The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds Part 23

The eggs of this species, which I have received from Kotagherry and other parts of the Nilghiris, are broad, nearly regular ovals, slightly compressed towards the lesser end; considerably elongated, and more or less spherical, and pyriform varieties occur. The sh.e.l.l is fine, and has a slight gloss; the ground-colour is pale salmon-pink or pinkish-white, occasionally greyish white. The whole egg is, as a rule, finely speckled, spotted, and splashed with pinkish brown or brownish pink. The markings, in most eggs, everywhere very fine, are often considerably more dense at the large end, where they are not unusually more or less underlaid by a pinkish cloud, with which they form an irregular ill-defined and inconspicuous cap.

At times more boldly and richly marked eggs are met with; one now before me is everywhere thickly streaked with dull pink, in places purplish, and over this is thinly but rather conspicuously spotted and irregularly blotched (the blotches being small however) with light burnt sienna-brown.

In length they vary from 118 to 148 inch, and in breadth from 092 to 1 inch.

191. Larvivora brunnea, Hodgs. _The Indian Blue Chat_.

Larvivora cyana, _Gould, Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 145; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 507.

I have never obtained the nest of the Indian Blue Chat. Mr. Davison found it on the Nilghiris. He says:--"I really quite forget the details of that one egg which I brought you along with the skin of the parent, but it was taken in May on the Nilghiris. I remember very well another nest of this species, which I took in the latter end of March or the beginning of April in a shola or detached piece of jungle about 9 miles from Ootacamund.

"The nest was in a hole in the trunk of a small tree, about 5 feet from the ground, and was composed chiefly of moss, but mixed with dry leaves and twigs. It contained three young birds, apparently about four or five days old."

The late Mr. Mandelli sent me a nest of this species which was found at Lebong (elevation 5500 feet) on the 16th May. It contained three eggs, and was placed on the ground amongst gra.s.s on a bank made by the cutting of a hill-road. It is a broad shallow nest, composed exteriorly of vegetable fibre, sc.r.a.ps of dead leaves and tiny pieces of moss matted closely together, and is rather thickly lined with black and red hairs, amongst which one or two soft downy feathers are incorporated. The external diameter of the nest is about 4 inches, the height about 15, the cavity is about 275 inches in diameter, and rather less than 1 in depth.

Two eggs taken by Mr. Darling[A] are very elongated, somewhat cylindrical ovals, very obtuse at both ends. In both, the sh.e.l.l is fine, and has an appreciable though not brilliant gloss. In one, the ground is a pale delicate clay-brown, and the markings consist only of a zone about 02 wide round the large end of densely set dull brownish-red specks, and a few similar specks inside the zone only.

In the other, the ground has a light greenish tinge, the zone is less marked and merges in a dull brownish-red mottled cap, and a faint marbling, of a paler shade of the cap, is scattered here and there over the whole surface of the egg. They measure 1 by 065 and 098 by 065.

[Footnote A: I cannot find any account of the finding of the nest of this bird by Mr. Darling amongst Mr. Hume's notes.--Ed.]

The egg taken by Mr. Davison is an elongated, slightly pyriform oval.

The sh.e.l.l is moderately fine, but with only a very slight gloss. The ground-colour is a pale slightly greyish green, and the whole egg is thickly (most thickly so about the large end, where the markings are almost perfectly confluent) mottled and streaked with pale brownish red. It measures 098 by 067.

193. Brachypteryx albiventris (Fairbank). _The White-bellied_ _Short-wing_.

Callene albiventris, _Fairb., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 339 bis.

The Rev. S.B. Fairbank, to whom I have, owed much useful information and many valuable specimens, kindly sent me the subjoined account of the nidification of the White-bellied Short-wing in the Pulney Hills at an elevation of about 6500 feet:--"In April, I found a nest in a hole in the side of the trunk of a large tree some 2 feet from the ground. The hole was just large enough for the nest, and was lined with fine roots. I surprised the bird on her nest several times. There were two eggs in the nest when I first found it that were 'hard-set'.

A month afterwards she laid two more in the same place, and I took them in good condition. One egg measures 09 by 068 inch, and another 094 by 068 inch. The ground-colour is grey, with a tinge of green, and it is thickly covered with small spots of bistre."

Mr. Blanford, who saw the eggs, which I never did, describes them (and by a.n.a.logy, I should infer more correctly) as "of an olive-brown colour, darker at the larger end, measuring 093 by 063 inch."

