Chapter 16

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 in diameter and 3 inches deep; the sides fully 2 inches thick; an almost solid mass of fine roots (the finest towards the interior) externally intermingled with moss, so as to form, to all appearance, an integral portion of the mossy bank on which it was placed. In the bottom of the nest were interwoven a number of dead leaves, and the whole interior was thinly lined with very fine grass-roots and moss. In this case the nest had been placed on a tiny natural platform and was a complete cup; but in another nest, also sent by Captain Unwin, the cup, having been placed on the slope of a bank, wanted (and this is the more common type) the inner one-third altogether, the place of which was supplied by the bank-moss _in situ_. In this case, although the cavity was only of the same size as that above described, the outer face of the nest was fully 6 inches high, and the wall of the nest between 3 and 3½ inches thick. The former contained three much incubated, the latter four nearly fresh eggs.

A nest from Darjeeling which was taken on the 28th July, at an elevation of about 3500 feet, from under a rock which partly overhung a stream, and contained two fresh eggs, was composed in almost equal proportions of fine moss-roots and dead leaves with scarcely a trace of moss. In this case the nest was entirely concealed from view, and no necessity, therefore, existed for coating it externally with green moss to prevent its attracting attention.

Dr. Jerdon remarks:--"I have had its nest and eggs brought me (at Darjeeling); the nest is a solid mass of moss, mixed with earth and roots, of large size, and placed (as I was informed) under an overhanging rock near a mountain-stream. The eggs were three in number, and dull green, thickly overlaid with reddish specks."

"In Kumaon," writes Mr. R. Thompson, "they breed from May to July, along all the smaller hill-streams, from 1500 up to about 4500 feet. In the cold season it descends quite to the plains--I mean the Sub-Himalayan plains. The nest is generally more or less circular, 5 or 6 inches in diameter, composed of moss and mud clinging to the roots of small aquatic plants or of the moss, and lined with fine roots and sometimes hair. A deep well-watered glen is usually chosen, and the nest is placed in some cleft or between the ledges of some rock, often immediately overhanging some deep gloomy pool."

"On the 16th June," observes Captain Hutton, writing from Mussoorie, "I took two nests of this bird, each containing three eggs, and also another nest, containing three nearly-fledged young ones. The nest bears a strong resemblance to that of the _Geocichlae_, but is much more solid, being composed of a thick bed of green moss externally, lined first with long black fibrous lichens and then with fine roots. Externally the nest is 3½ inches deep, but within only 2½ inches; the diameter about 4¾ inches, and the thickness of the outer or exposed side is 2 inches. The eggs are three in number, of a greenish-ashy colour, freckled with minute roseate specks, which become confluent and form a patch at the larger end. The elevation at which the nests were found was from 4000 to 4500 feet; but the bird is common, except during the breeding-season, at all elevations up to the snows, and in the winter it extends its range down into the Doon. In the breeding-season it is found chiefly in the glens, in the retired depths of which it constructs its nest; it never, like the Thrushes and _Geocichlae_, builds in trees or bushes, but selects some high, towering, and almost inacessible rock, forming the side of a deep glen, on the projecting ledges of which, or in the holes from which small boulders have fallen, it constructs its nest, and where, unless when assailed by man, it rears its young in safety, secure alike from the howling blast and the attack of wild animals. It is known to the natives by the name of 'Kaljet,' and to the Europeans as the 'Hill Blackbird.' The situation in which the nest is placed is quite unlike that of any other of our Hill-Thrushes with which I am acquainted. The bird itself is as often found in open rocky spots on the skirts of the forest as among the woods, loving to jump upon some stone or rocky pinnacle, from which it sends forth a sort of choking, chattering song, if such it can be called, or, with an up-jerk of the tail, hops away with a loud musical whistle, very much after the manner of the Blackbird (_M. vulgaris_)."

Sir E.C. Buck says:--"I found a nest at Huttoo, near Narkhunda, date 27th June, 1869, on an almost inaccessible crag overhanging a torrent. It contained three eggs, but two were broken by stones falling in climbing down to the nest. Nest not brought up; one egg secured and forwarded. I saw the bird well, and have no doubt as to its identity."

