Chapter 28

"_Kakencotte State Forest, Mysore District_.--I send you six eggs, specimens from three different nests.

"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 birds. I could not distinctly see how many. The nest was fixed towards the end of a branch of a tree, at a considerable height from the ground, and was almost impossible to get at. Had there been eggs in it I could not have taken them.

"The breeding-season I should say was from the beginning of April to the end of May.

"Three nests, each containing three eggs, were brought to me this season on the 10th and 26th April, and 9th May, 1880, by Cooroobahs (the jungle-tribes in these forests); and although the eggs in each nest vary considerably from one another, there is no doubt in my mind that the eggs belong to one and the same species of bird.

"It is a bird so well known in these forests that it would be impossible to mistake it for any other.

"In one case only was the nest brought to me, and this, which unfortunately I did not keep, was loosely made of twigs and roots."

Professor H. Littledale, quoting Mr. J. Davidson, informs us that this species breeds in the east of Godhra, and therefore probably throughout the Panch Mehals.

Mr. J. Inglis, writing from Cachar, says:--"The Bhimraj is very common, frequenting thick jungle; it often goes in company with other birds, which it mimics to perfection. It lays about four eggs in a shallow nest made of grass similar to the above; it is very easily tamed. The hill-tribes use the long tail-feathers for ornamenting their head-dresses."

Mr. Oates writes from Pegu:--"I have taken the eggs of this species on all dates, from the 30th April to the 16th June.

"The nest is placed in forks of the outer branches of trees at all heights from 20 to 70 feet, and in all cases they are very difficult to take without breaking the eggs.

"The nest is a cradle, and the whole of it lies below the fork to which it is attached. It is made entirely of small branches of weeds and creepers, finer as they approach the interior. The egg-cup is generally, but not always, lined with dry grass.

"The outside dimensions are 6 inches in diameter and 3 deep. The interior measures 4 inches by 2. In one nest the sides are bound to the fork by cotton thread in addition to the usual weeds and creepers.

"The eggs have very little or no gloss, and differ among themselves a good deal in colour. In one clutch the ground-colour is white, spotted and blotched, not very thickly, with neutral tint and inky purple, chiefly at the larger end. Other eggs are pinkish salmon, and the shell is more or less thickly or thinly covered with pale greyish purple or neutral tint, and brownish-yellow or orangebrown spots and dashes.

"They vary in size from 1·2 to 1·06 in length, and ·85 to ·8 in breadth."

Major C.T. Bingham has the following note:--"About five miles below the large village of Meplay, in the district of that name, the main stream of the Meplay river is joined by a tributary, the Theedoquee. On the 4th April I was wading across the mouth of the latter, when my attention was attracted by seeing a pair of the above birds dart from a small tree growing at the very point of the fork where the streams met, and sweep down at my dog, not actually striking him, but nearly doing so. Of course, I made for the tree, and sure enough there, about 15 feet from the ground, in a fork, was a large mass of twigs, above which was placed a neatly made cup-shaped nest, lined with fine black roots, and containing three fresh eggs, densely spotted, chiefly at the larger end, with yellowish brown and sepia, on a ground-colour of dull greenish white. The whole time the peon I had sent up was climbing up and getting the nest, the two birds kept sweeping round and round with harsh cries. I secured them both for the identification of the eggs."

The eggs of this species are typically rather long ovals, generally a good deal pointed towards the small end. They are dull eggs, and never seem to have any perceptible gloss. The ground-colour varies from white to a rich warm pink. The markings are of all sizes and shapes, from large blotches to the tiniest specks, and they vary in every egg, being thickly set in some, thinly in others, but as a rule the largest and most conspicuous markings are about the large end. Again, in colour the markings vary very much: they are red, purplish red, reddish brown, pale purple, and inky grey; generally the eggs exhibit both coloured markings reddish and lilac, but sometimes the white-grounded eggs have only these latter. Some of the pink eggs are strikingly handsome, and remind one of those of some of the Bulbuls. Others are dull eggs with only a few irregular grey clouds about the large end, thinly interspersed with brownish-red spots, usually darker about the centre, and elsewhere excessively minutely and thinly speckled with spots too small to render it possible to say what colour they are.

