Chapter 21

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 Jerdon and others. I possess at present only three eggs of this bird, which I owe to Captain Hutton. They are decidedly long ovals, much pointed towards the small end, and in shape and coloration not a little recall those of _Myiophoneus temmincki_. The eggs are glossless, of a greenish or greyish-white ground, more or less profusely speckled and spotted with red, reddish brown, and dingy purple. In two of the eggs the majority of the markings are gathered into a broad irregular speckled zone round the large end. In the third egg there is just a trace of such a zone and no markings at all elsewhere. In length they vary from 1·03 to 1·08, and in breadth from 0·68 to 0·74.[A]

[Footnote A: HYPOCOLIUS AMPELINUS, Bonap. _The Grey Hypocolius_. Hypocolius ampelinus, _Bp., Hume, cat._ no. 269 quat.

Although this bird has not yet been found breeding within Indian limits, the following account of its nidification at Fao, in the Persian Gulf, by Mr. W.D. Cumming (Ibis, 1886. p. 478) will prove interesting:--

"It is not till the middle of June that they breed.

"In 1883, first eggs were brought by an Arab about the 13th of June, and on the 15th of the same month I found a nest containing two fresh eggs. In 1884, on the 14th of June a nest was brought me containing four fresh eggs, and on the 15th I found a nest containing also four fresh eggs.

"2nd July, I came across four young birds able to fly. On the 3rd, three nests were brought, one containing two fresh eggs, another three young just fledged, and the other four eggs slightly incubated. On the 9th, another nest, containing four young just fledged was brought. On the 15th I saw a flock of small birds well able to fly; on the 18th I found a nest containing four young about a couple of days old, and on the 20th a nest containing three eggs well incubated was brought from a place called 'Goosba' on the opposite bank (Persian side) of the river.

"The nests are generally placed on the leaves of the date-palm, at no very great height. The highest I have seen was built about ten feet from the ground but from three to five feet is the average height.

"They are substantial and cup-shaped, having a diameter of about 3¼ inches by 2¼ inches in depth, lined inside with fine grass, the soft fluff from the willow when in seed, wool, and sometimes hair.

"The eggs are of a glossy leaden white, with leaden-coloured blotches and spots towards the larger end, sometimes forming a ring round the larger end and at times spreading over the entire egg. On rare occasions I have noticed a greenish tinge in very fresh eggs. This, I think, is due to the colour of the inner membrane, which is generally a very light green, in some very faint and in others more decided; this tinge seems to disappear after the egg is blown.

"Very rough measurements are as follows:--0·9 x 0·63; 0·83 x 0·63; 0·83 x 0·6; 0·83 x 0·66; 0·86 x 0·66."]

Subfamily BRACHYPODINAE.

263. Criniger flaveolus (Gould). _The White-throated Bulbul_.

Criniger flaveolus (_Gould), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 83; _Hume. Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 451.

A nest of this species sent me from Darjeeling was found in July, at an elevation of about 3000 feet.

It was placed on the branches of a medium-sized tree, at a height of only about 5 feet from the ground.

The nest was a compact, rather shallow saucer, 5·5 inches in diameter and about 2 inches in height externally. The cavity was about 3·5 in diameter and an inch in depth. The greater portion of the nest was composed of dead leaves bound together firmly by fine brown roots; inside the leaves was just a lining of rather coarser brown roots, and again an inner lining of black horsehair-like roots and fine steins of the maiden-hair fern.

The nest contained three fresh eggs. These eggs vary from broad to somewhat elongated ovals, are more or less pointed towards the small end, and exhibit a fine gloss.

The ground is a beautiful salmon-pink, and it is thinly spotted, blotched, and marked with irregular lines of deep maroon-red. Most of the markings in one egg are gathered into a very irregular straggling zone round the large end, and the other egg exhibits a tendency to form a similar zone. Besides these primary markings a few spots and clouds of dull purple, looking as if beneath the surface of the shell, are thinly scattered about the egg, chiefly in the neighbourhood of the zone.

These eggs vary from 0·9 to 1·0 in length, and from 0·7 to 0·72 in breadth.