Writing from Dhurmsalla, Captain Cock informed me that he had obtained several nests in May in and about the neighbouring streams, up to an elevation of some 5000 feet. From Murree, Colonel C.H.T. Marshall remarks:--"Several nests found in June, near running streams, about 4000 feet up."

Dr. Stoliczka tells us that "it breeds at Chini and Sungnum at an elevation of between 9000 and 11,000 feet."

The eggs are typically of a very long oval shape, much pointed at one end, but more or less truncated varieties (if I may use the word) occur. They are the largest of our Indian Thrushes' eggs, and are larger than those of any European Thrush with which I am acquainted. Their coloration, too, is somewhat unique; a French grey, greyish-white, or pale-greenish ground, speckled or freckled with minute pink, pale purplish-pink, or pinkish-brown specks, in most cases thinly, in some instances pretty thickly, in some only towards the large end, in some pretty well all over. In the majority of the specimens there is, besides these minute specks, a cloudy, ill-defined, purplish-pink zone or cap at the large end. In some few there are also a few specks of bright yellowish brown. The eggs have scarcely any gloss.

In length, they vary from 1·24 to 1·55 inch, and in breadth from 0·95 to 1·1 inch, but the average of fifty eggs is 1·42 by about 1·0 inch.

188. Myiophoneus eugenii, Hume. _The Burmese Whistling-Thrush_.

Myiophoneus eugenii, _Hume; Hume, cat._ no. 343 bis.

Major C.T. Bingham contributes the following note to the 'Birds of British Burmah' regarding the nidification of this species in Tenasserim:--"On the 16th April I was crossing the Mehkhaneh stream, a feeder of the Meh-pa-leh, the largest tributary of the Thoungyeen river, near its source, where it is a mere mountain-torrent brawling over a bed of rocks strewed with great boulders. A small tree, drifted down by the last rains, had caught across two of these, and being jammed in by the force of the water, had half broken across, and now formed a sort of temporary V-shaped dam, against which pieces of wood, bark, leaves, and rubbish had collected, rising some six inches or so above the water, which found an exit below the broken tree. On this frail and tottering foundation was placed a round solid nest about 9 inches in diameter, made of green moss, and lined with fine black roots and fibres, in which lay four fresh eggs of a pale stone-colour, sparsely spotted, especially at the larger ends, with minute specks of reddish brown. Determined to find out to what bird they belonged, I sent my followers on and hid myself behind the trunk of a tree on the bank and watched, gun in hand. In about twenty minutes or so a pair of _Myiophoneus eugenii_ came flitting up the stream and, alighting near the nest, sat for a time quietly. At last one hopped on the edge of the nest, and after a short inspection sat down over the eggs with a low chuckle. I then showed myself and, as the birds flew off, fired at the bird that had been on the nest, but unfortunately missed. I was satisfied, however, about the identity of the eggs and took them. In shape they are somewhat like those of _Pitta_, and measure 1·45 x 1·02, 1·50 x 1·02, 1·46 x 1·01, and 1·50 x 1·01."

189. Myiophoneus horsfieldi. Vigors. _The Malabar Whistling-Thrush_.

Myiophonus horsfieldii, _Vig., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 499;_Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 342.

Mr. W. Davison says:--"The Malabar Whistling-Thrush (rather a misnomer, by the way) breeds on the slopes of the Nilghiris, never ascending higher than 6000 feet. The nest is always placed on some rock in a mountain torrent; it is a coarse and, for the size of the bird, a very large structure, and though I have never measured the nest, I should say that the total height was about 18 inches or more, and the greatest diameter about 18 inches. Exteriorly it is composed of roots, dead leaves, and decaying vegetation of all kinds; the egg-cavity, which is saucer-shaped and comparatively shallow, is coarsely lined with roots. It breeds during March and April."