An egg I received from Darjeeling measures 1·1 by 0·87; others received from Mynall from Mr. Bourdillon, and the Kakencotte Forest, Mysore, from Mr. I. Macpherson, vary in length from 1·16 to 1·1, and in breadth from 0·84 to 0·75. Three eggs, taken in Pegu by Mr. Oates, measure from 1·1 to 1·05 in length, by 0·83 to 0·81 in breadth, and are smaller than those the dimensions of which he himself records above.

Family CERTHIIDAE.

341. Certhia himalayana, Vigors. _The Himalayan Tree-Creeper_.

Certliia himalayana, _Vig., Jerd B. Ind._ i, p, 380; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 243.

Writing from Murree of the Himalayan Tree-Creeper, Colonel C.H.T. Marshall says:--"This is a most difficult nest to find, as the little bird always chooses crevices where the bark has been broken or bulged out, some 40 or 50 feet from the ground, and generally on tall oak-trees which have no branches within 40 feet of their roots. There were young in the few nests we found. Captain Cock secured the eggs in Kashmir; they are very small, being only 0·6 by 0·45; the ground is white, with numerous red spots. The nests we found were in the highest part of Murree, about 7200 feet."

Two eggs of this species which I possess measure 0·69 and 0·68 respectively in length, by 0·5 in breadth.

342. Certhia hodgsoni, Brooks. _Hodgson's Tree-Creeper_.

Certhia hodgsoni, _Brooks, Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 243 bis.

Hodgson's Tree-Creeper is the supposed _C. familiaris_ obtained by Dr. Jerdon in Cashmir, of which he gave me two specimens.

Mr. Brooks says:--"It was seen at Gulmurg and also at Sonamurg, where Captain Cock took a few nests. The egg is much more densely spotted than that of the English Creeper, so as almost to hide the reddish-white ground-colour. Size 0·59 to 0·65 inch long by 0·48 inch broad; time of laying, the _first_ week in June."

The egg is of smooth texture, without gloss, of a purplish-white ground-colour, and fully spotted all over with light brownish red, especially at the larger end. Numerous spots of reddish grey or pale inky purple are intermingled with red ones.

In shape the egg varies from a somewhat elongated oval, more or less compressed towards the smaller end, to a comparatively broad oval, also slightly compressed towards the latter end. In all the eggs that I have seen, the markings were more or less confluent towards the large end. Their dimensions are correctly recorded by Mr. Brooks.

347. Salpornis spilonota (Frankl.). _The Spotted-Grey Creeper_.

Salpornis spilonota (_Frankl.), Jerd. B.I._ i, p. 382.

Mr. Cleveland found a nest of this species at Hattin, in the Gurgaon district, on the 16th April. The nest was placed on a large ber-tree in a patch of preserved jungle, at a height of about 10 feet from the ground. It was cup-shaped, placed on the upper surface of a horizontal bough at the angle formed between this and a vertical shoot, to which it was attached on one side, the other three sides being free. The nest itself is unlike any other that I have seen. It is composed entirely of bits of leaf-stalks, tiny bits of leaves, chips of bark, the dung of caterpillars, all cemented together everywhere with cobwebs, so that the whole nest is a firm but yet soft and elastic mass. The nest is cup-shaped, but oval and not circular; its exterior diameters are 4 and 3 inches respectively; its greatest height 2 inches; the cavity measures 2·6 by 2·2, and 1·1 in depth.

The texture of the nest, as I have already said, is extremely peculiar; it is extremely strong, and though pulled off the bough on which it rested and the off-shoot to which it was attached, is as perfect apparently as the day it was found, bearing on the lower surface an exact cast of the inequalities of the bark on which it rested; but it is soft, yielding, and flabby in the hand, almost as much so as if it was jelly. The nest contained two almost full-grown nestlings and one addled egg.

This egg is a very regular oval, slightly broader at one end, the shell fine and fairly glossy; the ground-colour is pale greenish white; round the large end there is an irregular imperfect zone of blackish-brown specks and tiny spots, and round about these is more or less of a brown nimbus, and over the rest of the egg a very few specks and spots of blackish, dusky, and pale brown are scattered. It measures 0·68 by 0·53.

