The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds Part 40

Troglodytes neglecta, _Brooks, Hume, cat._ no. 333 bis.

Troglodytes nipalensis, _Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 333.

The Cashmir Wren breeds in Cashmir in May and June at elevations of from 6000 to nearly 10,000 feet. I have never seen the nest, though I possess eggs taken by Captain c.o.c.k and Mr. Brooks in Cashmir.

The latter says:--"Only two nests of this bird were found (both at Gulmurg), one having four eggs and the other three. In the latter case the full number was not laid, as the nest, when first found, was empty; on three successive mornings an egg was laid and then they were taken.

"In shape they vary as much as do those of the English Wren, and like them they are white, sometimes minutely freckled with pale red and purple-grey specks, which are princ.i.p.ally confined to the large end, with a tendency to form a zone. Other eggs are plain white, without the slightest sign of a spot; but these, I think, must be the exception, for the egg of the English Wren is usually spotted. The egg has very little gloss, and the ground-colour is pure white."

The eggs are very large for the size of the bird. There appear to be two types. The one somewhat elongated ovals, slightly compressed towards the lesser end; the others broad short ovals, decidedly pointed at one end. Some eggs are perfectly pure unspotted white; others have a dull white ground, with a faint zone of minute specks of brownish red and tiny spots of greyish purple towards the large end, and a very few markings of a similar character scattered about the rest of the surface. All the eggs of the latter type vary in the amount and size of markings; these latter are always spa.r.s.e and very minute. The pure white eggs appear to be less common. The eggs have always a slight gloss, the pure white ones at times a very decided, though never at all a brilliant gloss.

In length they vary from 061 to 07 inch, and in breadth from 05 to 052 inch.

Mr. Brooks subsequently wrote:--"The Cashmir Wren is not uncommon in the pine-woods of Cashmir, and in habits and manners resembles its European congener. Its song is very similar and quite as pretty. It is a shy, active little bird, and very difficult to shoot. I found two nests. One was placed in the roots of a large upturned pine, and was globular with entrance at the side. It was profusely lined with feathers and composed of moss and fibres. The eggs were white, sparingly and minutely spotted with red, rather oval in shape; measuring 066 by 05. A second nest was placed in the thick foliage of a moss-grown fir-tree, and was about 7 feet above the ground. It was similarly composed to the other nest, but the eggs were rounder and plain white, without any spots."

355. Urocichla caudata (Blyth). _The Tailed Wren_.

Pnoepyga caudata (_Blyth), Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 490; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 331.

The Tailed Wren, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, lays in April and May, building a deep cup-shaped nest about the roots of trees or in a hole of fallen timber; the nest is a dense ma.s.s of moss and moss-roots, lined with the latter. One measured was 35 inches in diameter and 3 in height; internally, the cavity was 16 inch, in diameter and about 1 inch deep. They lay four or five spotless whitish eggs, which are figured as broad ovals, rather pointed towards one end, and measuring 075 by 054 inch.

356. Pnoepyga albiventris (Hodgs.). _The Scaly-breasted Wren_.

Pnoepyga squamata (_Gould), Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 488.

From Sikhim, Mr. Gammie writes:--"I found two nests of the Scaly-breasted Wren this year within a few yards of each other. They were in a small moist ravine in the Rishap forest, at 5000 feet above sea-level. One was deserted before being quite finished, and the other was taken a few days after three eggs had been laid. The two nests were alike, and both were built among the moss growing on the trunks of large trees, within a yard of the ground. The only carried material was very fine roots, which were firmly interwoven, and the ends worked in with the natural moss. These fine roots were worked into the shape of a half-egg, cut lengthways, and placed with its open side against the trunk, which thus formed one side of the nest. Near the top one side was not quite close to the trunk, and by this irregular opening the bird entered. Internally the nest measured 3 inches deep by 2 in width. I killed the female off the eggs; she had eaten a caterpillar, spiders, and other insects."

Mr. Mandelli found a nest of this species at Pattabong, elevation 5000 feet, near Darjeeling, on the 19th May, containing three fresh eggs.

