Chapter 14

"_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 top, made of dry leaves bound together with hair-like grass-fibres and moss-roots, which also form the lining, further compacted by spiders' webs, which, being also twisted round three adjacent twigs, form the suspenders of the nest, the bottom of which does not rest upon anything; attached to a low bush 1½ foot from the ground. The nest contained three eggs of a pinkish-white ground thickly spotted with chestnut, the spots being almost entirely confluent at the large end."

Dr. Jerdon says:--"I had the nest and eggs brought me by the Lepchas. The nest was loosely made with grass and bamboo-leaves, and the eggs were white with a few reddish-brown spots."

A nest of this species was found near Darjeeling in July, at an elevation of between 3000 and 4000 feet. It was situated in a small bush, in low brushwood, and placed only about 2 feet from the ground. The nest is a compactly made and moderately deep cup. The exterior portion of the nest is composed of bamboo-leaves, more or less held in their places by fine horsehair-like black roots, with which also the cavity is very thickly and neatly lined. Exteriorly the nest is about 3·75 inches in diameter, and nearly 3 in height. The cavity is 2·25 in diameter and 1·6 in depth.

The nest contained three nearly fresh eggs. The eggs are moderately elongated ovals, very regular and slightly pointed towards the small end. The shell is fine and exhibits a slight gloss. The ground-colour is white or pinkish white, and they are _very_ minutely speckled all over with purplish red. The specklings exhibit a decided tendency to form a more or less perfect, and more or less confluent, cap or zone at the large end.

Two of the eggs measure 0·72 and 0·71 in length, and 0·54 and 0·52 in breadth.

From Sikhim, Mr. Gammie writes:--"I have only found this Babbler breeding in May at elevations about 5000 feet, but it doubtless breeds also at much lower elevations, probably down to 2000 feet. The nests are placed within 2 or 3 feet of the ground, between several slender upright shoots, to which they are firmly attached. They are exceedingly neat and compact-built cups, measuring externally about 4 inches across by 2·75 deep, internally 2·15 wide by 1·6 deep. They are composed of dry bamboo-leaves held together by a little grass and very fine, hair-like fern-roots. The egg-cavity is lined with fern-roots.

"The eggs are three or four in number."

Numerous nests of this species kindly sent me by Messrs. Gammie, Mandelli, and others, taken during the months of May and June in British and Native Sikhim, at elevations of from 3000 to 5500 feet, were all of the same type and placed in the same situations, namely amongst low scrub and brushwood, at heights of from 18 inches to 3 feet from the ground. The interior and, in fact, the main body of the nests appear to be in all cases chiefly composed of fine black hair-like roots, with which, in some cases, especially about the upper margin, a little fine grass is intermingled. The cavities are generally much about the same size, say ~2 inches in diameter by 1·25 in depth: but the size of the nests as a whole varies very much. The nest is always coated exteriorly with dry leaves of trees and ferns, broad blades of grass, and the like, fixed together sometimes by mere pressure, but generally here and there held together by fine fibrous roots, and this coating varies so much that one nest before me measures 5·5 in external diameter, and another barely 4, the external covering of fern-leaves, flags, and dry and dead leaves being very abundant in the former, while in the other the covering consists entirely of broad dry blades of grass very neatly laid together. Two, three, and four fresh eggs were found in these several nests, but in no case were more than four eggs found.

Two nests taken by Mr. Gammie contained three and two fresh eggs respectively. The eggs had a delicate pink ground, and were richly blotched, in one egg exclusively, in the others chiefly about the larger end, with chestnut, or almost maroon-red, here and there almost deepening in spots to black, and elsewhere paling off into a rufous haze. The markings are confluent about the large end, and there in places intermingled with a purplish tinge. The other eggs had a china-white ground, with more gloss than the specimens previously described, with numerous small, blackish brownish-red spots and specks, almost exclusively confined to the large end, where they are more or less enveloped in a pinky-red nimbus.

These eggs varied from 0·75 to 0·79 in length, and from 0·56 to 0·6 in breadth.

Other eggs, again, with the same pinky-white ground are thickly but minutely freckled and speckled with rather pale brownish red, most thickly towards and about the large end, where they become confluent in patches, and where tiny purple clouds and spots are dimly traceable.