Another nest was found about 15 feet up a tree. It was partly seated on and partly wedged in between the fork of two thick oblique branches, to the rough bark of which the bottom only was firmly cemented with cobwebs, the sides, as in the case of the first nest, being quite free and detached from its surroundings. As regards dimensions and composition, the latter nest was an exact counterpart of that first taken. It contained two partially fledged nestlings.

352. Anorthura neglecta (Brooks). _The Cashmir Wren_.

Troglodytes neglecta, _Brooks, Hume, cat._ no. 333 bis. Troglodytes nipalensis, _Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 333.

The Cashmir Wren breeds in Cashmir in May and June at elevations of from 6000 to nearly 10,000 feet. I have never seen the nest, though I possess eggs taken by Captain Cock and Mr. Brooks in Cashmir. The latter says:--"Only two nests of this bird were found (both at Gulmurg), one having four eggs and the other three. In the latter case the full number was not laid, as the nest, when first found, was empty; on three successive mornings an egg was laid and then they were taken.

"In shape they vary as much as do those of the English Wren, and like them they are white, sometimes minutely freckled with pale red and purple-grey specks, which are principally confined to the large end, with a tendency to form a zone. Other eggs are plain white, without the slightest sign of a spot; but these, I think, must be the exception, for the egg of the English Wren is usually spotted. The egg has very little gloss, and the ground-colour is pure white."

The eggs are very large for the size of the bird. There appear to be two types. The one somewhat elongated ovals, slightly compressed towards the lesser end; the others broad short ovals, decidedly pointed at one end. Some eggs are perfectly pure unspotted white; others have a dull white ground, with a faint zone of minute specks of brownish red and tiny spots of greyish purple towards the large end, and a very few markings of a similar character scattered about the rest of the surface. All the eggs of the latter type vary in the amount and size of markings; these latter are always sparse and very minute. The pure white eggs appear to be less common. The eggs have always a slight gloss, the pure white ones at times a very decided, though never at all a brilliant gloss.

In length they vary from 0·61 to 0·7 inch, and in breadth from 0·5 to 0·52 inch.

Mr. Brooks subsequently wrote:--"The Cashmir Wren is not uncommon in the pine-woods of Cashmir, and in habits and manners resembles its European congener. Its song is very similar and quite as pretty. It is a shy, active little bird, and very difficult to shoot. I found two nests. One was placed in the roots of a large upturned pine, and was globular with entrance at the side. It was profusely lined with feathers and composed of moss and fibres. The eggs were white, sparingly and minutely spotted with red, rather oval in shape; measuring 0·66 by 0·5. A second nest was placed in the thick foliage of a moss-grown fir-tree, and was about 7 feet above the ground. It was similarly composed to the other nest, but the eggs were rounder and plain white, without any spots."

355. Urocichla caudata (Blyth). _The Tailed Wren_.

Pnoepyga caudata (_Blyth), Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 490; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 331.

The Tailed Wren, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, lays in April and May, building a deep cup-shaped nest about the roots of trees or in a hole of fallen timber; the nest is a dense mass of moss and moss-roots, lined with the latter. One measured was 3·5 inches in diameter and 3 in height; internally, the cavity was 1·6 inch, in diameter and about 1 inch deep. They lay four or five spotless whitish eggs, which are figured as broad ovals, rather pointed towards one end, and measuring 0·75 by 0·54 inch.

356. Pnoepyga albiventris (Hodgs.). _The Scaly-breasted Wren_.

Pnoepyga squamata (_Gould), Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 488.

From Sikhim, Mr. Gammie writes:--"I found two nests of the Scaly-breasted Wren this year within a few yards of each other. They were in a small moist ravine in the Rishap forest, at 5000 feet above sea-level. One was deserted before being quite finished, and the other was taken a few days after three eggs had been laid. The two nests were alike, and both were built among the moss growing on the trunks of large trees, within a yard of the ground. The only carried material was very fine roots, which were firmly interwoven, and the ends worked in with the natural moss. These fine roots were worked into the shape of a half-egg, cut lengthways, and placed with its open side against the trunk, which thus formed one side of the nest. Near the top one side was not quite close to the trunk, and by this irregular opening the bird entered. Internally the nest measured 3 inches deep by 2 in width. I killed the female off the eggs; she had eaten a caterpillar, spiders, and other insects."