Miss Cockburn says:--"A nest of this bird was found on the 22nd of March in a hole in a tree situated in a wood at a height of about 40 feet from the ground. Two bamboo ladders had to be tied together to reach it, for the tree had no branches except at the top. The nest consisted of a large quantity of sticks and dried roots of young trees, laid down in the form of a Blackbird's nest. The contents of it were three eggs. They were quite fresh, and the bird might have laid another. The poor birds (particularly the hen) showed great boldness and returned frequently to the nest, while a ladder was put up and a man ascended it."

Such a situation for the nest of _this_ bird may seem incredible; but my friend Miss Cockburn is a most careful observer, and she sent me one of the eggs taken from this very nest, and it undoubtedly belonged to this species; moreover, there is no other bird on the Nilghiris that she, who has figured most beautifully all the Nilghiri birds, could possibly have mistaken for this species. At the same time, the situation in which she found the nest was altogether unusual and exceptional.

I now find that such a situation for the nest of this bird is not even very unusual. On the 3rd of July Miss Cockburn took another nest in a hole in a tree, about thirty feet from the ground, containing three fresh eggs, which she kindly sent me; and writing from the Wynaad Mr. J. Darling, jun., remarks that there this species commonly builds in holes in trees. He says:--"_July 22nd_. Nest found near Kythery, S. Wynaad, in a crevice of a log of a felled tree in a new clearing 11 feet from the ground. Nest built entirely of roots. The foundation was of roots from some swampy ground and had a good deal of mud about it. Another nest was in a hole of a dead tree 32 feet from the ground."

Mr. Frank Bourdillon writes from Travancore:--"Very common from the base to near the summit of the hills, frequenting alike jungle and open clearings, though generally found in the neighbourhood of some running stream; I have known this species to build on ledges of rock and in a hollow tree overhanging a stream, in either case constructing a rather loosely put together nest of roots and coarse fibre with a little green moss intermixed. The female lays two to four eggs, and both birds assist in the incubation."

Mr. T. Fulton Bourdillon records the finding of eggs on the following dates:--

"April 29, 1873. Two hard-set eggs. May 15, 1873. Three " " May 15, 1874. One fresh egg. May 30, 1874. Two slightly set eggs."

Col. Butler sent me a splendid nest of this species taken in the cliffs at Purandhur, 15 miles south of Poona. It was placed in the angle between two rocks; it measures in front 7 inches wide, and 1·5 in. high; posteriorly it slopes away into an obtuse angle fitting the crevice in which it was deposited; the cavity is 4 in. in diameter, perfectly circular, and 2·25 in depth. The compactness of the nest is such that it might be thrown about without being damaged. It is composed throughout of fine black roots, only a stray piece or two of light coloured grass being intermixed, and the whole basal portion is cemented together with mud.

He gives the following account of the mode in which he acquired it:--

"I got this nest in rather a singular way which is perhaps worth relating. At a dance last year in Karachi, in a short conversation I had with Colonel Renny, who was then commanding the Artillery in Sind, he mentioned that he had three Blue-winged Thrushes in his house that he had procured at Purandhur the year before. The following day I went over to his bungalow, and after inspecting them and satisfying myself of their identity, ascertained from him where the nest they were taken from was situated and the season at which it was found. Possessed with this information I wrote in May to the Staff Officer at Purandhur, and told him where and when the bird built and asked him if he would kindly assist me in procuring the eggs. In reply I received a very polite letter saying 'that he knew nothing about eggs or birds himself, but that he would be most happy to offer me any assistance in his power in procuring the eggs referred to, and that he would employ a shikarri to keep the hill-side that I had mentioned watched when the breeding-season arrived.' I wrote and thanked him, sending him at the same time a drill and blowpipe by post, with full instructions how to blow the eggs, in case he got any; and to my delight, at the end of July a bhanghy parcel arrived one morning with the nest and eggs above described.

"Colonel Renny told me that the birds built on this cliff-side every monsoon."

Mr. E. Aitken has furnished me with the following note:--

"Of this bird I have seen two nests--one containing two hard-set eggs on April 29, 1872, situated in a hole in a tree overhanging a stream about 20 feet from the ground; the other containing three hard-set eggs on May 22nd, 1872, and situated on a ledge of rock in the bed of a stream; both the nests were rather coarsely made of roots. My brother says he has also found three other nests, two placed in holes of trees and the other on a rocky ledge, but the nests were in every case near to running water. The bird stays with us all the year, and is one of our commonest species. Its clear whistle is always to be heard the first thing in the morning before the other birds get up, and daring the violent rains of the S.W. monsoon it seems almost the only bird which does not lose heart at the incessant downpour. April and May appear to be the breeding months."