Several nests of this species sent me by the late Mr. Mandelli and obtained by him in British and Native Sikhim during July and the early part of August are all precisely of the same type. They each contained two fresh eggs; they were all placed in the branches of small trees in the midst of dense brushwood or heavy jungle, at heights of from 4 to 10 feet from the ground. The nests are broad and saucer-like, nearly 5 inches in diameter, but not much above 2 in height externally; the cavities average about 3·25 in diameter and about 1 in depth. The body of the nest is composed of dead leaves, the sides are more or less felted round with rich brown fibrous, almost wool-like roots; inside the leaves fine twigs and stems of herbaceous plants, all of a uniform brown tint, are wound round and round, apparently to keep the leaves in their places interiorly, and then the cavity is lined with jet-black horsehair-like vegetable fibres. What these are I do not know, but they are precisely like horsehair to look at, only they are comparatively brittle. The contrast of colour between the jet-black lining and the rich brown of the lip of the saucer, which is constant in all the nests, is very striking.

The eggs of this species sent me by Mr. Mandelli, obtained by him in Sikhim at elevations of from 2000 to 4000 feet in July and the early part of August, possess a very distinctive character. They are broad ovals, much pointed towards the small end, and they are more glossy than the eggs of any other of this family with which I am acquainted. The ground-colour is pink. The markings consist of curious hair-line scratches, clouded blotches, and irregular spots--in some eggs all very hazy and ill-defined, in others more scratchy and sharp. The great majority of the markings seem to be gathered together into an irregular and imperfect zone round the large end. In colour the markings vary from a deep brownish maroon to a dull brickdust-red, sometimes they are slightly more purplish. In some eggs a few faint clouds or small spots of subsurface-looking dusky purple may be noticed mingled with the rest of the markings.

These eggs are totally unlike the eggs of _Criniger ictericus_. I have never had an opportunity of verifying the eggs myself, but as three different nests have now been taken, all containing precisely similar eggs, I believe there can be no doubt of their authenticity.

269. Hypsipetes psaroides, Vigors. _The Himalayan Black Bulbul_.

Hypsipetes psaroides (_Vig.), Jerd. B. Ind_ ii, p. 77; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 444.

The Himalayan Black Bulbul breeds throughout the outer and lower ranges of the Himalayas, at any rate from Bhootan to Afghanistan, at elevations varying from 2000 to 6000 feet.

They lay mostly in May and June, but eggs may occasionally be met with during the latter half of April.

The nest of _Hypsipetes psaroides_ is usually made of rather coarse-bladed grass, with exteriorly a number of dry leaves, and more or less moss incorporated, and lined with very fine grass-stems and roots of moss. A good deal of spider's web is often used exteriorly to bind the nest together, or attach it more firmly to the fork in which it rests. Its general shape is a moderately deep cup, the cavity measuring some 2½ inches in diameter by 1½ inch in depth. The sides, into which leaves and moss are freely interwoven, vary from an inch to a couple of inches in thickness. The bottom, loosely put together, is rarely more than from a quarter to half an inch in depth. It appears to be generally placed on the fork of a branch, at a moderate height from the ground.

Four is the normal number of eggs, but I have more than once found three partially incubated eggs in a nest.

From Darjeeling Mr. Gammie remarks:--"A nest of this bird, which I took on the 17th June, at a height of nearly 50 feet from the ground, on one of the topmost branches of a tree, contained three hard-set eggs. This was below Rungbee, at an elevation of about 3000 feet. The nest was a compact, moderately deep cup, composed of very fine twigs and stems, and with a quantity of dead leaves incorporated in the structure, especially towards its lower surface; it had no lining, but the stems used towards the interior of the nest were somewhat finer than the rest. Exteriorly the nest had a diameter of about 4·5 inches, and a height of about 2·5; interiorly a diameter of about 2·5, and a depth of nearly 1·5."

Mr. Hodgson, writing from Nepal, says:--

"_May 20th, Jaha Powah_.--Two nests on the skirts of the forest in medium-sized trees, placed on the fork of a branch. They are made of moss and dry fern and dry elastic twig-tops, and lined with long elastic needles of _Pinus longifolia_. They are compact and rather deep, half pensile, that is to say, partly slung between the branches of the fork to which they are attached by bands of vegetable fibres. Each contained four eggs, pinkish-white, thickly spotted with dark sanguine." Another year he wrote:--

"_May 9th, in the Valley_.--A mature female with nest and eggs. Nest saucer-shaped, the cavity 3·5 wide by 2·5 deep, made of slender twigs and grass-fibres, with no lining. Eggs three, pale pink, blotched all over with sanguine brown."