Mr. Mandelli found a nest of this species at Pattabong, elevation 5000 feet, near Darjeeling, on the 19th May, containing three fresh eggs. The nest was placed amongst some small bushes projecting out of a crevice of a rock about three feet from the ground. It was completely sheltered above, but was not hooded or domed; it was, for the size of the bird, a rather large cup, composed of green moss rather closely felted together and lined with fine blackish-brown roots. The cavity measured about 2 inches in diameter and 1 in depth.

The eggs of this species seem large for the size of the bird; they are rather broad at the large end, considerably pointed towards the small end. They are pure white, almost entirely devoid of gloss, and with very delicate and fragile shells.

The eggs varied from in 0·72 to 0·78 in length, and from 0·54 to 0·57 in breadth.

Family REGULIDAE.

358. Regulus cristatus, Koch. _The Golderest_.

Regulus himalayensis, _Blyth, Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 206; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 580.

All I know of the nidification of this species is that Sir E.C. Buck, C.S., found a nest at Rogee, in the Sutlej Valley, on the 8th June, on the end of a deodar branch 8 feet from the ground and partly suspended. It contained seven young birds fully fledged; no crest or signs of a crest were observable in the young. Both the parent birds and the nest were kindly sent to me.

The nest is a deep pouch suspended from several twigs, with the entrance at the top, and composed entirely of fine lichens woven or intervened into a thick, soft, flexible tissue of from three eighths to half an inch in thickness. Externally the nest was about 3½ to 4 inches in depth, and about 3 inches in diameter.

Family SYLVIIDAE.

363. Acrocephalus stentoreus (H. & E.). _The Indian Great Reed-Warbler_.

Acrocephalus brunnescens (_Jerd.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 154. Calamodyta stentorea (_H. & E.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 515.

Both Mr. Brooks and Captain Cock succeeded in securing the nests and eggs of the Indian Great Reed-Warbler in Cashmere. Common as it is, my own collectors failed to get eggs, though they brought plenty of nests.

The nest is a very deep massive cup hung to the sides of reeds. A nest before me, taken in Cashmere on the 10th June, is an inverted and slightly truncated cone. Externally it has a diameter of 3¼ inches and a depth of nearly 6 inches. It is massive, but by no means neat; composed of coarse water-grass, mingled with a few dead leaves and fibrous roots of water-plants. The egg-cavity is lined with finer and more compactly woven grass, and measures about 1¾ inch in diameter and 2¼ inches in depth.

It breeds in May and June; at the beginning of July all the nests either contained young or were empty. Four is the full complement of eggs.

Mr. Brooks noted _in epist._:--"_Srinuggur, 10th June_. I went out early this morning on the lake here to look for eggs of _Acrocephalus stentoreus_, but it came on to rain so heavily that I only partially succeeded. I took three nests, two with three eggs each, and one with four young ones, the latter half-hatched. The eggs very much resemble large and boldly-marked Sparrows' eggs. They are smaller than the eggs of _A. arundinaceus_, but very similar. The latter have larger clear spaces without spots than those of our bird. I neither saw nor heard any other aquatic warbler."

Later, in a paper on the eggs and nests he had obtained in Cashmere, he stated that this species "breeds abundantly in the Cashmere lakes. The nest is supported, about 18 inches above the water, by three or four reeds, and is a deep cup composed of grasses and fibres. The eggs are four, very like those of _A. arundinaceus_, but the markings are more plentiful and smaller."

Captain Cock writes to me that "the Large Reed-Warbler is very common in the reeds that fringe all the lakes in Cashmere. It breeds in June, builds a largish nest of dry sedge, woven round five or six reeds, of a deep cup form, which it places about 2 feet above the water. It lays four or five eggs, rather blunt ovals, equally blunt at both ends, blotched with olive and dusky grey on a dirty-white ground."