The nest was placed amongst some small bushes projecting out of a crevice of a rock about three feet from the ground. It was completely sheltered above, but was not hooded or domed; it was, for the size of the bird, a rather large cup, composed of green moss rather closely felted together and lined with fine blackish-brown roots. The cavity measured about 2 inches in diameter and 1 in depth.

The eggs of this species seem large for the size of the bird; they are rather broad at the large end, considerably pointed towards the small end. They are pure white, almost entirely devoid of gloss, and with very delicate and fragile sh.e.l.ls.

The eggs varied from in 072 to 078 in length, and from 054 to 057 in breadth.

Family REGULIDAE.

358. Regulus cristatus, Koch. _The Golderest_.

Regulus himalayensis, _Blyth, Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 206; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 580.

All I know of the nidification of this species is that Sir E.C. Buck, C.S., found a nest at Rogee, in the Sutlej Valley, on the 8th June, on the end of a deodar branch 8 feet from the ground and partly suspended. It contained seven young birds fully fledged; no crest or signs of a crest were observable in the young. Both the parent birds and the nest were kindly sent to me.

The nest is a deep pouch suspended from several twigs, with the entrance at the top, and composed entirely of fine lichens woven or intervened into a thick, soft, flexible tissue of from three eighths to half an inch in thickness. Externally the nest was about 3 to 4 inches in depth, and about 3 inches in diameter.

Family SYLVIIDAE.

363. Acrocephalus stentoreus (H. & E.). _The Indian Great Reed-Warbler_.

Acrocephalus brunnescens (_Jerd.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 154.

Calamodyta stentorea (_H. & E.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 515.

Both Mr. Brooks and Captain c.o.c.k succeeded in securing the nests and eggs of the Indian Great Reed-Warbler in Cashmere. Common as it is, my own collectors failed to get eggs, though they brought plenty of nests.

The nest is a very deep ma.s.sive cup hung to the sides of reeds. A nest before me, taken in Cashmere on the 10th June, is an inverted and slightly truncated cone. Externally it has a diameter of 3 inches and a depth of nearly 6 inches. It is ma.s.sive, but by no means neat; composed of coa.r.s.e water-gra.s.s, mingled with a few dead leaves and fibrous roots of water-plants. The egg-cavity is lined with finer and more compactly woven gra.s.s, and measures about 1 inch in diameter and 2 inches in depth.

It breeds in May and June; at the beginning of July all the nests either contained young or were empty. Four is the full complement of eggs.

Mr. Brooks noted _in epist._:--"_Srinuggur, 10th June_. I went out early this morning on the lake here to look for eggs of _Acrocephalus stentoreus_, but it came on to rain so heavily that I only partially succeeded. I took three nests, two with three eggs each, and one with four young ones, the latter half-hatched. The eggs very much resemble large and boldly-marked Sparrows' eggs. They are smaller than the eggs of _A. arundinaceus_, but very similar. The latter have larger clear s.p.a.ces without spots than those of our bird. I neither saw nor heard any other aquatic warbler."

Later, in a paper on the eggs and nests he had obtained in Cashmere, he stated that this species "breeds abundantly in the Cashmere lakes.

The nest is supported, about 18 inches above the water, by three or four reeds, and is a deep cup composed of gra.s.ses and fibres. The eggs are four, very like those of _A. arundinaceus_, but the markings are more plentiful and smaller."

Captain c.o.c.k writes to me that "the Large Reed-Warbler is very common in the reeds that fringe all the lakes in Cashmere. It breeds in June, builds a largish nest of dry sedge, woven round five or six reeds, of a deep cup form, which it places about 2 feet above the water. It lays four or five eggs, rather blunt ovals, equally blunt at both ends, blotched with olive and dusky grey on a dirty-white ground."

