The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds Part 33

But Dr. Jerdon rarely took nests with his own hand, and in this case clearly wrong nests must have been brought to him.

From Trevandrum Mr. F. Bourdillon says:--"It lays three or four eggs of a pale pink colour, with purple spots, in a nest of roots, lined with finer roots and interwoven with the leaves of a jungle-shrub gathered green. The nest, 3 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep, is generally situated in a bush 4 to 5 feet from the ground."

Mr. J. Davidson remarks:--"This bird simply swarms along the Western Ghats from Mahabuleshwur down the Koina and Werna valleys, and seems to have a very extended breeding-time. Last year (1873) I took its nests in March and May on several occasions, and this year I found three nests in March and April in the Werna valley; and the Hill people, who seem intelligent and fairly trustworthy, stated that this species breeds there throughout the Rains, a season when, owing to the tremendous rainfall, no European can remain. If this be true they must breed at least twice a year. All the nests I saw were placed in bushes from 2 to 4 feet high, some of them most carefully concealed amongst thorns. Out of, I think, nine nests, all taken by myself personally, I never found more than two eggs in any; and on two occasions last year I obtained single eggs nearly fully incubated."

Messrs Davidson and Wenden, writing of the Deccan, remark:--"Commonish in wooded localities. D. took several nests in the Satara Hills in March and the two following months."

Captain Butler writes:--"The Red-whiskered Bulbul is common at Mount Aboo and breeds in March, April, and May. The nest is usually placed in low bushes from 4 to 8 feet from the ground, and is a neat cup-shaped structure composed externally of fibrous roots and dry gra.s.s-stems, and lined with fine gra.s.s, horsehair, &c. Round the edge and woven into the outside I have generally found small spiders' nests looking like lumps of wool. The eggs, usually two but sometimes three in number, are of a pinkish-white colour, covered all over with spots and blotches and streaks of purplish or lake-red, forming a dense confluent cap at the large end. A nest I examined on the 24th April contained two nestlings almost ready to fly.

"On the 3rd May, 1875, I took a nest in a low carinda bush, containing two fresh eggs."

Mr. C.J.W. Taylor, writing from Manzeerabad, Mysore, says:--"Most abundant in the wooded district. Common everywhere. Eggs taken March and April. On the 5th July, 1883, I procured a, nest of this species with three pure white eggs. I found it in a coffee-bush the day before leaving, so snared parent bird to make sure it was _O. fuscicaudata_, or otherwise should have left a couple of the eggs to see if young would turn out true to parents."

Captain Horace Terry states that on the Pulney hills this species is "a most common bird, found wherever there are bushes. In the small bushes along the banks of the streams is a very favourite place. I found several nests with usually two, but sometimes three eggs."

Mr. Benjamin Aitken tells us:--"I never saw this bird in the plains, but it is, perhaps without exception, the commonest bird at Matheran, Khandalla, and other hill-stations in the Bombay Presidency. I have found the nests, always with eggs in May, placed from four to seven feet from the ground, and often in the most exposed situations. It is not unusual to find only two eggs in a nest. The bird is not in the least shy, and sets up no clatter, like the Common Bulbul, when its nest is disturbed."

Finally, Mr. J. Darling, Junior, remarks:--"I really wonder if anyone down south does not know the Red-whiskered Bulbul and its nest. On the Nilghiris and in the Wynaad I can safely say it is the commonest nest to be met with, built in all sorts of places, sometimes high up. They generally lay two, but very often three, eggs. In a friend's bungalow in the Wynaad there were three nests built on the wall-plate of the verandah and two eggs laid in each nest. The young were safely hatched.

"This year the nests have been rebuilt and contain eggs. As I am writing, there are two pairs building in a rose-bush about 3 yards from me. They breed from 15th February to 15th May."

The numerous eggs of this species that I possess, though truly Bulbul-like in character, all belong to one single type of that form.

