The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds Part 59

Dr. Scully says:--"The Grey-backed Shrike is common in the Valley of Nepal from about the end of September to the middle of March; it is the only Shrike found in the Valley during the winter season, but it migrates further north to breed. In December it was fairly common about Chitlang, which is higher than Kathmandu, but seemed to be entirely replaced in the Hetoura Dun by _L. nigriceps_. It frequents gardens, groves, and cultivated ground, perching on bushes and hedges and small bare trees. It has a very harsh chattering note, louder than that of _L. nigriceps_, and appears to be most noisy towards sunset, when its cry would often lead one to suppose that the bird was being strangled in the clutches of a raptor."

Mr. O. Moller has kindly furnished me with the following note:--"On the 7th June, 1879, my men brought a nest containing four fresh eggs, together with a bird of the present species; I send two of the eggs: perhaps you recollect the eggs of _L. tephronotus_, in which case you of course will be able to see at a glance if I am correct. I have never come across such large eggs of _L. nigriceps_, the eggs of which also as a rule have well-defined spots and no blotches; the two other eggs the nest contained measure 1 by 074, and 101 by 076 inch."

The eggs of this species are of the ordinary Shrike type, moderately elongated ovals, a little compressed towards the small end. The sh.e.l.l extremely smooth and compact, but with scarcely any perceptible gloss.

The ground-colour pale greenish or yellowish white; the markings chiefly confined to a broad irregular ill-defined zone round the large end--blotches, spots, specks, and smears of pale yellowish brown more or less intermingled with small clouds and spots of pale sepia-grey or inky purple. In some eggs a good number of the smaller markings and occasionally one or two larger ones are scattered over the entire surface of the egg, but typically the bulk of the markings are comprised within the zone above referred to.

In length four eggs vary from 097 to 106 inch, and in breadth from 076 to 081 inch.

481. Lanius cristatus, Linn. _The Brown Shrike_.

Lanius cristatus, _Linn., Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 406: _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 261.

I am induced to notice this species, the Brown Shrike, although I possess no detailed information as to its nidification, in consequence of Lord Walden's remarks on this subject in 'The Ibis' of 1867. He says "Does it, then, cross the vast ranges of the Himalaya in its northern migration? or does it not rather find on the southern slopes and in the valleys of those mountains all the conditions suitable for nesting?"; and he adds in a note, "It is extremely doubtful whether any pa.s.serine bird which frequents the plains of India during the cooler months crosses to the north of the snowy ranges of the Himalaya after quitting the plains to escape the rainy season or the intense heat of summer."

Now, it is quite certain, as I have shown in 'Lah.o.r.e to Yarkand,' that several of our Indian pa.s.serine birds do cross the entire succession of Snowy Ranges which divide the plains of India from Central Asia, and it is tolerably certain from my researches and those of numerous contributors that _L. cristatus_ breeds _only_ north of these ranges.

True, Tickell gives the following account of the nidification of this species in the plains of India:--

"Nest found in large bushes or thickets, shallow, circular, 4 inches in diameter, rather coa.r.s.ely made of fine twigs and gra.s.s. Eggs three, ordinary; 29/32 by 21/32: pale rose-colour, thickly sprinkled with blood-red spots, with a darkish livid zone at the larger end.--_June_." But Tickell, though he warns us at the commencement of his paper (Journal As. Soc. 1848, p. 297) of the "attempts at duplicity of which the wary oologist must take good heed," gives the egg of the Sarus as plain white, and says he has seen upwards of a dozen like this, those of the Roller as full deep Antwerp blue, those of _Cypselus palmarum_ as white with large spots of deep claret-brown, and so on, and it is quite clear that his supposed eggs and nest of _L. cristatus_ belonged to one of the Bulbuls.

Of more than fifty oologists who have collected for me at different times in hills and plains, from the Nilghiris to Huzara on the one side, and to Sikhim on the other, not one has ever met with a nest of _L. cristatus_. This is doubtless purely negative evidence, but it is still ent.i.tled to considerable weight.

