests; nest on lateral branches of a large tree made of downy tops of plants, of moss and thick gra.s.ses strongly compacted, and lined with fine elastic hair-like gra.s.s; the cavity is circular, 3 inches in diameter by more than 2 inches in depth; the whole nest is a solid deep cup; it contained four eggs, bluish white, with grey-brown remote spots."

Of another nest he gives the dimensions as:--external diameter 425 inches; external height 387; internal diameter 287; depth of cavity 275. He figures it as a very compact and deep cup resting on a horizontal fir branch between four or five upright sprays. He states that the young are ready to fly towards the end of June, and that it breeds only once a year.

Dr. Scully, also writing of Nepal, says:--"This Shrike breeds on the hillsides of the valley, usually in places where there is no tree-forest, and not uncommonly in the neighbourhood of hamlets.

Several nests were obtained in May and June; these were large cup-shaped structures, composed of gra.s.s-roots, fibres, and fine seed-down intermixed. The egg-cavity was circular, lined with fine gra.s.s-stems, about 4 inches in diameter, and 2 inches deep in the middle. The usual number of eggs is five; the ground-colour pale greenish white, boldly blotched and spotted with olive marks in an irregular zone round the large end. A clutch of five eggs taken on the 14th June gave the following dimensions:--094 to 097 in length, and 065 to 07 in breadth."

Mr. Gammie found a nest of this species on the 17th May at Mongfoo, near Darjeeling, at an elevation of 3500 feet. The nest was placed in a wormwood bush, and was supported between several slender upright shoots, to which the exterior of the nest was more or less attached.

The nest was a deep compact cup, externally composed of fine twigs, sc.r.a.ps of roots, and stems of herbaceous plants, intermingled with a great deal of flowering gra.s.s. Internally it was lined with very fine gra.s.s and moss-roots. The cavity measured about 3 inches in diameter, and was fully 2 inches deep. The external diameter was about 5 inches, and height 3 or thereabout.

Subsequently he sent me the following full account of the nidification of this Shrike:--

"I have found this Shrike breeding abundantly in the Cinchona reserves in May and June, at elevations of from 3000 to 4500 feet above the sea. It affects open, cultivated places, and builds, from 6 to 20 feet from the ground, in shrubs, bamboos, or small trees. The nest is often suspended between several upright shoots, to which it is firmly attached by fibres twisted round the stems and the ends worked into the body of the nest; sometimes against a bamboo-stem seated on, and attached to, the bunch of twigs given out at a node; or in a fork of a small tree, or end of an upright cut branch where several shoots have sprung away from under the cut and keep the nest in position, when it has a large pad of an everlasting plant or of the downy heads of a large flowering gra.s.s to rest on--when the former material is handy it is preferred. The nest is sometimes exposed to view, but generally is tolerably well concealed. It is of a deep cup-shape, very compactly built of flowering gra.s.s and stems of herbaceous plants intermixed with fibry twigs, and lined with the small fibry-looking branchlets of gra.s.s-panicles. Externally it measures 5 inches across by 3 inches in depth; internally the cavity is 3 inches in diameter by nearly 2 inches deep. Usually the eggs are either four or five in number. On one occasion only have I seen so many as six. The coloration is of two distinct types, but one type only is found in the same nest. I suspect that the age of the bird has something to do with the variation of colour in the eggs. In a nest containing four eggs one had the majority of the spots collected on the small, instead of the thick end as usual, and, strange to say, it was addled white. The other three were hard-set. The parents get very much excited when their young are approached, and, as long as the intruder is in the vicinity, keep up an incessant volley of their harsh grating cries, at the same time stretching out their necks and jerking about their tails violently."

Mr. J.R. Cripps, writing from Furreedpore in Eastern Bengal, says:--"Excessively common and a permanent resident. Prefers open plains interspersed with bushes, also the small bushes on road-sides are a favourite haunt of theirs. Breeds in the district. I took ten nests this season from the 11th April to 4th June, with from one to five eggs in each. Four nests were placed in bamboo clumps from 9 to 30 feet high; one 40 feet from the ground on a casuarina-tree, one 20 feet up in a but-tree, and the rest in babool-trees at from 6 to 15 feet high from the ground. There is no attempt at concealment. The nest is a deep cup fixed in a fork, and is made of gra.s.ses with a deal of the downy tops of the same for an outside lining; this peculiarity at once distinguishes the nest of this species. The description given by Mr. Hodgson of a nest found by him on the 16th May at Jahar Powah, in 'Nests and Eggs,' p. 172, correctly describes the nests I have found. This species imitates the call of several kinds of small birds, as Sparrows, King-Crows, &c., and I have often been deceived by it."

The eggs of this species, of which, thanks to Mr. Gammie, I now possess a n.o.ble series, vary very much in shape and size. Typically they are very broad ovals, a little compressed towards one end, but moderately elongated ovals are not uncommon. The sh.e.l.l is very fine and smooth, and often has a more or less perceptible gloss; in no case, however, very p.r.o.nounced.

There are two distinct types of colouring. In the one, the ground-colour is a delicate very pale green or greenish white, in some few pale, still faintly greenish, stone-colour; and the markings consist as a rule of specks and spots of brownish olive, mostly gathered into a broad zone about the large end, intermingled with specks and spots of pale inky purple. In some eggs the whole of the markings are very pale and washed-out, but in the majority the brownish-olive or olive-brown spots, as the case may be, are rather bright, especially in the zone. In the other type (and out of 42 eggs, 12 belong to this type) the ground-colour varies from pinky white to a warm salmon-pink, and the markings, distributed and arranged as in the first type, are a rather dull red and pale purple. In fact the two types differ as markedly as do those of _Dicrurus ater_; and though I have as yet received none such, I doubt not that with a couple of hundred eggs before one intermediate varieties, as in the case of _D.

ater_, would be found to exist--as it is, two more different looking eggs than the two types of this species could hardly be conceived. I may add that in eggs of both types it sometimes, though very rarely, happens that the zone is round the small end.

