Part 54 (1/2)

Dr. Jerdon says:--”I found the nest in low jungle near Nellore, made chiefly of gra.s.s, with a few roots and fibres, globular, large, with a hole at one side near the top, and the eggs white, spotted very thickly with rusty red, especially at the thick end.”

Mr. Blewitt appears to have taken many eggs of this species in the Raipoor District, and he has sent me the following notes, together with numerous eggs. He says:--

”The Jungle Wren-Warbler breeds in the Raipoor District from about the middle of June to the middle of August. Low thorn-bushes on rocky ground are chiefly selected for the nest, and both parent birds a.s.sist in building it and in hatching and rearing the young. A new nest is made each year, and four is the maximum number of eggs.

”On the 1st July this year I found a nest of this species in the centre of a low th.o.r.n.y bush, growing in rocky ground, about two miles north of Doongurgurh in the Raipoor District.

”The nest was about 4 feet from the ground, firmly attached to and supported by the branches. It was of a deep cup shape, 36 in diameter and 49 in height, composed of coa.r.s.er and finer gra.s.ses firmly interwoven, and contained four fresh eggs. In the same locality we secured a second similarly situated nest, about 2 feet from the ground, and it contained a single fresh egg. It was rather more neatly and ma.s.sively made than the former. It was about 4 inches in diameter and 5 inches in height, and the egg-cavity was nearly 3 inches deep.

The lining is of fine gra.s.s-stalks well interwoven. The exterior is composed of coa.r.s.e gra.s.s mixed with a little greyish-white fibre.

”Subsequently several other similar and similarly situated nests were found.”

Colonel E.A. Butler writes:--”The Jungle Wren-Warbler breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa in the months of July, August, and September.

The following are the dates upon which I found nests this year (1876):--

”July 28. A nest containing 4 young birds.

” 29. ” 5 fresh eggs.

Aug. 1. ” 4 ”

” 5. ” 5 ”

Aug. 13. ” 5 ”

” 16. ” 4 young birds fledged.

” 17. ” 5 ”

” ” ” 3 ”

” 19. ” 4 ”

” ” ” 5 ”

” 30. ” 5 ”

Sept. 3. ” 5 ”

”In addition to the above, I found nests in the same neighbourhood in 1875. One on the 14th August containing four young birds almost ready to leave the nest. It was placed in the middle of a tussock of coa.r.s.e gra.s.s on the side of a nullah on a bank overgrown with gra.s.s and bushes, and my attention was attracted first of all to the spot by the incessant chattering and uneasiness of the two old birds, one of which had a large gra.s.shopper in its mouth. After hiding behind a bush for a few minutes, I saw the hen bird fly to the nest, which led to its discovery. The nest was dome-shaped, with an entrance upon one side, composed exteriorly of blades of rather coa.r.s.e dry gra.s.s (green, however, as a rule when the nest is first built), and interiorly of similar, but finer, material. It is an easy nest to find when once the locality in which the birds breed is discovered, as it is a conspicuous ball of gra.s.s, smeared over, often more or less, exteriorly with a silky white vegetable-down or cobweb, and many of the blades of the tussock in which it is placed are often drawn down and woven into the nest, which at once attracts attention. Then, again, the c.o.c.k bird is almost always to be found on the top of some low tree near the nest, uttering his peculiar ventriloquistic note '_tissip, tissip, tissip_,' etc. All the above nests were exactly alike and in similar situations, viz. fixed in the centre of a tussock of coa.r.s.e gra.s.s on the banks of some deep nullahs running through a large gra.s.s 'Beerh.' The eggs remind me more of the English Robin's eggs than those of any other species I know. The ground-colour is dull white, sometimes tinted with pale green, and the markings reddish fawn. In some cases the eggs are peppered all over with a conspicuous zone at the large end, sometimes a dense cap instead of a zone. In other cases the markings, though always present, are almost invisible, as also the zone or cap. They are about the size of the eggs of the Spotted Flycatcher. I found a few other nests besides those I have mentioned during July and August 1875.”

Captain c.o.c.k informed me that this species is ”common in the jungles around Seetapore. Nest is largish, dome-shaped, and placed low down in a th.o.r.n.y bush. The bird lays in August five eggs, the _fac-simile_ of the eggs of _Pratincola ferrea_, perhaps of a more elongated type than the eggs of that bird.”

Mr. H. Parker, writing on the birds of North-west Ceylon, refers to this bird under the t.i.tles _D. jerdoni_ and _D. valida_, and informs us that it breeds from January to May.

The eggs of this species are somewhat elongated ovals. The ground-colour is a greenish or greyish stone-colour, and they are finely and often rather spa.r.s.ely freckled all over with very faint reddish brown, or brownish pink in most eggs; these frecklings are gathered together into a more or less dense zone round the large end, forming a conspicuous ring there much darker-coloured than the frecklings over the rest of the surface. The eggs have a faint gloss.

In length they vary from 068 to 075, and in breadth from 049 to 052, but the average appears to be 07 by 05.

466. Prinia inornata, Sykes. _The Indian Wren-Warbler_.

Drymoipus inornatus (_Sykes_), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p. 178; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 543.

Drymoipus longicaudatus (_Tick._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 180.

Drymoipus terricolor, _Hume_; _Hume, Rough Draft N, & E._ no. 543 bis.