From the valleys of the Beas and the Sutlej, as also from k.u.maon and Gurhwal, these Shrikes seem to disappear entirely during the summer, and they are then, as we also know, found breeding in Yarkand. It is only in the latter part of the autumn that they reappear in the former named localities, finding their way by the commencement of the cold season to the foot of the hills.

Mr. R. Thompson, to quote one of many close observers, remarks:--"This bird appears regularly at Huldwanee and Rumnugger at the foot of the k.u.maon Hills during the cold weather, confining itself to thick hedges and deep groves of trees. Where it goes to in summer I cannot say, it certainly does not remain in our hills."

484. Hemipus picatus (Sykes). _The Black-backed Pied Shrike_.

Hemipus picatus (_Sykes_), _Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 412; _Hume, Rough Draft_ _N. & E._ no 267.

I quite agree with Mr. Gray that this bird is a Flycatcher and not a Shrike; no one in fact who has watched it in life can have any doubt on this subject; but yet, except for their being more strongly marked, its eggs have no doubt a very Shrike-like character, at the same time that they exhibit many affinities to those of _Rhipidura albifrontata_ and other undoubted Flycatchers.

Mr. W. Davison says:--"About the first week in March 1871, I found at Ootacamund a nest of this bird placed in the fork of one of the topmost branches of a rather tall _Berberis leschenaulti_. For the size of the bird this was an exceedingly small shallow nest, and from its position between the fork, its size, and the materials of which it was composed externally, might very easily have pa.s.sed unnoticed; the bird sitting on it appeared to be sitting only on a small lump of moss and lichen, the whole of the bird's tail, and as low down as the lower part of the breast, being visible. The nest was composed of gra.s.s and fine roots covered externally with cobweb and pieces of a grey lichen, and bits of moss taken apparently from the same tree on which the nest was built: the eggs were three in number. The tree on which this nest was built was opposite my window, and I watched the birds building for nearly a week; and, again, when having the nest taken, the birds sat till the native lad I had sent up put out his hand to take the nest.

I am _absolutely_ certain, as to the ident.i.ty of this nest and these eggs."

The eggs brought me by Mr. Davison, of the authenticity of which he is positive, are very Shrike-like in their appearance; they are rather elongated ovals, somewhat obtuse at both ends, and entirely devoid of gloss. The ground-colour is a pale greenish or greyish white, and they are profusely blotched, spotted, and streaked with darker and lighter shades of umber-brown; in both eggs these markings are more or less confluent along a broad zone, which in one egg encircles the larger, in the other the smaller end: these eggs measure 07 by 05 inch and 069 by 049 inch.

Captain Horace Terry writes from the Palani Hills:--"Pittur Valley. I had a nest brought me which from the description of the bird must, I think, have belonged to this species. Nest rather a shallow cup placed in a th.o.r.n.y tree about ten feet from the ground, neatly made of gra.s.s and moss, lined with fine gra.s.s and a few feathers, covered a great deal on the outside with dusky-coloured cobwebs, 25 inches across and 15 inch deep inside, and 325 inches to 35 inches across, and 225 inches deep outside: contained five very much incubated eggs; shape and marking exactly like those of _L. caniceps_, having a well-defined zone round the larger end; size about the same or rather smaller than those of _Pratincola bicolor_."

485. Hemipus capitalis (McClelland). _The Brown-backed Pied Shrike_.

Hemipus capitalis (_McClell._), _Hume, cat._ no. 267 A.

I must premise that to the best of my belief there is no such thing as _H. capitalis_, McClell., in India, or, in other words, that this latter name is a mere synonym of _H. picatus_.[A]

[Footnote A: Mr. Hume would probably now agree with me that _H.

picatus_ and _H. capitalis_ are distinct species. _H. picatus_, however, is not confined to Southern India, but occurs along the Terais of Sikhim and Nepal, and throughout Burma. _H. capitalis_ occurs on the Himalayas from Gurwhal to a.s.sam. There is little doubt that Captain Hutton's nest did not really belong to a Pied Shrike.--ED.]