In length they vary from 082 to 101, and in breadth from 068 to 079; but the average of forty-two eggs measured is 092 by 075.

476. Lanius erythronotus (Vigors). _The Rufous-backed Shrike_.

Lanius erythronotus (_Vig._); _Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 402.

Collyrio erythronotus, _Vigors, Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 257.

Collyrio caniceps[A] (_Blyth_), _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 257 bis.

[Footnote A: Mr. Hume may probably still consider _L. caniceps_ separable from _L. erythronotus_. I therefore keep the notes on the two races distinct as they appeared in the 'Rough Draft,' merely adding a few later notes.--ED.]

_Lanius erythronotus_.

The Rufous-backed Shrike lays from March to August; the first half of this period being that in which the majority of these birds lay in the Himalayas, which they ascend to elevations of 6000 feet: and the latter half being that in which we find most eggs in the plains; but in both hills and plains some eggs may be found throughout the whole period above indicated.

The nests of this species are almost invariably placed on forks of trees or of their branches at no great height from the ground; indeed, of all the many nests that I have myself taken, I do not think that one was above 15 feet from the ground. By preference they build, I think, in th.o.r.n.y trees, the various species of acacia, so common throughout the plains of India, being apparently their favourite nesting-haunts, but I have found them breeding on toon (_Cedrela toona_) and other trees. Internally the nest is always a deep cup, from 3 to 3 inches in diameter, and from 1 to 2-1/8 deep. The cavity is always circular and regular, and lined with fine gra.s.s. Externally the nests vary greatly; they are always ma.s.sive, but some are compact and of moderate dimensions externally, say not exceeding 5 inches in diameter, while others are loose and straggling, with a diameter of fully 8 inches. Gra.s.s-stems, fine twigs, cotton-wool, old rags, dead leaves, pieces of snake's skin, and all kinds of odds and ends are incorporated in the structure, which is generally more or less strongly bound together by fine tow-like vegetable fibre. Some nests indeed are so closely put together that they might almost be rolled about without injury, while others again are so loose that it is scarcely possible to move them from the fork in which they are wedged without pulling them to pieces.

I have innumerable notes about the nests of this Shrike, of which I reproduce two or three.

"_Etawah, March 18th_.--The nest was on a babool tree, some 10 feet from the ground, on one of the outside branches; an exterior framework of very th.o.r.n.y babool twigs, and within a very warm deep circular nest made almost entirely of sun (_Crotalaria juncea_) fibre, a sort of fine tow, and flocks of cotton-wool, there being fully as much of this latter as of the former; a few fine gra.s.s-stems are interwoven; there are a few human and a few sleep's wool hairs at the bottom as a sort of lining. The cavity of the nest is about 3 inches in diameter by 2 deep, and the side walls and bottom are from 1 to 2 inches thick."

"_Bareilly, May 27th_, 1867.--Found a nest containing two fresh eggs.

The nest was in a small mango tree, rather ma.s.sive, nearly 2 inches in thickness at the sides and 3 inches thick at the bottom. It was rather stoutly and closely put together, though externally very ragged. The interior neatly made of fine gra.s.s-stems, the exterior of coa.r.s.er gra.s.s-stems and roots, with a quant.i.ty of cotton-wool, rags, tow string and thread intermingled. The cavity was oval, about 3 by 3 inches and 2 inches deep."

"_Agra, August 21st_.--Mr. Munro sent in from b.i.t.c.hpoorie a beautiful nest which he took from the fork of a mango tree about 40 feet from the ground, a very compact and ma.s.sive cup-shaped nest, not very deep."

Mr. F.R. Blewitt records the following note:--"Breeds from March to August, on low trees, and, as would appear, without preference for any one kind.

"The nest in shape much resembles that of _Lanius lahtora_; but judging from the half-dozen or so I have seen, _L. erythronotus_ certainly displays more skill and ingenuity in preparing its nest, which in structure is more neat and compact than that of _L. lahtora_.

In shape it is circular, ordinarily varying from 5 to 7 inches in diameter, and from 2 to 2 inches in thickness. Hemp, old rags, and th.o.r.n.y twigs are freely used in the formation of the outer portion of the nest, but the Shrike shows a decided predilection for the former.

In one nest I observed the cast skin of a snake worked in with the outer materials; in two others some kind of vegetable fibre was used to bind and secure the thorn twigs, and one had the margin made of fine neem-tree twigs and leaves. The egg-cavity is deeply cup-shaped, from 3 to 4 inches in diameter, and _lined_ usually with fine gra.s.s.

Five appears to be the regular number of eggs; but on this score I cannot be very certain, seeing that my experience is confined to some half-dozen or so of nests.

"I have recently reared three young birds, and it is very amusing to witness their many antics, shrewdness, and intelligence. They are very tame, flying in and out of the bungalow at pleasure; when irritated, which is rather a failing with them, they show every sign of resentment. If one is inclined to be rebellious, not coming to call, the show of a piece of meat at once secures its submission and capture. Singular how partial they are to raw meat, and more singular to see the expert way in which they catch up the meat with the claws of either leg, and hold it from them while they devour it piecemeal.