Mr. S.B. Doig, who found this bird breeding in the Eastern Narra in Sind, writes:--"On the 4th August, while my man was poling along in a canoe in a large swamp on the lookout for eggs, he pa.s.sed a small bunch of reeds and in them spotted a nest with a bird on it. The nest contained three beautiful fresh eggs. A few days later I joined him, and on asking about these eggs he described the bird and said he had found several other nests of the same species, but all of them contained young ones nearly fledged. I made him show me some of these nests, all of which were situated in clumps of reed, in the middle of the swamp, and in these same reeds I found and shot the young ones which, though fledged, were not able to fly. These I sent with one of the eggs to Mr. Hume, who has identified them as belonging to this species. The nests were composed of frayed pieces of reed-gra.s.s and fine sedge, the latter being princ.i.p.ally towards the inside, thus forming a kind of lining. The nests were loosely put together, were about 3 inches inner diameter, 1 inch deep, the outer diameter being 6 inches. They were situated about a foot over water-line in the tops of reeds growing in the water."

Colonel Legge says:--"This species breeds in Ceylon during June and July. Its nest was procured by me in the former month at the Tamara-Kulam, and was a very interesting structure, built into the fork of one of the tall seed-stalks of the rush growing there; the walls rested exteriorly against three of the branches of the fork, but were worked round some of the stems of the flower itself which sprung from the base of the fork. It was composed of various fine gra.s.ses, with a few rush-blades among them, and was lined with the fine stalks of the flower divested, by the bird I conclude, of the seed-matter growing on them. In form it was a tolerably deep cup, well shaped, measuring 2 inches in internal diameter by 2 in depth. The single egg which it contained at the time of my finding it was a broad oval in shape, pale green, boldly blotched with blackish over spots of olive and olivaceous brown, mingled with linear markings of the same, under which there were small clouds and blotches of bluish grey. The black markings were longitudinal and thickest at the obtuse end. It measured 089 by 067 inch."

The eggs of this species, as might have been expected, greatly resemble those of _A. arundinaceus_. In shape they are moderately elongated ovals, in some cases almost absolutely perfect, but generally slightly compressed towards one end. The sh.e.l.l, though fine, is entirely devoid of gloss.

The ground-colour varies much, but the two commonest types are pale green or greenish white and a pale somewhat creamy stone-colour.

Occasionally the ground-colour has a bluish tinge.

The markings vary even more than the ground-colour. In one type the ground is everywhere minutely, but not densely, stippled with minute specks, too minute for one to be able to say of what colour; over this are pretty thickly scattered fairly bold and well-marked spots and blotches of greyish black, inky purple, olive-brown, yellowish olive, and reddish-umber brown; here and there pale inky clouds underlay the more distinct markings. In other eggs the stippling is altogether wanting, and the markings are smaller and less well-defined. In some eggs one or more of the colours predominate greatly, and in some several are almost entirely wanting. In most eggs the markings are densest towards the large end, where they sometimes form more or less of a mottled, irregular, ill-defined cap.

In length the eggs vary from 08 to 097, and in breadth from 058 to 063; but the average of the only nine eggs that I measured was 089, nearly, by rather more than 061.

366. Acrocephalus dumetorum, Blyth. _Blyth's Reed-Warbler_.

Acrocephalus dumetorum, _Bl., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 155.

Calamodyta dumetorum (_Bl.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 516.

Blyth's Reed-Warbler breeds, I believe, for the most part along the course of the streams of the lower Himalayan and sub-Himalayan ranges, and in suitable localities on and about these ranges; such at least is my present idea. They are with us in the plains up to quite the end of March, and are back again by the last day of August, and during May at any rate they may be heard and seen everywhere in the valleys south of the first snowy range.

Mr. Brooks remarks that "this species was excessively common on the Hindoostan side of the Pir-pinjal Range, but I have never seen it in Cashmere. I think it breeds in the low valleys by the river-sides, for it was in very vigorous song there at the end of May." This is my experience also, and probably while many may go north to Central Asia to breed, a good many remain in the localities indicated.

Captain Hutton says:--"This species arrives in the hills up to 7000 feet at least, in April, when it is very common, and appears in pairs with something of the manner of a _Phylloscopus_. The note is a sharp _tchick, tchick_, resembling the sound emitted by a flint and steel.

"It disappears by the end of May, in which month they breed; but, owing to the high winds and strong weather experienced in that month in 1848, many nests were left incomplete, and the birds must have departed without breeding.