164. Alcippe phaeocephala (Jerd.). _The Nilghiri Babbler_.

Alcippe poiocephala (_Jerd.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 18; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E.._ no. 389.

The Nilghiri Babbler breeds, apparently, throughout the hilly regions of Southern India. It lays from January to June. A nest taken near Neddivattam by Mr. Davison on the 5th April was placed between the fork of three twigs of a bush, at the height of 5 or 6 feet from the ground. It was a deep cup, massive enough but very loosely put together, and composed of green moss, dead leaves, a little grass and moss-roots. It was entirely lined with rather coarse black moss-roots. In shape it was nearly an inverted cone, some 3½ inches in diameter at top, and fully 5 inches in height. The cavity was over 2 inches in diameter and nearly 2 inches in depth. A few cobwebs are here and there intermingled in the external surface, but the grass-roots appear to have been chiefly relied on for holding the nest together.

Another nest found by Miss Cockburn on the 5th June on a small bush, about 7 or 8 feet in height, standing on the banks of a stream, was somewhat different. It was placed in the midst of a clump of leaves, at the tips of three or four little twigs, between which the nest was partly suspended and partly wedged in. It was composed of fine grass-stems, with a few grass-and moss-roots as a lining interiorly, and with several dead leaves and a good deal of wool incorporated in the outer surface, the greater portion of which, however, was concealed by the leaves of the twigs amongst which it was built. It was only about 3½ inches in diameter, and the egg-cavity was less than 2½ inches across, and not above 1½ inch in depth.

Mr. Davison writes:--"This bird breeds on the slopes of the Nilghiris in the latter end of March and April. The nest is uncommonly like that of _Trochalopterum cachinnans_, but is of course smaller; it is deep and cup-shaped, composed externally of moss and dead leaves, and is lined with moss and fern-roots. It is always (as far as I have observed) fastened to a thin branch about 6 feet from the ground. All the nests I have ever observed were on small trees in the shadiest parts of the jungle, far in, and never near the edge of the jungle or in the open. The eggs are very handsome, and are, I think, the prettiest of the eggs to be found on the Nilghiris and their slopes. The ground-colour is of a beautiful reddish pink (especially when fresh), blotched and streaked with purplish carmine."

Mr. J. Darling, junior, says:--"The Nilghiri Quaker-Thrush breeds on the slopes of the Nilghiri hills, generally in the depths of the forest. I have, however, taken nests in scrub-jungle. I have also found the nest at Neddivattam in April.

"In October I found a nest of this bird at Culputty, S. Wynaad, about 2800 feet above the sea, built at the end of a branch 4 feet from the ground."

Mr. T.F. Bourdillon writes from Travancore:--"This bird breeds commonly with us, and its nest is more often met with than that of any other. The nest is cup-shaped and made of lichen, leaves, and grass. It is usually placed 4 to 8 feet from the ground in the middle of jungle, and is about 2 inches in diameter by 1¾-2 in depth. The full number of eggs is two, and I have obtained on

"April, 1871. 2 fresh eggs. Mar. 21, 1873. 2 fresh eggs. Feb. 16, 1874. 2 fresh eggs. April 11, 1874. 2 young birds, and many nests just vacated."

As in the case of _Pyctorhis sinensis_, the eggs differ much in colour and markings. The two eggs of this species sent me by Miss Cockburn from Kotagherry are moderately broad ovals, very obtuse at the larger end and somewhat compressed towards the smaller. The shell is fine and somewhat glossy. The ground-colour is white or pinkish white, and they are thickly mottled and freckled, most thickly at the larger end, where the markings form a more or less confluent mottled cap, with two shades of pinkish-, and in some spots slightly brownish, red, and towards the large end, where the markings are dense, traces of pale purple clouds underlying the primary markings are observable. In general appearance these eggs not a little resemble those of some of the Bulbuls, and it seems difficult to believe that they are eggs of birds of the same genus as _Alcippe atriceps_[A], the eggs of which are so much smaller and of such a totally different type. Two eggs of the same species taken by Mr. Davison are moderately broad ovals, somewhat compressed towards one end; have a fine and slightly glossy shell. The ground-colour is a delicate pink. There are a few pretty large and conspicuous spots and hair-lines of deep brownish red, almost black, and there are a few large pinkish-brown smears and clouds, generally lying round or about the dark spots; and then towards the large end there are several small clouds and patches of faint inky purple, which appear to underlie the other markings. The character of the markings on some of these eggs reminds one strongly of those of the Chaffinch. Other eggs taken later by Miss Cockburn at Kotagherry on the 21st January are just intermediate between the two types above described.