Messrs. Davidson and Wenden remark:--"Scattered all over the Deccan in suitable localities. W. got two nests, one on the Bhore Ghât on 5th August, and one on the Thull Ghât on 17th of same month. That on the Bhore Ghât was built on a ledge of rock some 15 feet _in_ from the face of a railway tunnel where 30 or 40 trains daily passed within a few feet of it. That on the Thull Ghât was in a cutting at the _entrance_ of a tunnel, and about the same height above and from the rails as the one on the Bhore Ghât. In both cases the eggs were much discoloured by the smoke from engines, but on being washed, W. observed that one of the three eggs in each nest was of a decidedly _greenish blue_, finely speckled and splashed with pinky brown, while the others were of the _pale salmon-pink_, as described in Mr. Hume's Rough Draft of 'Nests and Eggs.' The male bird was sitting on one of the nests and was shot. W. saw numerous other nests, some high up on cliffs, beyond the reach of a 15-foot ladder. Two nests in holes in trees were reported to him, but he could not go to examine them. The nests were about 4 inches diameter by 2½ inches deep inside and 8 to 10 inches broad outside, and not more than 10 inches high. The foundation portion contained a great deal of clay and earth, which seemed to be necessary to secure the nests in positions so exposed to the heavy gusts of wind which prevail on these ghâts during the monsoon."

Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says:--"I found the nest of this Thrush on the Seeghoor Ghaut of the Neilgherries. Mr. Davison was with me at the time; and the nest being built on an open ledge of rock, we both sighted it at the same moment; and I having managed to make better use of my legs than my friend, was fortunate enough to secure it, and one egg, which was of a pale flesh-colour, with a few faint spots and blotches of claret towards the larger end. The nest was made of leaves and moss mixed with clay, and lined with fine roots. The dimensions of the egg are 1·3 inch in length by ·85 in breadth. It was in May that I found this egg; but the nest had evidently been deserted for some time; for the egg has a hole in its side, through which the contents had escaped or been sucked by a snake or some animal."

Dr. Jerdon says:--"I once procured its nest, placed under a shelf of a rock on the Burliar stream, on the slope of the Nilghiris. It was a large structure of roots, mixed with earth, moss, &c., and contained three eggs of a pale salmon or reddish-fawn colour, with many smallish brown spots;" and such is unquestionably the usual situation of the nest.

The eggs of this species, which I have received from Kotagherry and other parts of the Nilghiris, are broad, nearly regular ovals, slightly compressed towards the lesser end; considerably elongated, and more or less spherical, and pyriform varieties occur. The shell is fine, and has a slight gloss; the ground-colour is pale salmon-pink or pinkish-white, occasionally greyish white. The whole egg is, as a rule, finely speckled, spotted, and splashed with pinkish brown or brownish pink. The markings, in most eggs, everywhere very fine, are often considerably more dense at the large end, where they are not unusually more or less underlaid by a pinkish cloud, with which they form an irregular ill-defined and inconspicuous cap.

At times more boldly and richly marked eggs are met with; one now before me is everywhere thickly streaked with dull pink, in places purplish, and over this is thinly but rather conspicuously spotted and irregularly blotched (the blotches being small however) with light burnt sienna-brown.

In length they vary from 1·18 to 1·48 inch, and in breadth from 0·92 to 1 inch.

191. Larvivora brunnea, Hodgs. _The Indian Blue Chat_.

Larvivora cyana, _Gould, Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 145; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 507.

I have never obtained the nest of the Indian Blue Chat. Mr. Davison found it on the Nilghiris. He says:--"I really quite forget the details of that one egg which I brought you along with the skin of the parent, but it was taken in May on the Nilghiris. I remember very well another nest of this species, which I took in the latter end of March or the beginning of April in a shola or detached piece of jungle about 9 miles from Ootacamund.