Mr. S.B. Doig, who found this bird breeding in the Eastern Narra in Sind, writes:--"On the 4th August, while my man was poling along in a canoe in a large swamp on the lookout for eggs, he passed a small bunch of reeds and in them spotted a nest with a bird on it. The nest contained three beautiful fresh eggs. A few days later I joined him, and on asking about these eggs he described the bird and said he had found several other nests of the same species, but all of them contained young ones nearly fledged. I made him show me some of these nests, all of which were situated in clumps of reed, in the middle of the swamp, and in these same reeds I found and shot the young ones which, though fledged, were not able to fly. These I sent with one of the eggs to Mr. Hume, who has identified them as belonging to this species. The nests were composed of frayed pieces of reed-grass and fine sedge, the latter being principally towards the inside, thus forming a kind of lining. The nests were loosely put together, were about 3 inches inner diameter, 1¼ inch deep, the outer diameter being 6 inches. They were situated about a foot over water-line in the tops of reeds growing in the water."

Colonel Legge says:--"This species breeds in Ceylon during June and July. Its nest was procured by me in the former month at the Tamara-Kulam, and was a very interesting structure, built into the fork of one of the tall seed-stalks of the rush growing there; the walls rested exteriorly against three of the branches of the fork, but were worked round some of the stems of the flower itself which sprung from the base of the fork. It was composed of various fine grasses, with a few rush-blades among them, and was lined with the fine stalks of the flower divested, by the bird I conclude, of the seed-matter growing on them. In form it was a tolerably deep cup, well shaped, measuring 2½ inches in internal diameter by 2 in depth. The single egg which it contained at the time of my finding it was a broad oval in shape, pale green, boldly blotched with blackish over spots of olive and olivaceous brown, mingled with linear markings of the same, under which there were small clouds and blotches of bluish grey. The black markings were longitudinal and thickest at the obtuse end. It measured 0·89 by 0·67 inch."

The eggs of this species, as might have been expected, greatly resemble those of _A. arundinaceus_. In shape they are moderately elongated ovals, in some cases almost absolutely perfect, but generally slightly compressed towards one end. The shell, though fine, is entirely devoid of gloss.

The ground-colour varies much, but the two commonest types are pale green or greenish white and a pale somewhat creamy stone-colour. Occasionally the ground-colour has a bluish tinge.

The markings vary even more than the ground-colour. In one type the ground is everywhere minutely, but not densely, stippled with minute specks, too minute for one to be able to say of what colour; over this are pretty thickly scattered fairly bold and well-marked spots and blotches of greyish black, inky purple, olive-brown, yellowish olive, and reddish-umber brown; here and there pale inky clouds underlay the more distinct markings. In other eggs the stippling is altogether wanting, and the markings are smaller and less well-defined. In some eggs one or more of the colours predominate greatly, and in some several are almost entirely wanting. In most eggs the markings are densest towards the large end, where they sometimes form more or less of a mottled, irregular, ill-defined cap.

In length the eggs vary from 0·8 to 0·97, and in breadth from 0·58 to 0·63; but the average of the only nine eggs that I measured was 0·89, nearly, by rather more than 0·61.

366. Acrocephalus dumetorum, Blyth. _Blyth's Reed-Warbler_.

Acrocephalus dumetorum, _Bl., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 155. Calamodyta dumetorum (_Bl.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 516.

Blyth's Reed-Warbler breeds, I believe, for the most part along the course of the streams of the lower Himalayan and sub-Himalayan ranges, and in suitable localities on and about these ranges; such at least is my present idea. They are with us in the plains up to quite the end of March, and are back again by the last day of August, and during May at any rate they may be heard and seen everywhere in the valleys south of the first snowy range.

Mr. Brooks remarks that "this species was excessively common on the Hindoostan side of the Pir-pinjal Range, but I have never seen it in Cashmere. I think it breeds in the low valleys by the river-sides, for it was in very vigorous song there at the end of May." This is my experience also, and probably while many may go north to Central Asia to breed, a good many remain in the localities indicated.

Captain Hutton says:--"This species arrives in the hills up to 7000 feet at least, in April, when it is very common, and appears in pairs with something of the manner of a _Phylloscopus_. The note is a sharp _tchick, tchick_, resembling the sound emitted by a flint and steel.

"It disappears by the end of May, in which month they breed; but, owing to the high winds and strong weather experienced in that month in 1848, many nests were left incomplete, and the birds must have departed without breeding.