The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1

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...

"The nest I took on the 6th May, 1873, at Murree, was at an elevation, I should say, of between 6500 and 7000 feet (as it was near the top of the hill), in the forest. The tree...

The nest is placed as a rule on good-sized trees and pretty near their summits. In the plains mangos and tamarinds seem to be preferred, but I have found the nests on many diffe...

One nest of this species taken in Native Sikhim in July, was placed in the fork of four leafy twigs, and was in shape a slightly truncated inverted cone, nearly 7 inches in heig...

As a rule, the nest is placed on the ground, in some thick clump of dry fern or coarse grass, amongst dead leaves and moss, but at times I have seen it placed in a thick bush 2...

"This bird is very common in the heavy forests of the Mysore District, but the only nest I have ever found myself was on the 2nd May, 1880, and contained two or three young bird...

"_Allygurh, August 27th_.--Another beautiful little nest in a mango-tree high up, a tiny cup about 1½ inch internal diameter by ¾ inch deep, woven with very fine twigs, and exte...

Some eggs are scantily marked, and have the spots very small; while others are densely spotted and blotched, the spots often being more or less confluent at the larger end. Freq...

Captain Unwin sent me an unusually beautiful specimen of the nest of this species, taken early in May in the Agrore Valley--a massive and perfect cup, with a cavity of 5 inches...

Mr. Gates writes from Lower Pegu:--"Of _S. nemoricola_ I have taken two sets of eggs: one set of two eggs fresh, and one of three on the point of being hatched; the former on 12...

I have had eggs and nest sent me, and I know it breeds throughout the Western Himalayas, at elevations of from 4000 to 7000 feet; and that it lays during April and May (and prob...

"Captain Cock shot one of this species off the nest at Sonamerg with four eggs. The bird he sent to me, and gave me two of the eggs. Regarding the nest he says: 'I took a nest,...

Major C.T. Bingham writes from Tenasserim:--"I saw several nest-holes of this bird, which was very common in the Reserve, but none of them were accessible; and it wasn't till th...

Dr. Scully, also writing of Nepal, says:--"This Shrike breeds on the hillsides of the valley, usually in places where there is no tree-forest, and not uncommonly in the neighbou...

"_Valley, April 1st_.--A pair and nest. Nest is round, 4 inches deep on the outside and 2 inches within, and the same wide, being of the usual soup-basin shape and open at the t...

I have been favoured with nests of the Rufous-bellied Short-wing by Mr. Carter, who took them from holes or depressions of banks in the Nilghiris in April and May. They closely...

"The eggs were four in number; three of them well set and the fourth quite fresh. The set eggs were altogether pure white, but the fresh egg, unblown, was of a pinky-white colou...

I have only taken one nest myself (though I have had many others sent me), and that was on the 2nd of April at Chundowah in Jodpoor, Rajpootana. The nest was in the fork of a be...

Mr. J. Davidson informs us that on the 16th July he saw a brood of _Dicrurus caerulescens_ on the Kondabhari Ghât, just able to fly. Referring to Western Khandeish, he tells us...

"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 t...

I only know positively of Jackdaws breeding in one district within our limits, viz. Cashmere; but I have seen it in the hills in summer, as far east as the Valley of the Beas, a...

Mr. Gammie says:--"I have only as yet found a single nest of this species, and this was one of the most artfully concealed that I have ever seen. I found it in forest in the Chi...

From Mussoorie Captain Hutton remarks:--"This little bird appears on the hill, at about 5000 feet, in May. A nest taken much lower down in June was composed of grasses neatly in...

"One nest, which I took on the 6th May, was a round ball with a lateral entrance; it was placed in a thick barberry-bush growing at the side of a deep and sheltered ditch; it wa...

"Common as is this bird I have only found one nest, and that was at Allahabad on the 9th July, and contained one half-fledged young one and an addled egg. The nest, which was pl...

The Burmese Nuthatch probably breeds throughout Pegu and Tenasserim. Of its nidification in the latter division Major C.T. Bingham writes:--"On the 21st March, wandering about i...

From Kotagherry, Miss Cockburn remarks:--"The name 'Laughing-Thrush' is most applicable to this bird, and its notes are often mistaken for the sound of the human voice. This bir...

The eggs are so different in character from those of all the Starlings that doubts might reasonably arise as to whether this species is placed exactly where it ought to be by Je...

Colonel Butler writes:--"I found a nest of the White-eared Bulbul at Deesa on the 5th August containing three fresh eggs. It was placed in the fork of a low Beer tree about 4 fe...

Lieut. H.E. Barnes, writing from Chaman in Southern Afghanistan, remarks:--"The Grey-backed Shrike is extremely common, breeding about the end of March, in much the same situati...

The Madras Red-vented Bulbul, which by the way extends northwards throughout the Central Provinces, Chota-Nagpoor, Rajpootana (the eastern portions), the plains of the North-Wes...

The nest of the Stripe-throated Siva is placed, according to Mr. Hodgson, in the slender fork of a tree at no great elevation from the ground. It is composed of moss and moss-ro...

"On the 1st September, 1880, I shot a pair of these birds as they rose out of some long grass by the side of a rice-field; and, thinking there might be a nest, I commenced a dil...

Mr. Davidson writes:--"In the Satara and Sholapur districts the cock puts on his summer plumage in May and the whole back of head, neck, and back (not rump) is glossy and black.

Mr. Oates, who found the nest of this Warbler in Pegu, says:--"June 29th. Found a nest sewn into a broad soft leaf of a weed in forest about 2 feet from the ground. The edges of...

Major C.T. Bingham writes:--"The Indian Tailor-bird breeds in April, May, and June, both at Allahabad and at Delhi. The nest formed of one, two, and occasionally three, leaves n...

Major C.T. Bingham remarks:--"I have found many nests of the King-Crow both at Allahabad and Delhi. In both places they begin laying towards the end of May, and I got fresh eggs...

Mr. Iver Macpherson writes of this bird from Mysore:--"I have found their nests in every month between March and August, and they possibly breed both earlier and later. The nest...

Numerous nests of this species subsequently sent me from Sikhim are all of the same type, all moderately deep cups composed entirely of creeper-tendrils, the cavity only being l...

Colonel Butler contributes the following note:--"The Indian Oriole breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa in the months of May, June, and July. I took nests on the following dates:--

"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 twi...

The eggs sent by Mr. Gammie, for the authenticity of which he vouches, are moderately broad ovals, somewhat compressed and pyriform towards the small end. They have but little g...

"I found numerous nests from the middle of July to the beginning of September. On the 26th July, 1876, I saw upwards of a dozen nests, some containing fresh eggs, and others inc...

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...

As regards the nest, this species often constructs a Tailor-bird nest, the true nest being filled in between two or more leaves carefully stitched together to the nest; but it a...

Mr. Davison remarks that "this species builds in bushes or trees at about 6 to 20 feet from the ground: a thorny thick bush is generally preferred, _Berberis asiatica_ being a f...

[Footnote A: "When the snake," says an Arabic commentator, "tempted Adam it was a winged animal. To punish its misdeeds the Almighty deprived it of wings, and condemned it there...

I have long regretted my inability to issue a revised edition of 'Nests and Eggs.' For many years after the first Rough Draft appeared, I went on laboriously accumulating materi...

cachinnans, Trochalopterum, caerulatus, Dryonastes, caerulescens, Dicrurus, caeruleus, Dicrurus, ----, Parus, caesius, Parus, Calamodyta agricola, ---- dumetorum, ---- stentorea...