[Footnote A: _Alcippe atriceps_ and _Alcippe phaeocephala_, as they have hitherto been styled by all Indian ornithologists, are not in the least congeneric, as I have pointed out in my 'Birds of India.' I am glad to see my views corroborated by Mr. Hume's remarks on the eggs. There is no reason why these two birds should be considered congeneric, except a general similarity in colour and habits. Their structure differs much.--ED.]

All the eggs are very nearly the same size, and only vary in length from 0·75 to 0·86, and in breadth from 0·58 to 0·65.

165. Alcippe phayrii, Bl. _The Burmese Babbler_.

Alcippe phayrii, _Bl., Hume, Cat._ no. 388 bis.

Major C.T. Bingham writes from Tenasserim:--"In the half-dry bed of one of the many streams that one has to cross between Kaukarit and Meeawuddy, I found on the 23rd February a nest of the above species. A firm little cup, borne up some 2 feet above the ground on the fronds of a strong-growing fern, to three of the leaf-stems of which it was attached. It was made of vegetable fibres and roots, and lined interiorly with fine black hair-like roots, on which rested three fresh eggs, in colour pinky white, blotched and streaked with dull reddish pink, and with faint clouds and spots of purple. The eggs measure ·79 x ·58, ·78 x ·58, and ·76 x ·59."

Mr. J. Darling, junior, informs us that on the 9th April he "took three fresh eggs of _Alcippe phayrii_, in heavy jungle, at a very low elevation, at the foot of Nwalabo in Tenasserim. The nest was built in a small bush 4 feet from the ground (hanging between two forked twigs), of bamboo and other leaves, moss, and a few fine twigs, and lined with moss and fern-roots, 2 inches in diameter, 1½ deep. It was exactly like very many nests of _A. phaeocephala_, taken on the Nilghiri Hills, though some of the latter are much more compact and pretty."

Mr. W. Davison, also writing of Tenasserim, says:--"On the 1st March, in a little bush about 2 feet above the ground, I found the above-mentioned bird seated on a little moss-made nest, and utterly refusing to move off until I almost touched her, when she hopped on to a branch a few feet off, and disclosed three little naked fledglings struggling or just struggled out of their shells. I retired a little way off, and she immediately reseated herself. The eggs, to judge by the fragments, were of a vinous claret tinge, spotted and streaked with a darker shade of the same."

These eggs closely resemble those of _A. nepalensis_. They are neither broad nor elongated ovals, often with a _slight_ pyriform tendency, always apparently very blunt at both ends.

The ground-colour, of which but little is visible, in some eggs varies from pinky white to pale reddish pink, and the egg is profusely smeared and clouded with pinky or purplish red, varying much in shade and tint. Here and there, in most eggs, are a few spots, or occasionally short, crooked or curved lines, where the colour has been laid on so thick that it is almost black, and such spots are generally, though not always, more or less surrounded with a haze of a rather deeper tint than the rest of the smear in which they occur. The markings are often deepest coloured, or most conspicuous, about the large end, where occasionally a recognizable cap is formed and there a decided purplish tinge may be noticed in patches. The general character of the eggs is very uniform; but the eggs vary to such a degree _inter se_, that it is hopeless to attempt to describe all the variations. They vary in length from 0·68 to 0·78 and in breadth from 0·53 to 0·59, but the average of nine eggs is 0·75 by 0·58.

166. Rhopocichla atriceps (Jerd.) _The Black-headed Babbler_.

Alcippe atriceps (_Jerd._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 19; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 390.

Writing from Coonoor in the Nilghiris, Mr. Wait tells me that the Black-headed Babbler breeds in his neighbourhood in June and July:--"It builds in weeds and grass beside the banks of old roads, at elevations of from 5000 to 5500 feet. The nest is placed at a height of from a foot to 2 feet from the ground, is domed and loosely built, composed almost entirely of dry blades of the lemon-grass, and lined with the same or a few softer grass-blades. In shape it is more or less ovate, the longer axis vertical, and the external diameters 4 and 8 inches. They lay two or three rather broad oval eggs, which have a white ground, speckled and spotted, chiefly at the large end, with reddish brown."

