Part 62 (2/2)

Lalage terat (_Bodd.), Hume, cat._ no, 269 ter.

The eggs are quite of the _Graucalus_ and _Campophaga_ type, but perhaps a little more elongated in shape. Very regular, slightly elongated ovals, with scarcely any gloss on them, the ground greenish white, but everywhere thickly streaked and mottled and freckled over, most thickly about the large end, with a dull pale slightly olivaceous brown intermingled with brownish, or in some specimens faintly purplish grey. The two eggs I possess measure 085 and 087 in length, by 061 and 062 respectively in breadth.

510. Graucalus macii, Lesson. _The Large Cuckoo-Shrike_.

Graucalus macei, _Less., Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 417; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 270.

My friend Mr. F.R. Blewitt seems to be the only ornithologist who has taken many nests of the Large Grey Cuckoo-Shrike. I never was so fortunate as to find one. He says:--”This Shrike begins to pair about May, and in June the work of nidification commences. The place selected for the nest is the most lofty branch of a tree, and is built near the fork of two outlying twigs. If this bird has a preference it would appear to be for mango and mowa trees, on which I found most of the nests. The nest is in form circular, and its exterior is somewhat thickly made; the interior is moderately cup-shaped. Thin twigs and gra.s.s-roots are freely used in its construction, while the outer part of the nest is somewhat thickly covered with what appears to be spider's web. Altogether the nest, considering the size of the birds, is of light structure. I am sorry I did not take the dimensions of each nest secured, but I sent you two very perfect ones. I found the first eggs in the beginning of July. They are of a dull lightish green, with brown spots of all sizes, more dense towards the large end. The maximum number of eggs is three. The bird breeds from June to August.”

The nests which Mr. Blewitt sent me remind one a good deal of those of the _Dicruri_. They are broad shallow saucers, with an egg-cavity about 3 inches in diameter, and inch in depth, composed in the only two specimens that I possess of very fine twigs, chiefly those of the furash (_Tamarix orientalis_). Exteriorly they are bound round with cobwebs, in which a quant.i.ty of lichen is incorporated. The nests are loose flimsy fabrics, which but for the exterior coating of cobwebs would certainly never have borne removal.

Dr. Jerdon remarks:--”I once obtained its nest and eggs. The nest was built in a lofty casuarina tree, close to my house at Tellicherry; it was composed of small twigs and roots merely, of Moderate size, and rather deeply cup-shaped, and contained three eggs, of a greenish-fawn colour, with large blotches of purplish brown.”

Professor H. Littledale writing from Baroda says:--”The Large Cuckoo-Shrike is a permanent resident here. I found six nests last August near Baroda, each with one egg; and my men found a nest building in the Police Lines at Khaira on the 10th October.”

Mr. J. Davidson informs us that ”a pair of _Graucalus macii_ were apparently breeding near this place (the Kondabhari Ghat). He found a nest with two young in the previous September near the same place.”

Mr. G.W. Vidal, referring to the South Konkan, says:--”Common; breeds in February and March.”

A nest that was placed in the fork of a bough was composed entirely of slender twigs, the petioles of some pennated-leaved tree, bound together all round the outside with abundance of cobwebs, so that notwithstanding the incoherent nature of the materials the nest was extremely firm. It is a shallow saucer quite of the Dicrurine type, with a cavity 3 inches in diameter and barely 075 in depth.

The eggs are typically of a somewhat elongated oval, a good deal pointed towards one end, but some are broader and more of a typical Shrike shape. The eggs are of course considerably larger than those of _Lanius lahtora_. The sh.e.l.l is compact and fine, and faintly glossy.

The ground-colour is a palish-green stone-colour, greener in some, and somewhat more creamy in others. The markings are very Shrike-like, and consist of brown blotches, streaks, and spots, with numerous clouds and blotches of pale inky-purple, which appear to underlie the brown markings. The markings in some eggs are all very faint, and, as it were, half washed out, while in others they are very bright and clear.

In some these are comparatively spa.r.s.e and few; in others close-set and numerous, especially in a broad zone near the large end; but this zone is by no means invariably present; in fact, not above one in five eggs exhibit it. There is something in these eggs which reminds one of some of the Terns' eggs; and although, when compared with a large series of _L. lahtora_, individuals of this latter species may be found resembling them to a certain extent, I do not think that at first sight any zoologist would have felt sure that they _were_ Shrike's eggs.

They vary in length from 112 to 141 inch, and in breadth from 08 to 095 inch, but the average of eight eggs is 126 by 09 inch nearly.

Subfamily ARTAMINAE.

512. Artamus fuscus, Vieill. _The Ashy Swallow-Shrike_.

Artamus fuscus, _V., Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 441; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 287.

Mr. R. Thompson says:--”I have frequently found the nests of the Ashy Swallow-Shrike, and have watched the old birds constructing them, but never took down their eggs. Two or three pairs may always be found nesting on the long-leaved pine, as one comes up from Kaladoongee to Nyneetal and pa.s.ses halfway up from the first dak chokee at Ghutgurh.

They lay in May and June, constructing their nest on the horizontal extension of a main branch of some lofty tree, generally _Pinus longifolia_. The nest, composed of fine gra.s.ses, roots, and fibres, is a loose, only slightly cup-shaped structure, some 5 inches in diameter.”

Dr. Jerdon says on the other hand:--”I have procured the nest of this bird situated on a palmyra tree on the stem of the leaf. It was a deep cup-shaped nest, made of gra.s.s, leaves, and numerous feathers, and contained two eggs, white with a greenish tinge, and with light brown spots, chiefly at the larger end. I see that Mr. Layard procured the nest in Ceylon, where this bird is common, in the heads of cocoanut trees, made of fibres and gra.s.ses, and it was probably the nest of this bird that was brought to Tickell as that of the Palm-Swift.”

According to Mr. Hodgson this species begins to lay in March, the young being fledged in June; the nest is a broad shallow saucer, from 6 to 8 inches in diameter, composed of gra.s.s and roots, together with a little lichen, loosely put together, a green leaf or two being sometimes found as a lining to the nest. The nest is placed on some broad horizontal branch, where two or three slender twigs or shoots grow out of it, or on the top of some stump of a tree, or broken end of a branch, generally, at a considerable height from the ground. The eggs are _figured_ as white, spotted and blotched almost exclusively at the large end with yellowish brown, and measuring 08 by 052 inch, but no actual measurements are recorded.

Mr. Gammie, however, himself found, and kindly sent me, a nest and eggs of this species, at Mongpho near Darjeeling, at an elevation of about 3500 feet, on the 13th May, 1873. It was placed in the hole of a trunk of a dead tree at a height of about 40 feet from the ground, and it contained three hard-set eggs. The nest was a loose shallow saucer of coa.r.s.e roots devoid of lining. The eggs were rather narrow ovals, a good deal pointed towards one end; the sh.e.l.l fine and with a slight gloss. The ground-colour was creamy white, and the markings, which are almost entirely confined to a broad ring round the large end and the s.p.a.ce within it, consisted of spots and clouds of very pale yellowish brown, intermingled with clouds and specks of excessively pale, nearly washed out, lilac.

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