Chapter 32

"On the 1st September, 1880, I shot a pair of these birds as they rose out of some long grass by the side of a rice-field; and, thinking there might be a nest, I commenced a diligent search, which resulted in my finding one. It consisted of a good-sized ball of coarse blades of dry grass, with an entrance on one side, and was built in long grass about a foot from the ground. Though it was apparently finished, there were unfortunately no eggs, but dissection of the hen proved that she would have laid in a day or two. On the 10th instant I found another nest exactly similar, built in a tussock of coarse grass, near the same place; but this was subsequently deserted without the bird laying. On the 19th September I went in the early morning to the same patch of grass and watched another pair, soon seeing the hen disappear amongst some thick tussocks. On my approaching the spot she flew off the nest, which contained four eggs much incubated. The nest was precisely similar to the others, but with the entrance-hole perhaps rather nearer the top, though still on one side. The situation in the grass was the same--in fact it was very similar in every respect to the nest of _Drymoeca insignis_. The eggs are very like those of _Molpastes haemorrhous_, but smaller, having a purplish-white ground, sprinkled all over with numerous small specks and spots of purple and purplish brown, with a cap of the same at the large end, underlaid with inky lilac.

"These birds closely resemble _Chaetornis striatus_ in their actions and habits, and in the breeding-season rise constantly into the air, chirruping like that species, and descending afterwards in the same way on to some low bush or tussock of grass, sometimes even on to the telegraph-wires. They are fearful little skulks, however, if you attempt to pursue them, and the moment you approach disappear into the grass like a shot, from whence it is almost impossible to flush them again unless you all but tread on them. It is perfectly marvellous the way they will hide themselves in a patch of grass when they have once taken refuge in it; and although you may know within a yard or two of where the bird is, you may search for half an hour without finding it. If you shoot at them and miss, they drop to the shot into the grass as if killed, and nothing will dissuade you from the belief that they are so until, after a long search, the little beast gets up exactly where you have been hunting all along, from almost under your feet, and darts off to disappear, after another short flight of fifteen or twenty yards, in another patch of grass, from whence you may again try in vain to dislodge it."

The eggs of this species, though much smaller, are precisely of the same type as those of _Megalurus palustris_ and _Chaetornis striatus_; moderately broad ovals with a very fine compact shell, with but little gloss, though perhaps rather more of this than in either of the species above referred to. The ground-colour is white, with perhaps a faint pinkish shade, and it is profusely speckled and spotted with brownish red, almost black in some spots, more chestnut in others. Here and there a few larger spots or small irregular blotches occur. Besides these markings, clouds, streaks, and tiny spots of grey or lavender-grey occur, chiefly about the large end, where, with the markings (often more numerous there than elsewhere), they form at times a more or less confluent but irregular and ill-defined cap.

One egg measured 0·73 by 0·6.

391. Acanthoptila nepalensis (Hodgs.). _The Spiny Warbler_.

Acanthoptila nipalensis (_Hodgs.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p 57. Acanthoptila pellotis, _Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 431 bis.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and figures, this species builds, in a fork of a tree, a very loose, shallow grass nest. One is recorded to have measured 4·87 in diameter and 1·75 in height externally, and internally 3·37 in diameter and an inch in depth. The eggs are verditer-blue, and are figured as 1·1 by 0·65.

I may here note that _Acanthoptila pellotis_ and _A. leucotis_ are totally distinct, as Mr. Hodgson's figures clearly show. Hodgson published _A. leucotis_ apparently under the name of _A. nipalensis_, so that the two will stand as _A. pellotis_ and _A. nipalensis_.[A]

[Footnote A: I do not agree with. Mr. Hume on this point. It seems to me that this bird has both a summer and a winter plumage, and Hodgson's two names refer to one and the same bird.--ED.]

392. Chaetornis locustelloides (Bl.). _The Bristled Grass-Warbler_.

Chaetornis striatus (_Jerd.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p. 72; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 441.

Dr. Jerdon remarks that Mr. Blyth mentions that the nest of the Grass-Babbler, as he calls it, nearly accords with that of _Malacocercus_, and that the eggs are blue.

I cannot find the passage in which Blyth states this, and I cannot help doubting its correctness. This bird, like the preceding, is not a bit of a Babbler. I have often watched them in Lower Bengal amongst comparatively low grass and rush along the margins of ponds and jheels, not, as a rule, affecting high reed or seeking to conceal themselves, but showing themselves freely enough, and with a song and flight wholly unlike that of any Babbler.

They are very restless, soaring about and singing a monotonous song of two notes, somewhat resembling that of a Pipit, but clear and loud. They do not soar in one spot like a Sky-Lark, as Jerdon says, but rise to the height of from 30 to 50 yards, fly rapidly right and left, over perhaps one fourth of a mile, and then suddenly drop on to the top of some little bush or other convenient post, and there continue their song.