Writing from Almorah, Mr. Brooks tells us that "the nest and eggs were found by Mr. Horne on the 27th May near Bheem Tal."

Colonel G.F.L. Marshall also found a nest in the same place. He says:--"I have only myself found the nest once at Bheem Tal (4000 feet); it was situated in a thicket. The nest of this species is similar in shape but much more substantial than those of the Common Bulbul. The eggs are much larger and more elongated in shape, but the colouring is similar to those of the Bulbul, and in many cases the blotches have a tendency to form a zone near the thick end. The nest I found was taken on the 10th June and contained fresh eggs.

"On the 30th May, 1875, I found a nest of this species at Naini Tal on Ayarpata, over 7000 feet above the sea. I record the circumstance, as their breeding at so great an elevation is exceptional. The nest contained three fresh eggs; it was made of leaves and moss, lined with bents of grass, between two branches but partially resting on a third, in a bush at the outskirts of a forest on a steep bank and about eight feet from the ground."

From Mussoorie, Captain Hutton recorded the following very full and interesting note:--

"They breed during April, May, and June, making a rather neat cup-shaped nest, which is usually placed in the bifurcation of a horizontal branch of some tall tree; the bottom of it is composed of thin dead leaves and dried grasses, and the sides of fine woody stalks of plants, such as those used by the White-cheeked Bulbul, and they are well plastered over externally with spiders' webs; the lining is sometimes of very fine tendrils, at other times of dry grasses, fibrous lichen, and thin shavings of the bark of trees left by the wood-cutters. I have one nest, however, which is externally formed of green moss with a few dry stalks, and the spiders' webs, instead of being plastered all over the outside, are merely used to bind the nest to the small branches among which it is placed. The lining is of bark-shavings, dry grasses, black fibrous lichens, and a few fine seed-stalks of grasses. The internal diameter of the nest is 2¾ inches, and it is 1½ inches deep. The eggs are usually three in number, of a rosy or purplish white, sprinkled over rather numerously with deep claret or rufescent purple specks and spots. In colours and distribution of spots there is great variation, sometimes the rufous and sometimes the purple spots prevailing; sometimes the spots are mere specks and freckles, sometimes large and forming blotches; in some the spots are wide apart, in others they are nearly, and sometimes in places quite, confluent; while from one nest the eggs were white, with widely dispersed dark purple spots and dull indistinct ones appearing under the shell. In all the spots were more crowded at the larger end."

Colonel C.H.T. Marshall remarks:--"Numerous nests of this species were found at Murree, agreeing well with Hutton's description. They breed in May and June, never above 6000 feet."

The eggs are rather long ovals. Typically a good deal pointed towards the small end, and more or less pyriform, but at times nearly perfect ovals. They have little or no gloss. The ground-colour varies from white, very faintly tinged with pink, to a delicate pink, and they are profusely speckled, spotted, blotched, or clouded with various shades of red, brownish red, and purple. The markings vary much in character, extent, and intensity of colour. There seem to be two leading types, with, however, almost every possible intermediate variety of markings. The one is thickly speckled over its whole surface with minute dots of reddish purple, no dot much bigger than the point of a pin, and no portion of the ground-colour exceeding 0·1 in diameter free from spots. In these eggs the specklings are most dense, as a rule, throughout a broad irregular zone surrounding the large end, and this zone is thickly underlaid with irregular ill-defined streaky clouds of dull inky purple. In some eggs of this type, the smaller end is comparatively free from specks. In the other type, the surface of the egg is somewhat sparingly, but boldly, blotched and splashed, first with deep umber, chocolate, or purple-brown, and, secondly, with spots and clouds of faint inky purple, recalling not a little the style of markings of the eggs of _Rhynchops albicollis_. Then there are eggs partly speckly and partly blotched, some in which the markings are all rich red and where no secondary pale purple clouds are observable, and others again in which all the markings are dull purplish brown. Generally it may be said that the markings have a tendency to form a cap or zone at the large end.