Miss Cockburn sends me a nest of this species which she found on the 17th June amongst reeds on the edge of a stream, about 2 or 3 feet above the water's edge. It appears to have been a globular mass very loosely put together, of broad reed-leaves, between 3 or 4 inches in diameter, and with a central unlined cavity.

Mr. Iver Macpherson, writing from Mysore, says:--"I have only met with this bird in heavy bamboo-forest, and have only found two nests, viz., on the 25th May and 2nd July, 1879. Both nests were fixed low down (2 to 3 feet) in bamboo-clumps, and each contained two eggs, which, for the size of the bird, I considered very large. Nest globular, and very loosely constructed of bamboo-leaves and blades of grass."

An egg sent me from Coonoor by Mr. Wait is a moderately broad, very regular oval, only slightly compressed towards the smaller end. The shell is very fine and satiny, but has only a slight gloss. The ground-colour is white or slightly greyish white, and towards the large end it is profusely speckled with minute dots of brownish and purplish red, a few specks of the same colour being scattered about the rest of the surface of the eggs.

Another egg sent me from Kotagherry by Miss Cockburn exactly corresponds with the above description.

Both are precisely the same in size, and measure 0·75 by 0·55. Other eggs measure from 0·75 to 0·79 in length by 0·53 to 0·58 in breadth[A].

[Footnote A: Mr. T. Fulton Bourdillon (S.F. ix, p. 300) gives an interesting account of the nest and eggs of a species of _Rhopocichla_, which he failed to identify satisfactorily. It may have been _R. atriceps_ or _R. bourdilloni_. Most probably, judging from the locality, it was the latter. As, however, there is a doubt about it, I do not insert the note.--ED.]

167. Rhopocichla nigrifrons (Bl.). _The Black-fronted Babbler_.

Alcippe nigrifrons, _Bl., Hume, cat._ no. 390 ter.

Colonel Legge writes regarding the nidification of the Black-fronted Babbler in Ceylon:--"After finding hundreds of the curious dry-leaf structures, mentioned in 'The Ibis,' 1874, p. 19, entirely void of contents, and having come almost to the conclusion that they were built as roosting-places, I at last came on a newly-constructed one containing two eggs, on the 5th of January last; the bird was in the nest at the time, so that my identification of the eggs was certain. The nest of this Babbler is generally placed in a bramble or straggling piece of undergrowth near a path in the jungle or other open spot; it is about 3 or 4 feet from the ground, and is entirely made of dead leaves and a few twigs; the leaves are laid one over another horizontally, forming a smooth bottom or interior. In external form it is a shapeless ball about 8 or 10 inches in diameter, and has an unfinished opening at the side. The birds build with astonishing quickness, picking up the leaves one after another from the ground just beneath the nest. When fresh the eggs are fleshy white, becoming pure white when emptied; they are large for the size of the bird, rather stumpy ovals, of a smooth texture, and spotted openly and sparingly with brownish red, over bluish-grey specks; in one specimen the darker markings are redder than in the other, and ran mostly in the direction of the axis. Dimensions: 0·74 by 0·56 and 0·74 by 0·55."

169. Stachyrhis nigriceps, Hodgs. _The Black-throated Babbler_.

Stachyris nigriceps, _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p, 21; _Hume. Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 391.

I have never taken a nest of this species, the Black-throated Babbler, but Mr. Gammie, a careful observer, in whose neighbourhood (Rungbee, near Darjeeling) this bird is very abundant, has taken many nests, two of which he has sent me, with many eggs.

One nest, found at Rishap, on the 14th May, at an elevation of about 4000 feet, contained four nearly fresh eggs. It was a very loose structure, a shallow cup of about 3½ inches in diameter, composed of fine grass-stems without any lining, and coated externally with broad coarse grass-blades.

Another nest taken low down in the valley, at about an elevation of 2000 feet, on the 17th June, contained three fresh eggs. It was placed in a bank at the foot of a shrub. Like the previous one, it was a loose but rather deeper cup, interiorly composed of moderately fine grass, exteriorly of dead leaves. The egg-cavity measured about 2 inches in diameter, and 1½ inch in depth. _In situ_, both probably were more or less domed, the cups more or less overhung by a hood or canopy.