Mr. Blyth remarks, Ibis, 1866:--"_Hemipus picatus_. Under this name two very distinct species are brought together by Dr. Jerdon: _H.

capitalis_ (McClell., 1839; _H. picaecolor_, Hodgson, 1845) of the Himalaya, which is larger, with proportionally longer tail, and has a brown back; and _H. picatus_ (Sykes) of Southern India and Ceylon, which has a black back. Mr. Wallace has good series of both of them.

"_Hemipus capitalis_ has accordingly to be added to the birds of India."

Now, out of India, Mr. Wallace may have got hold of some brown-backed _Hemipus_, which is really distinct, but nothing is more certain (I speak after comparison of a large series from Southern India with a still larger, gathered from all parts of the Himalayas) than that the Southern and Northern Indian birds are identical, and that in both localities the males have black and the females brown backs.

Capt. T. Hutton says:--"On the 12th of May I procured a nest of this bird in the Dehra Doon; it was placed on the ground at the base of an overhanging rock, and was composed entirely of the hair of horses and cows and other cattle, which had doubtless been collected from the bushes and pasture-lands in the vicinity. There were four eggs of a pale sea-green, spotted with rufous-brown, and forming an indistinct and nearly confluent ring at the larger end. The bird had begun to sit.

"This curious little species is not uncommon in the outer hills up to 5000 feet in the summer months."

The three eggs sent me by Captain Hutton appear to differ somewhat conspicuously from any other eggs of the _Laniidae_ that I have yet seen. The ground-colour is a very pale greenish white, and they are moderately thickly freckled and mottled all over, but most densely towards the large end (where, in one egg, there is a well-marked, though somewhat irregular, zone), with pale brownish pink and very pale purple. In shape the eggs are very regular, rather broad ovals, and appear to have but little or no gloss. They vary in length from 066 to 07 inch, and in breadth from 053 to 055 inch.

Dr. Jerdon's evidence, so far as it goes, tallies with Captain Hutton's account. He says:--"I obtained its nest once at Darjeeling, made of roots and gra.s.ses, with three greenish-white eggs, having a few rusty-red spots."

From Sikhim, Mr. Gammie writes:--"At page 178 of 'Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds' (Rough Draft), Captain T. Hutton's description of the nest and eggs of _Hemipus picatus_ is given, and at page 179 that of Mr. W. Davison. The two descriptions differ so radically that, as there remarked, one of the two must be in error. Permit me to record my limited experience of the nesting of this bird.

"Common as it is in Sikhim I have but once taken its nest, and that in the first week of May, at 4000 feet elevation. The nest, which is well described by Mr. Davison, is made of black, fibry roots, sparingly lined with fine gra.s.s-stalks, and covered outwardly with small pieces of lichens bound to the sides with cobwebs. It is a very neat diminutive cup, measuring externally 19 inch across by an inch deep; internally 15 by half an inch.

"The whole nest, although quite a substantially built structure, is barely the eighth part of an ounce in weight. It was placed on the upper side of a horizontal branch close to its broken end, about fifteen feet from the ground, and contained two fresh eggs. I send you the nest and an egg, both of which will, I think, be found on comparison to agree exactly with those taken by Mr. Davison."

Mr. Mandelli has sent me two nests of this species, found on the 15th August above Namtchu in Native Sikhim. They were placed about two feet from each other, each in a small fork of the branches of a small tree which was situated in heavy forest. Each contained two fresh eggs.

The nests are very similar, but one is rather larger and less tidily finished-off than the other. Both are shallow cups, miniatures of some of the nests of _Dicrurus_, composed of excessively fine gra.s.s-stems, coated exteriorly all round the sides with cobwebs, and, in the case of one of them, plastered exteriorly with tiny films of bark and dry leaves like some of the nests of the _Pericrocoti_. Both have a little soft silky vegetable down at the bottom of the cavity. The one nest is about two inches, the other about two and a half inches in diameter exteriorly, and both are a little less than three quarters of an inch high outside. The cavity in the one is about an inch and a half, in the other about an inch and three quarters in diameter, and both are about half an inch deep.