A nest of three eggs recently obtained from Mussoorie were more richly coloured than any I have yet seen, and were decidedly glossy. The ground-colour is a rich rosy pink, boldly, but sparingly, blotched and spotted with deep maroon, underlaid by clouds and spots of pale purple, which appear as if beneath the surface of the shell. In all the eggs the markings are far more numerous at the large end, where in one they form a huge confluent maroon-coloured patch, mottled lighter and darker.

An egg recently obtained in Cashmere on the 20th June was a somewhat elongated oval, more or less compressed towards one end; a delicate glossy white ground with a faint pink tinge; a rich zone of reddish-purple spots and specks round the large end; a few similar markings scattered sparingly over the rest of the surface of the egg, and a multitude of very faint streaks and clouds of very _pale_ inky purple underlying the primary markings.

In length the eggs vary from 0·9 to 1·15, and in breadth from 0·7 to 0·78; but the average of twenty-five eggs measured is 1·03 by 0·75.

271. Hypsipetes ganeesa, Sykes. _The Southern-Indian Black Bulbul_.

Hypsipetes neilgherriensis, _Jerd._; _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 78; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 445. Hypsipetes ganeesa, _Sykes, Jerd. t.c._ p. 78.

Mr. Davison tells me that "this species breeds from April to about the middle of June. The nest is generally placed from 12 to 20 feet from the ground, in some dense clump of leaves; favourite sites are the bunches of parasitic plants with which nearly every acacia, and in fact nearly every other tree about Ootacamund, is covered. The nest is composed exteriorly of moss, dry leaves, and roots, lined with roots and fibres: the normal number of eggs is two; they are white with claret-coloured and purplish spots."

A nest of this species taken at Coonoor on the 14th March, 1869, by Mr. Carter, to whom I owe this and many other nests from the Nilghiris, reminds one much of those of the Red-cheeked Bulbuls. A wisp of dry grass and dead leaves, with the dead leaves greatly predominating exteriorly, twisted into a shallow cup, some 4½ inches in diameter externally, and with a shallow depression tolerably neatly lined with finer grass-stems measuring some 3 inches across and perhaps an inch in depth. The bottom of the nest is almost exclusively composed of dead leaves; while even in the sides, externally, little but these are visible, only a few grass-stems crossing in and out, here and there, sufficiently to keep the leaves in their places.

Mr. Wait remarks, writing from Coonoor:--"Our Black Bulbul breeds from March to June. It builds a cup-shaped nest neatly and firmly made. Outside, the nest is chiefly composed, as a rule, of green moss, grass-stalks, and fibres, while inside it is lined with fine stalks and hair. The cavity is from 2·5 to 3 inches in diameter and about half that depth. Two is certainly the normal number of eggs; indeed, I have never found more."

Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says in 'The Ibis':--"It breeds in lofty trees in the Nilghiris, building a shallow cup-shaped nest, from 20 to 60 feet from the ground. The nest is constructed of the dried stems of the wild forget-me-not, and lined with a moss much resembling black horsehair. The eggs, which are two in number, are pretty thickly spotted with pale lilac and claret on a light pink ground-colour. I found these birds migrating in vast flights, numbering several thousands, in the Bolumputty valley in July. They were flying westwards towards Malabar."

Mr. Darling, Junior, writes:--"I have taken the eggs of this Black Bulbul every year from 1863 to 1870 during March, April, May, and part of June, all over the Nilghiris. The nests were all made of moss, dry leaves, and roots, lined with roots and fibres. I have only once found three eggs (the normal number being two): in this case the eggs are very much smaller than usual, and more blotched with the reddish spots. I have found them at all heights from the ground up to 30 feet, and mostly in rhododendron trees. I found two nests in S. Wynaad, at an elevation of about 4000 feet, both with young, in June 1873."

Mr. C.J.W. Taylor informs us that he procured the nest of this bird with three fresh eggs at Manzeerabad in Mysore on the 7th April.

Colonel Legge tells us that this Bulbul breeds in Ceylon from January till March.