Almost all have a dull pinkish or reddish-white ground, very thickly freckled, mottled, and streaked all over with a rich red; in most blood-red, in others brick-red, underneath which, when closely looked into, a small number of pale inky-purple spots are visible. In half the number of eggs the markings are much densest at the large end: these eggs are one and all more brightly and intensely coloured than any of those that I possess of _M. leucotis, M. leucogenys_, and _O.

emeria_; they are, moreover, larger than any of these.

In length they vary from 082 to 097, and in breadth from 063 to 071; but the average of thirty-six eggs measured was 09 by 066.

290. Otocompsa flaviventris (Tick.). _The Black-crested Yellow Bulbul_.

Rubigula flaviventris (_Tick._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 88.

Pycnonotus flaviventris (_Tick._), _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 456.

The Black-crested Yellow Bulbul is another very common species of which I have as yet seen very few eggs. The first notice of its nidification I am acquainted with is contained in the following brief note by Captain Bulger, which appeared in 'The Ibis.' He says:--"I obtained several specimens, chiefly from the vicinity of the Great Rungeet River. From a thicket on the bank, near the cane-bridge, a nest was brought to me on the 16th May, of the ordinary cup-shape, made of fibres and leaves, and containing three eggs, which my _shikaree_ said belonged to this species. The eggs were of a dull pinkish hue, very thickly marked with small specks and blotches of brownish crimson."

Major C.T. Bingham, writing of this Bulbul in Tena.s.serim, says:--"Common enough in the Thoungyeen forests, affecting chiefly the neighbourhood of villages and clearings. The following is a note of finding a nest and eggs I recorded in 1878:--On the 14th April I happened to be putting up for the day in one of the abandoned Karen houses of the old village of Podeesakai at the foot of the Warmailoo toung, a spur from the east watershed range of the Meplay river.

Having to wait for guides, I had nothing particular to do that day, a very rare event in my forest work; I devoted it to a fruitless search for bears. I had returned tired and rather dispirited, and was moving about among the ruined houses, between and among which a lot of jungle was already springing up, when, just as I pa.s.sed a low bush about 3 feet high, out went one of the above-mentioned birds; of course the bush contained a nest, a remarkably neat cup-shaped affair, below and outside of fine twigs, then a layer of roots, above which was a lining of the stems of the flower of the 'theckay' gra.s.s. It contained three eggs on the point of hatching, out of which I was only able to save one. It is one of the loveliest eggs I have seen; in colour I can liken it only to a peculiar pink granite that is so common at home in Ireland. Its ground-colour I should say was white, but it is so thickly spotted with pink and claret that it is hard to describe. It measured 085 x 061 inch."

Captain Wardlaw Ramsay writes in 'The Ibis':--"I found a nest containing two eggs in April at the foot of the Karen hills in Burma."

I have seen too few eggs of this species to say much about them.

What I have seen were rather elongated ovals pretty markedly pointed towards the small end. The sh.e.l.l fine, but with only a slight gloss; the ground a pinky creamy white, everywhere very finely freckled over with red, varying from brownish to maroon, and again still more thickly with pale purple or purplish grey, this latter colour being almost confluent over a broad zone round the large end.

292. Spizixus canifrons, Blyth. _The Finch-billed Bulbul_.

Spizixus canifrons, _Bl., Hume, cat._ no. 453 bis.

Colonel G.o.dwin-Austen says:--"_Spizixus canifrons_ breeds in the neighbourhood of Shillong, in May. Young birds are seen in June."[A]

[Footnote A: TRACHYCOMUS OCHROCEPHALUS (Gm.). _The Yellow-crowned Bulbul_.

Trachycomus ochrocephalus (_Gm.), Hume, cat._ no. 449 bis.

As this bird occurs in Tena.s.serim, the following description of the nest and eggs found a short distance outside our limits will prove interesting.