Mr. Gammie remarks:--"I have seen numerous nests of this species in former years, and have found two this season, but have never seen eggs with 'faint darker spots' as mentioned by Jerdon. Hodgson's description is quite correct. The eggs are a 'pale fawn-colour' _before they are blown_, the shells being so translucent that the yolk shows through partially. The shell is pure white in itself. The cavity of the cup-shaped part of one nest beside me is 2 inches deep by 2 inches wide; outer dimensions 5¾ inches deep (from top of hood) by 4 inches wide across the face of entrance. It is loosely though neatly made of bamboo-leaves and fern, lined with dry grass. The bird breeds in May and June, and lays four or five eggs."

Mr. Eugene Gates tells us that he "procured only one specimen of this bird, and that was in the evergreen forests of the Pegu Hills. I shot it off the nest on the 29th April. The nest was on a bank of a nullah well concealed among dead leaves, about 2 feet above the bottom of the bank. The nest is domed, about 7 inches in height and 5 inches in diameter externally, with the entrance at the side near the top. The outside is a mass of bamboo-leaves very loose, being in no way bound together; each leaf is curled to the shape of the nest. The inside, a thin lining only of vegetable fibres. There were three eggs, just on the point of hatching; colour, pure white."

The Black-throated Babbler breeds, according to Mr. Hodgson, in April and May, and builds a large deep cup-shaped nest, either upon the ground in the midst of grass, or at a short distance above the ground between five or six thin twigs; a nest which he measured was externally 4·5 inches in diameter and 3·5 in height, while the cavity was 2·5 in diameter and 2 in depth. The nest is composed of dry bamboo- and other leaves wound together with grass and moss-roots, and lined with these, and is a very firm compact structure, considering the materials. They lay four or five eggs, which are figured as very regular rather broad ovals, of a nearly uniform, very pale _café-au-lait_ colour (these were the _unblown_ eggs), measuring about 0·75 by 0·58.

Dr. Jerdon remarks:--"A nest and eggs were brought to me at Darjeeling, and said to be of this species. The nest was rather large, very loosely made of bamboo-leaves and fibres, and the eggs were of a pale salmon-colour, with some faint darker spots."

There is no doubt that these must have been the eggs of some other species.

Major C.T. Bingham tells us:--"This little bird, though not at all common, breeds in the Sinzaway Reserve, in Tenasserim. I took five hard-set eggs, placed in a beautiful little domed nest, at the foot of a clump of bamboos, on the bank of a dry choung or nullah. This was on the 20th March. The nest was composed exteriorly of dry bamboo-leaves, and interiorly of fine grass-roots, the entrance being on one side. I shot the female as she crept off the nest."

It does not seem that in the Himalayas this species domes its nest. Numerous other nests that have been sent me from Sikhim, taken in May, June, and July, were all of the same type--shallow or deeper cups loosely put together, exteriorly composed of coarse blades of grass, dead leaves, bamboo-spathes and the like, held together with a little vegetable fibre or fibrous roots, and interiorly of fine grass generally more or less mingled with blackish roots, which in some nests greatly predominate over the grass.

The eggs are broad ovals, somewhat compressed towards one end, in some cases slightly pyriform. They are pure white, spotless, and fairly glossy.

They vary from 0·68 to 0·84 in length, and from 0·55 to 0·61 in breadth, but the average of thirty-four eggs is 0·76 by somewhat over 0·58.

170. Stachyrhis chrysaea, Hodgs. _The Golden-headed Babbler_.

Stachyris chrysaea, _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 22; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 394.

Mr. Blyth remarks:--"The egg, as figured by Mr. Hodgson, is pinkish white, and the nest domed and placed on the summit of a sedge. _S. praecognita_ lays a blue egg." (Ibis, 1866, p. 309.)

There is no figure of either the nest or eggs of the Golden-headed Babbler amongst the drawings of Mr. Hodgson that I possess.

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"I took a nest of this bird out of a large forest, at 5000 feet elevation, on the 15th May. It is of an oval shape, neatly made of small bamboo-leaves only, devoid of lining, and was fixed vertically between a few upright sprays, within two feet of the ground. It measures externally 5·25 inches in height by 4 in diameter; internally 1·5 in depth, from lip of egg-cavity, by 1·75 in diameter. The entrance is also 1·75 across.