An egg of this species sent me by Dr. Fairbank, measuring 093 by 066, is a somewhat elongated oval, slightly pointed towards the small end. The sh.e.l.l is fine and fairly glossy; the ground-colour, so far as this is discernible, is greyish green, but it is so thickly clouded and mottled all over with a warm, brown, that but little of the ground-colour is any where traceable, and the general result when the egg is looked at from a short distance is that of a nearly uniform olive-brown.

Captain Horace Terry also found the nest of this bird on the Pulney Hills. He says:--"I met with it a few times in the big _shola_ at Kodika.n.a.l, and got two nests, each with two fresh eggs; the first on the 7th June in a hole in a tree between 4 and 5 feet from the ground, a deep cup of green moss; the other, in a hole in the bank of a path running through the _shola_ was of green moss and a few fine fern-roots. Inside 175 inch deep and 25 inches across; outside a shapeless ma.s.s of moss filling up the hole it was built in. The nest was very conspicuous to any one pa.s.sing by."

194. Brachypteryx rufiventris (Blyth). _The Rufous-bellied Short-wing_.

Callene rufiventris, _Blyth. Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 496: _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 339.

I have been favoured with nests of the Rufous-bellied Short-wing by Mr. Carter, who took them from holes or depressions of banks in the Nilghiris in April and May. They closely resemble nests of _Niltava macrigoriae_ from Darjeeling. They are soft ma.s.ses of green moss, some 4 or 5 inches in diameter externally, with more or less of a depression towards one side, lined with very fine dark moss-roots.

This depression may average about 2 inches across and inch in depth; but they vary a good deal. Mr. Carter says:--"I have found the nests of this species about Conoor in May, in holes of banks, on roads running through thick _sholas_ (i.e. jungles not amounting to forests). The nests are of moss, shallow, lined with fine root-fibres, the cavity about 3-5 inches in diameter. They lay two eggs, pale olive, shading into a decided brownish red at the larger end. The old birds are very shy in returning to the nest when watched; indeed, they are always shy, hiding in the brushwood of jungles or amongst fallen timber, along which they almost creep."

Mr. Davison informs me that "this species breeds on the Nilghiris from about 5500 feet to about 7000 during April and May, building in holes of trees, crevices of rocks, &c., seldom at any great elevation above the ground. The nest is composed of moss, lined with moss and fern-roots. Two or three eggs are laid."

The few eggs I possess, which I owe to Messrs. Carter and Davison, and which were taken by them in the Nilghiris, have a pale olive-brown ground with, at the large end, an ill-defined mottled reddish-brown cap. In some specimens the mottling extends more or less over the whole egg, though always most dense about the larger end. Though much larger and of a more elongated shape, they not a little resemble some specimens of the eggs of _Pratincola indica_ that I possess. In shape they are long ovals, recalling in that respect those of _Myiophoneus temmincki_; they have less gloss than the eggs of most of the Thrushes.

In length they vary from 097 to 102 inch, and in breadth from 065 to 069 inch.

197. Drymochares cruralis (Blyth). _The White-browed Short-wing_

Brachypteryx cruralis (Bl.), _Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 495; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 338.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and drawings, the White-browed Short-wing breeds in April and May. It constructs its nest a foot or so above the ground amongst gra.s.s and creeping-plants at the base of trunks of trees; it is composed of moss and moss-roots, is somewhat globular in shape, and is firmly attached to the creepers; dried bamboo-leaves and pieces of fern are here and there fixed to the exterior, and the nest is lined with hair-like fibres; the entrance is at one side and circular. One nest measured 7 inches in height, 55 in width, and 338 from front to back. The aperture was 2 inches in diameter. The eggs (four in number, or at times three) are pure white, broad ovals, pointed at one end, measuring 09 by 065 inch.

This species breeds in the central regions of Nepal and in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling.

Three nests of this species found early in June in Sikhim and Nepal, at elevations of 5000 to 8000 feet, contained respectively 2, 3, and 4 fresh eggs. They were all placed in brushwood at 2 to 3 feet above the ground, and they are all precisely similar, being rather ma.s.sive shallow cups, composed of very fine black roots firmly felted together, and with a few dead leaves or sc.r.a.ps of moss in most of them incorporated in one portion or other of the outer surface. The nests are about 4 inches in diameter and 2 in height; the cavity is about 2 inches in diameter and 1 in depth; but, owing to the positions in which they are placed, they are often more or less irregularly shaped.