Mr. J. Darling, Junior, writes:--"I found the nest of this bird on the 2nd July at Kossoom. The nest was of the ordinary Bulbul type, but much larger, and like a very shallow saucer. The foundation was a single piece of some creeping orchid, 3 feet long, coiled round; then a lot of coils of fern, gra.s.s, and moss-roots. The nest was 4 inches in diameter on the inside, the walls 1/4 inch thick, and the cavity 1 inch deep. It was built 10 feet from the ground, in a bush in a very exposed position, and exactly where any ordinary Bulbul would have built."

The eggs of this species are of the ordinary Bulbul type, rather broad at the large end, compressed and slightly pyriform, or more or less pointed, towards the small end. The sh.e.l.l fine and smooth, but with only a moderate amount of gloss. The ground-colour varies from very pale pinky white to a rich warm salmon-pink. The markings are two colours: first, a red varying from a dull brownish to almost crimson; the second, a paler colour varying from neutral tint through purplish grey to a full though pale purple. The first may be called the primary markings; the others, which seem to be somewhat beneath the surface of the sh.e.l.l, the secondary ones. Varying as both do in _different_ eggs, all the primary markings of any one egg are almost precisely the same shade; and the same is the case with the secondary ones, and there is always a distinct harmony between both these and the ground tint. As for the markings, they are generally much the most dense, in a more or less confluent mottled cap, round one end, generally the largest, and are usually more or less thinly set elsewhere. In some eggs all the markings are rather coa.r.s.e and spa.r.s.e, in others fine and more thickly set. Two eggs measured 106 by 076 and 103 by 073.]

295. Iole icterica (Strickl.). _The Yellow-browed Bulbul_.

Criniger ictericus, _Strickl., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p. 82; _Hume. Rough Draft N. & E._ no 450.

The Yellow-browed Bulbul breeds apparently throughout the hilly regions of Ceylon and the southern portion of the Peninsula of India. I have never taken the nests myself, and I have only detailed information of their nidification on the Nilghiris, which they ascend to an elevation of from 6000 to 6500 feet, and where they lay from March to May.

A nest of this species, taken by Mr. Wait near c.o.o.noor on the 20th of March, is a small shallow cup hung between two twigs, measuring some 3 inches across and inch in depth. It is composed of excessively fine twigs and lined with still finer hair-like gra.s.s, is attached to the twigs by cobwebs, and has a few dead leaves attached by the same means to its lower surface. It is a slight structure, nowhere I should think above inch in thickness, and apparently carelessly put together: but for all that, owing to the fineness of the materials used, it is a pretty firm and compact nest. It is not easy to express it in words; but still this nest differs very considerably in appearance from the nests of any of the true Bulbuls with which I am acquainted, and more approaches those of _Hypsipetes_.

Mr. Wait sends me the following note:--

"This bird, although very common on the Nilghiris at elevations of from 4000 to 5000 feet, is a very shy nester, and its nest, which is not easily found, is, as far as my experience goes, invariably placed in the top of young thin saplings at heights of from 6 to 10 feet from the ground. The saplings chosen are almost always in thick cover near the edge of dry water-courses. They generally lay during May, but I have found nests in March. In shape the nest is a moderately deep cup, nearly hemispherical, with an internal diameter of from 25 to 3 inches--a true Bulbul's nest, composed of gra.s.s and bents and lined with finer gra.s.ses. The nest is always suspended by the outer rim between two lateral branches, and never, I believe, built in a fork as is so common in the case of many other Bulbuls. They lay only two eggs, and never, I believe, more. The eggs are longish ovals, rather pointed at one end, a dull white or reddish white, more or less thickly speckled and spotted or clouded with pale yellowish or reddish brown; occasionally the eggs exhibit a few very fine black lines."

Miss c.o.c.kburn, writing from Kotagherry, says:--"The Yellow-browed Bulbul is common on the less elevated slopes of the Nilghiris, where it is often seen feeding upon guavas, loquots, pears, peaches, &c.

They lay generally in April and May.