Eggs received from Sikhim are broad ovals, glossless, with greenish-white grounds, profusely speckled and mottled with slightly varying shades of brown, here and there intermingled with dull, pale inky purple. The markings are densest generally round the broadest part of the egg. They measured from 061 to 07 in length, and from 051 to 055 in breadth.

486. Tephrodornis pelvicus (Hodgs.). _The Nepal Wood-Shrike_.

Tephrodornis pelvica (_Hodgs.), Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 409; _Hume. cat._ no. 263.

The Nepal Wood-Shrike is a permanent resident throughout Burma, a.s.sam, Cachar, and the sub-Himalayan Terais and Ranges to which the typical Indo-Burmese fauna extends. Still we have no information as to its nidification, and the only egg of the species that I possess was extracted from the oviduct of a female shot by Mr. Davison on the 26th of March, 1874, near Tavoy in Tena.s.serim. The egg is rather a handsome one--very Shrike-like in its character, but rather small for the size of the bird. In shape it is a broad oval, very slightly compressed towards one end. The sh.e.l.l is fine and compact, but has no gloss.

The ground is white, with the faintest possible greenish tinge only noticeable when the egg is placed alongside a pure white one, such as a Bee-eater's for instance. The markings are bold, but except at the large end not very dense--spots and blotches of a light clear brown, and (chiefly at the large end) somewhat pale inky grey. Where the two colours overlap each other, there the result of the mixture is a dark dusky brown, so that the markings appear to be of three colours. Fully half the markings are gathered into a broad conspicuous but very broken and irregular zone about the broad end. The egg measured only 086 by 069.

Subsequently to writing the above Mr. Mandelli sent me a nest of this species found at Ging near Darjeeling on the 27th April. It contained four fresh eggs, and was placed on branches of a very large tree about 22 feet from the ground. The tree was situated at an elevation of about 3000 feet. The nest is a large ma.s.sive cup, 5 inches in exterior diameter and rather more than 3 in height. It is composed of tendrils of creepers and stems of herbaceous plants, to many of which the bright yellow amaranth flowers remain attached; and all over the sides and bottom ma.s.ses of flower-stems of gra.s.s with the white silky down attached are thickly plastered, which, intermingled as this white down is with the glistening yellow flowers, produces a very ornamental effect, and looks as it the bird had really had an eye to decoration.

Inside the nest is entirely lined with very fine gra.s.s-stems. The nest is everywhere about an inch thick, and the cavity about 3 inches in diameter by nearly 2 deep.

Eggs said to belong to this species kindly sent me by Mr. Mandelli, whose men obtained them on the 27th April, are very Shrike-like in their appearance. In shape they vary from broad to ordinary ovals, generally somewhat compressed towards the small end. The sh.e.l.l is white but almost glossless. The ground-colour is a dead white, and they are profusely speckled and spotted with yellowish brown, paler in some eggs, darker in others. In all the eggs the markings are by far the most numerous towards the large end. Two eggs measure 095 and 091 in length by 074 and 072 in breadth respectively.

487. Tephrodornis sylvicola, Jerdon. _The Malabar Wood-Shrike_.

Tephrodornis sylvicola, _Jerd., Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 409; _Hume, cat._ no. 204.

Major M. Forbes Coussmaker has furnished me with the following note on the nidification of the Malabar Wood-Shrike:--"I took the nest of this bird on April 13th, 1875. It was composed of fine roots and fibres, neatly woven into a shallow cup-like nest, secured to the fork of a horizontal bough and fixed in its place with cobweb, and covered externally with lichen corresponding to that on the bough. It measured 42 inches in diameter externally, and 24 internally and 7 deep.

Both parent birds were shot. The eggs two in number, rather round, coloured white with faint inky and brown spots."