Mr. Mandelli obtained three eggs which he considers to belong to this species, on the 3rd June, near Darjeeling. I rather question the authenticity of these eggs. They are pure white and devoid of gloss, moderately elongated ovals, only slightly compressed towards the smaller end. They vary from 083 to 091 in length and from 061 to 064 in breadth.

198. Drymochares nepalensis (Hodgs.). _The Nepal Short-wing_.

Brachypteryx nipalensis, _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 494.

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"A nest taken by me on the 15th of June at 5000 feet, close to a large forest, contained three slightly-set eggs. It was placed on the moss-covered trunk of a fallen tree, and was hooded, with an entrance at the side; rather neatly made of dry leaves with an outer covering of green moss, and an inner lining of skeletonized leaves and black fibrous roots. Externally it measures 5 inches in height by about the same in width; internally 3 inches high by 24 across. The entrance was 23 in diameter. The front of the egg-cavity is but slightly depressed below the entrance, gradually sloping backwards to the depth of nearly an inch."

All the nests of this species that I have seen were of the same type, more or less globular, more or less hooded or domed, according to the situation in which they were placed, composed of dry flags and dead and more or less skeleton leaves, bound together with a little vegetable fibre and some moss, but chiefly with fine black fibrous roots, with which the entire cavity is densely lined, inside which again is a coating of more skeleton leaves; they measure exteriorly 4 or 5 inches in diameter, and the cavities are a little above 2 by 25 inches in diameter.

Mr. Mandelli found two of these nests at Lebong (elevation 5500 feet), near Darjeeling, on the 8th July. One contained three fresh eggs, the other three slightly incubated ones. They were about 12 yards apart, in a very shady damp glen, in very dense underwood, to the stems of which they were attached in a standing position about 3 feet from the ground. The entrance was on one side in both cases.

The eggs of this species obtained by Mr. Gammie belong to the same type as those of _Brachypteryx rufiventris_ and _B. albiventris_. In shape they are moderately elongated, rather regular ovals, somewhat obtuse at both ends. The sh.e.l.l is fine and compact, and very smooth to the touch, but they have not much gloss. The ground is a pale olive stone-colour, and they are very minutely freckled and mottled, most densely at the large end, with pale, very slightly reddish brown; the freckling is excessively minute and fine.

Two eggs measured 08 and 082 in length by 06 in breadth.

200. Elaphrornis palliseri (Blyth). _The Ceylon Short-wing_.

Brachypteryx palliseri, _Bl., Hume, cat._ no. 338 bis.

Colonel Legge, writing in his 'Birds of Ceylon,' says:--"Mr. Bligh found a nest at Nuwara Eliya in April 1870; it was placed in a thick cl.u.s.ter of branches on the top of a somewhat densely-foliaged small bush, which stood in a rather open s.p.a.ce near the foot of a large tree; it was in shape a deep cup, composed of greenish moss, lined with fibrous roots and the hair-like appendages of the green moss which festoons the trees in such abundance at that elevation. It contained three young ones, plumaged exactly like their parents, who kept churring in the thick bushes close by, but would not show themselves much."

201. Tesia cyaniventris, Hodgs. _The Slaty-bellied Short-wing_.

Tesia cyaniventer, _Hodgs., Jerd, B. Ind._ i, p. 487; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 328.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes, the Slaty-bellied Short-wing breeds much like the next species. It constructs a huge globular nest of green moss and black moss-roots, which it fixes in any dense dry shrub or clump of shoots, many of which it incorporates in the walls of the nest. The nest measures externally about 7 inches in height and 5 inches in width; it has a circular aperture on one side, a little above the middle, about 2 inches in diameter, and it is placed at a height of one or two feet from the ground. Three or four eggs are laid; these are figured as rather broad ovals, somewhat pointed towards one end, with a whitish ground, profusely speckled and spotted, especially towards the large end, where the markings are nearly confluent, with bright red, and measuring 072 by 054 inch.

202. Oligura castaneicoronata (Burt.). _The Chestnut-headed Short-wing_.

Tesia castaneo-coronata (_Burt.), Jerd. E. Ind._ i, p. 487; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 327.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and figures, the Chestnut-headed Short-wing builds a large globular nest, more or less egg-shaped, some 6 inches high and 4 in breadth, composed of moss-roots and fibres, and lined with feathers, and with a circular aperture in the middle of one side about 15 inch in diameter. The nest is placed in some clump of shoots or thick bush (the twigs of which are more or less incorporated in the sides of the nest) at a height of 1 or 2 feet from the ground.