"Their nests are constructed very much like those of the common Bulbuls, except that, instead of being placed in the forked branches of trees, they are suspended between two twigs, and fastened to them by cobwebs, the inside being neatly lined with fine gra.s.s. Two nests of this bird were found, each containing two fresh eggs, of a pretty pinkish salmon colour, with a dark ring at the thick end; but another nest had three nearly _white_ eggs! The whole structure of the nests was slight and thin, and the eggs could be plainly seen through. The notes of the Yellow-browed Bulbul are loud and repeated often."

Writing on the birds of Ceylon, Colonel Legge remarks:--"I once found the nest of this bird in the Pasdun-Korale forests in August; little or nothing, however, is known of its breeding-habits in Ceylon, so that it most likely commences earlier than that month to rear its brood. My nest was placed in the fork of a thin sapling about 8 feet from the ground. It was of large size for such a bird, the foundation being bulky and composed of small twigs, moss, and dead leaves, supporting a cup of about 2 inches in diameter, which was constructed of moss, lined with fine roots; the upper edge of the body of the nest was woven round the supporting branches.... The bottom of the nest was in the fork."

The eggs of this species sent to me by Mr. Wait from c.o.o.noor are totally unlike any other egg of this family with which I am acquainted. They remind one more of the eggs of _Stoparola melanops_ or one of the _Niltavas_ than anything else. The eggs are moderately long and rather perfect ovals, almost devoid of gloss, and with a dull white or pinkish-white ground, speckled more or less thickly over the whole surface with rather pale brownish red or pink. The specklings becoming confluent at the large end, where they form a dull irregular mottled cap. Other specimens received from Miss c.o.c.kburn from Kotagherry exhibit the same general characters; but the majority of them are considerably elongated eggs, approaching, so far as shape is concerned, the _Hypsipetes_ type. In some eggs only the faintest trace of pale pinkish mottling towards the large end is observable; in others, the whole surface of the egg is thickly freckled and mottled all over, but most densely at the large end, with salmon-pink or pale pinkish brown.

In length the eggs vary from 09 to 103, and in breadth from 064 to 07.[A]

[Footnote A: PYCNONOTUS a.n.a.lIS (Horsf.). _The Yellow-vented Bulbul_.

Otocompsa a.n.a.lis (_Horsf._), _Hume, cat._ no. 452 s.e.x.

Mr. J. Darling, Junior, writes:--"I found the nest of this Bulbul at Salang in the Malay peninsula, on the 14th February. The nest was built in a bush in secondary jungle, with a few trees scattered about.

It was in a fork 6 feet from the ground. The foundation was of dried leaves, then fine twigs, and lined with fine gra.s.s-bents. There was a good deal of cobweb in the construction. It was an exact facsimile of many nests of _Otocompsa fuscicaudata_ from the Nilgherry Hills. The egg-cavity was 3 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep; the walls were inch thick, the bottom 1 inch."

The eggs are of the usual variable Bulbul type, some broader and more regular, some more elongated, some more or less pyriform. The sh.e.l.l as in others, and apparently rarely showing any very perceptible gloss.

The ground-colour pinky white to a warm pink; the markings, specks, and spots, or, when three or four of these latter have coalesced, occasionally small blotches of a rich maroon-red intermixed with spots and specks and clouds of pale purple. The markings always apparently pretty thickly set everywhere, but almost invariably most densely in a zone about the larger end, where they become at times more or less confluent. Of course as in others of the genus, in some eggs all the markings are very fine and speckly, while in others they are somewhat bolder. In some the red greatly predominates; in others, again, the grey underlying clouds are very widely extended, and form by far the most conspicuous part of the markings, giving a grey tinge to the entire egg. The eggs vary from 082 to 091 in length and from 061 to 065 in breadth.]

299. Pycnonotus finlaysoni, Strickl. _Finlayson's Stripe-throated Bulbul_.

Ixus finlaysoni (_Strickl.), Hume, cat._ no. 452 ter.