That the Nilghiris bird should lay usually only _two_ eggs, and this seems a well ascertained fact, while our very closely allied Himalayan form lays, as I can personally certify, regularly _four_, is certainly very strange.

The eggs of this species, sent me from the Nilghiris by Messrs. Carter and Davison, very closely resemble those of _H. psaroides_ from the Himalayas. The eggs are of course of the Bulbul type, but in form are typically much more elongated and conical than the true Bulbuls. The ground-colour varies from white to a delicate pink. The markings consist of different shades of deep red and pale washed-out purple. In some the markings are bold, large, and blotchy, in others minute and speckly; and in both forms there is a tendency to confluence towards the large end, where there is commonly a more or less perfect, but irregular, zone. The eggs though smooth and satiny have commonly little or no gloss, and, considering their size, are very delicate and fragile.

In length they vary from 1·0 to 1·17, and in breadth from 0·7 to 0·8.

275. Hemixus macclellandi (Horsf.). _The Rufous-bellied Bulbul_.

Hypsipetes mclellandi, _Horsf., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 79. Hypsipetes m'clellandii, _Horsf., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 447.

The Rufous-bellied Bulbul, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, breeds in the central region of Nepal, and low down nearly to the Terai, from April to June. Its nest is a shallow saucer suspended between a slender horizontal fork, to the twigs of which it is firmly bound like an Oriole's with vegetable fibres and roots. It is composed of roots and dry leaves bound together with fibres, and lined with fine grass or moss-roots. The bird is said to lay four eggs, but these are neither figured nor described.

Dr. Scully writes from Nepal:--"This Bulbul is common throughout the year on the hills round the valley of Nepal, but never tenants the central woods. It is generally found in bushes and bush trees, not in high tree-forest; and is commonly seen in pairs. The breeding-season appears to be May and June. A nest was taken on the 6th June, which contained two fresh eggs. The nest was somewhat oval in shape, measuring 3·35 inches in length and 2·5 across; the egg-cavity was about 1 inch deep in the centre, and the bottom of the nest 1·25 thick. It was attached to a slender fork of a tree, and was composed externally of ferns, dry leaves, roots, grass, and a little moss, bound together with fine black hair-like fibres, which were wound round the prongs of the fork so as regularly to suspend the nest like an Oriole's. There was a regular lining, distinct from the body of the nest, composed of fine long yellowish grass-stems, and a little cobweb was spread here and there over the branches of the fork and the outside of the nest. The eggs are rather long ovals, smaller at one end, and fairly glossy; they measure 1·0 by 0·7, and 0·97 by 0·7. The ground-colour is pure pinkish white, abundantly speckled and finely spotted with reddish purple; the spots closely crowded together at the large end, but not confluent, forming in one egg a broadish zone, and in the other a cap; in the latter egg there are a few faint underlying stains of purplish inky at the large end."

Two eggs sent me by Mr. Mandelli from Darjeeling, said to belong to this species, are elongated ovals, much pointed towards the small end. The shell is fine and fairly glossy; the ground-colour a dull salmon-pink, and they are profusely and minutely freckled, speckled, and streaked (so densely at the large end that the markings there are almost confluent) with dull reddish purple.

The eggs measure 1·06 and 1·11 by 0·67.

277. Alcurus striatus (Bl.). _The Striated Green Bulbul_.

Alcurus striatus (_Bl._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 81.

Mr. Mandelli sent me a nest of this species which was found, he said, on the 8th May about 4 feet from the ground amongst the foliage of a kind of prickly bamboo growing out of the crevices of a patch of large stones near Lebong (elevation 5000 feet), and contained two eggs nearly ready to hatch. The nest is a shallow cup, about 3·75 inches in diameter and 1·5 in height externally, composed entirely of fine brown fibrous roots, a little bound together outside with wool and the silk of cocoons and with two or three little bits of moss stuck about it, and sparingly lined with hair-like grass. It is altogether a light brown nest, no dark material being used in it at all. The cavity is 2·75 inches in diameter and about 1 deep.

278. Molpastes haemorrhous (Gm.). _The Madras Red-vented Bulbul_.

Pycnonotus haemorrhous (_Gm._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 94. Molpastes pusillus (_Bl._), _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 462.