"The nest was in a hole in the trunk of a small tree, about 5 feet from the ground, and was composed chiefly of moss, but mixed with dry leaves and twigs. It contained three young birds, apparently about four or five days old."

The late Mr. Mandelli sent me a nest of this species which was found at Lebong (elevation 5500 feet) on the 16th May. It contained three eggs, and was placed on the ground amongst grass on a bank made by the cutting of a hill-road. It is a broad shallow nest, composed exteriorly of vegetable fibre, scraps of dead leaves and tiny pieces of moss matted closely together, and is rather thickly lined with black and red hairs, amongst which one or two soft downy feathers are incorporated. The external diameter of the nest is about 4 inches, the height about 1·5, the cavity is about 2·75 inches in diameter, and rather less than 1 in depth.

Two eggs taken by Mr. Darling[A] are very elongated, somewhat cylindrical ovals, very obtuse at both ends. In both, the shell is fine, and has an appreciable though not brilliant gloss. In one, the ground is a pale delicate clay-brown, and the markings consist only of a zone about 0·2 wide round the large end of densely set dull brownish-red specks, and a few similar specks inside the zone only. In the other, the ground has a light greenish tinge, the zone is less marked and merges in a dull brownish-red mottled cap, and a faint marbling, of a paler shade of the cap, is scattered here and there over the whole surface of the egg. They measure 1 by 0·65 and 0·98 by 0·65.

[Footnote A: I cannot find any account of the finding of the nest of this bird by Mr. Darling amongst Mr. Hume's notes.--Ed.]

The egg taken by Mr. Davison is an elongated, slightly pyriform oval. The shell is moderately fine, but with only a very slight gloss. The ground-colour is a pale slightly greyish green, and the whole egg is thickly (most thickly so about the large end, where the markings are almost perfectly confluent) mottled and streaked with pale brownish red. It measures 0·98 by 0·67.

193. Brachypteryx albiventris (Fairbank). _The White-bellied_ _Short-wing_.

Callene albiventris, _Fairb., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 339 bis.

The Rev. S.B. Fairbank, to whom I have, owed much useful information and many valuable specimens, kindly sent me the subjoined account of the nidification of the White-bellied Short-wing in the Pulney Hills at an elevation of about 6500 feet:--"In April, I found a nest in a hole in the side of the trunk of a large tree some 2 feet from the ground. The hole was just large enough for the nest, and was lined with fine roots. I surprised the bird on her nest several times. There were two eggs in the nest when I first found it that were 'hard-set'. A month afterwards she laid two more in the same place, and I took them in good condition. One egg measures 0·9 by 0·68 inch, and another 0·94 by 0·68 inch. The ground-colour is grey, with a tinge of green, and it is thickly covered with small spots of bistre."

Mr. Blanford, who saw the eggs, which I never did, describes them (and by analogy, I should infer more correctly) as "of an olive-brown colour, darker at the larger end, measuring 0·93 by 0·63 inch."

An egg of this species sent me by Dr. Fairbank, measuring 0·93 by 0·66, is a somewhat elongated oval, slightly pointed towards the small end. The shell is fine and fairly glossy; the ground-colour, so far as this is discernible, is greyish green, but it is so thickly clouded and mottled all over with a warm, brown, that but little of the ground-colour is any where traceable, and the general result when the egg is looked at from a short distance is that of a nearly uniform olive-brown.

Captain Horace Terry also found the nest of this bird on the Pulney Hills. He says:--"I met with it a few times in the big _shola_ at Kodikanal, and got two nests, each with two fresh eggs; the first on the 7th June in a hole in a tree between 4 and 5 feet from the ground, a deep cup of green moss; the other, in a hole in the bank of a path running through the _shola_ was of green moss and a few fine fern-roots. Inside 1·75 inch deep and 2·5 inches across; outside a shapeless mass of moss filling up the hole it was built in. The nest was very conspicuous to any one passing by."

194. Brachypteryx rufiventris (Blyth). _The Rufous-bellied Short-wing_.

Callene rufiventris, _Blyth. Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 496: _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 339.