Part 17 (1/2)

The nest with which she favoured me was small and nearly globular (say at most 4 inches in external diameter), composed entirely of broad flaggy gra.s.s without any lining or any admixture whatsoever of other material. The nest was loosely put together, and had a comparatively narrow circular entrance near the top.

From Mysore Mr. Iver Macpherson writes:--”This is an exceedingly common bird in parts of this district, and their nests are so plentiful that I never now take them.

”I send you all the eggs I have at present, but can procure you any number more next season.

”The birds are to be found in all kinds of wooded country except the heavy forests, and appear to breed from the middle of April to the end of July, and possibly later.

”The nest is a largish globular structure loosely made of either bamboo-leaves or blades of gra.s.s, and all that I have ever seen have been lined inside with a few fine fibres.

”Four appears to be the usual number of eggs, but very often there are only three.

”The nests are always built near the ground, sometimes almost touching it, and are fixed in either small bushes, tufts of gra.s.s, or young bamboo-clumps.”

Mr. J.L. Darling, Jun., states that this bird is very common in Culputty in the Wynaad, at an elevation of about 3000 feet, and that he has found the nests from the end of May to the middle of October.

The nest is built in high gra.s.s nearly on the ground, or in date-palms, or in arrowroot in the jungle up to heights of 3 feet.

The nest is built entirely of gra.s.s, lined with finer gra.s.s; a nearly round ball 6 inches in diameter outside and 5 inside, with a hole on the side. The eggs are laid at the rate of one a day, and three are usually found in one nest, occasionally only two. On one occasion after securing the female bird, he found the c.o.c.k bird sitting on the eggs and he continued to sit there for three days.

Mr. J. Davidson tells us that he found a nest of this bird on the 15th July at Kondabhari with four fresh eggs.

Colonel Legge writes in his 'Birds of Ceylon':--”The breeding-season lasts from March until July, the nests being built in a low bush sometimes only a few inches from the ground.”

In shape the eggs are moderately elongated ovals. The sh.e.l.l is very fine and smooth, and has in some a rather bright, in some only a very slight gloss. The ground is a China-white. The markings consist of a profusion of specks and spots of a very bright red, which, though spread over the whole surface, are gathered most densely into an imperfect, more or less confluent, cap or zone at the larger end, where also a few purplish-grey spots and specks not usually found on any other part of the egg, are noticeable.

In length the eggs vary from 066 to 078, and in breadth from 05 to 055. The average of 28 eggs is 072 by 053.

139. Pyctorhis sinensis (Gm.). _The Yellow-eyed Babbler_.

Pyctorhis sinensis (_Gm.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 15; _Hume, Rough Draft N.& E._ no. 385.

The Yellow-eyed Babbler breeds throughout the plains of India, as also in the Nilghiris, to an elevation of 5000 feet, and in the Himalayas to perhaps 4000 feet. It lays in the latter part of June, in July, August, and September. Gardens are the favourite localities and in these the little bird makes its compact and solid nest, sometimes in a fork of the fine twigs of a lime-bush, sometimes in a mangoe-, orange-, or apple-tree, occasionally suspended between three stout gra.s.s-stems, or even attached to a single stem of the huge gra.s.s from which the native pens are made. I have taken a nest, hung between three reeds, exactly resembling in shape and position the Reed-Warbler's nest (_Salicaria arundinacea_), figured in Mr.

Yarrell's vignette at page 313, vol. i. 3rd edition.

The nest is typically cone-shaped (the apex downwards), from 5 to 6 inches in depth, and 3 or 4 in diameter at the base; but it varies of course according to situation, the cone being often broadly truncated.

In the base of the cone (which is uppermost) is the egg-cavity, measuring from 2 to 3 inches in diameter, and from 2 to 25 inches in depth. The nest is _very_ compactly and solidly woven, of rather broad blades of gra.s.s, and long strips of fine fibrous bark, exteriorly more or less coated with cobwebs and gossamer-threads. Interiorly, fine gra.s.s-stems and roots are neatly and closely interwoven. I once found some horse-hair along with the gra.s.s-roots, but this is unusual.

The full number of eggs is, I believe, five. I have repeatedly taken nests containing this number, and have comparatively seldom met with a smaller number of eggs at all incubated.

Colonel G.F.L. Marshall says:--”I found a nest of this species at Roorkee in the early part of July. It contained three eggs and was beautifully made, a deep cup fixed on to an artichoke-stock, and at a little distance much resembled an artichoke.”

Mr. E.C. Nunn, writing from near Agra on the 26th September 1867, says:--”I got a _Pyctorhis_' nest yesterday, suspended between two stalks of jowar (_Holcus sorghum_), the nest firmly bound with strips of fibrous bark, at two opposite points of its circ.u.mference, to the two stems. This is, I imagine, something out of the usual order of things with these birds. The nests which I have hitherto found have been situated in young mangoe-trees, rose-bushes, or peach- and orange-trees.”

From Futtehgurh the late Mr. A.A. Anderson sent me the following note:--”The nest and eggs of this bird are very beautiful. A pair once built in a pumplenose-tree (_Citrus dec.u.mana_) in my garden, laying five long eggs. The nest, still in my collection, was placed in the fork of _four_ small upright twigs; it was composed entirely of dry gra.s.s-stems (no soft material inside), and laced outwardly, in and out of the twigs, with dry fibre belonging to the plantain-tree.

”The eggs are small for the size of the bird, and scarcely so large as those of the Hedge-Sparrow.”

Captain Hutton remarks:--”This likewise is a Dhoon bird; its nest was found there on the 1st July, when it contained four eggs of a dull white colour, thickly speckled and blotched all over with ferruginous spots, forming also an open darker coloured ring at the large end, and intermixed with brown.

”The nest is a deep cup, placed in the trifurcation of the slender upright branch of a low shrub, and is constructed externally of coa.r.s.e gra.s.s-blades held together by cobwebs and seed-down, the lining being fine gra.s.s-seed stalks. Diameter of the top 2 inches; depth within 2 inches; externally 3 inches.”

Mr. F.R. Blewitt tells us that ”the Yellow-eyed Babbler breeds from July to September, or, I should say, up to the middle of September.