Mr. Brooks remarks:--"On the 28th August, 1869, I observed at the side of the railway, at Jheenjuck Jheel, on the borders of the Etawah and Cawnpoor Districts, several pairs of _Chaetornis_. A good part of the jheel was covered with grass about 18 inches high, and to this they appeared partial, though occasionally I found them among the long reeds. The part of the jheel where they were found was drier than the rest, there being only about an inch of water in places, while other portions were quite dry.

"I noticed the bird singing while seated on a bush or large clump of grass, and sometimes it perched on the telegraph-wires alongside of the line of railway, continuing its song while perched.

"By habits and song it seems more nearly allied to the Pipits than the Babblers. Males shot early in September were obviously breeding, and a female shot on the 13th of that month contained a nearly full-sized egg."

It does not do to be too positive, but I should be inclined to believe that the eggs are not uniform coloured, blue and glossy like a Babbler's, but dull, dead, or greenish white, with numerous small specks and spots[A].

[Footnote A: The discovery of this bird's eggs has proved Mr. Hume to be right in his conjecture.--ED.]

Colonel E.A. Butler, who was the first to discover the eggs of the Bristled Grass-Warbler, writes:--

"The Grass-Babbler is not uncommon about Deesa in the rains, at which season it breeds. I found a nest containing four eggs on the 18th August, 1876. It consisted of a round ball of dry grass with a circular entrance on one side, near the top, was placed on the ground in the centre of a low scrubby bush in a grass Bheerh, and when the hen-bird flew off, which was not until I almost put my foot on the nest, I mistook her for _Argya caudata_. On looking, however, into the bush, I saw at once by the eggs that it was a species new to me. I left the spot and returned again in about an hour's time, when, to my disappointment, I found that three of the eggs had hatched. The fourth egg being stale, I took it and added it to my collection. The eggs are about the size of the eggs of _A. caudata_, but in colour very like those of _Franklinia buchanani_, namely, white, speckled all over with reddish brown and pale lavender, most densely at the large end. This bird has a peculiar habit in the breeding-season of rising suddenly into the air and soaring about, often for a considerable distance, uttering a loud note resembling the words 'chirrup, chirrup-chirrup,' repeated all the time the bird is in the air, and then suddenly descending slowly into the grass with outspread wings, much in the style of _Mirafra erythroptera_. This bird is so similar in appearance, when flying and hopping about in the long grass, to _A. caudata_, that I have no doubt it is often mistaken for that species. I have invariably found it during the rains in grass Bheerhs overgrown with low thorny bushes (_Zizyphus jujuba_, &c.). Whether it remains the whole year round I cannot say; at all events, if it does, its close resemblance to _A. caudata_ enables it to escape notice at other seasons."

Mr. Cripps, writing from Fureedpore, says:--"Very common in long grass fields. Permanent resident. It utters its soft notes while on the wing, not only in the cold season but the year through; it is very noisy during the breeding-time. Breeds in clumps of grass a few inches above as well as on the ground. I found five nests in the month of May from 23rd to 28th: one was on the ground in a field of indigo; the rest were in clumps of 'sone' grass and from the same field composed of this grass. One nest contained three half-fledged young, and the rest had four eggs slightly incubated in each. Although they nest in 'sone' grass which is rarely over three feet in height, it is very difficult to find the nest, as the grass generally overhangs and hides it. Only when the bird rises almost from your feet are you able to discover the whereabouts. On several occasions I have noticed this species perching on bushes."

The eggs, which, to judge from a large series sent me by Mr. Cripps, do not appear to vary much in shape, are moderately broad ovals, more or less pointed towards one end. The shell is fine and fragile but entirely devoid of gloss; the ground-colour is white with a very faint pinky or lilac tinge, and they are thickly speckled all over with minute markings of two different shades--the one a sort of purplish brown (they are so small that it is difficult to make certain of the exact colour), and the other inky purple or grey. In most eggs the markings are most dense at or about the large end, and occasionally a spot may be met with larger than the rest, as big as a pin's head say, and some of these seem to have a reddish tinge, while some are more of a sepia.

The eggs vary from 0·75 to 0·86 in length and from 0·59 to 0·62 in breadth, but the average of twelve eggs is almost exactly 0·8 by 0·6.

394. Hypolais rama (Sykes). _Sykes's Tree-Warbler_.

Phyllopneuste rama (_Sykes), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 189. Iduna caligata, _Licht., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 553.

I have never myself obtained the nest and eggs of Sykes's Tree-Warbler, _P. rama, apud Jerd._[A] On the 1st April, at Etawah, my friend Mr. Brooks shot a male of this species off a nest; and I saw the bird, nest, and eggs within an hour, and visited the spot later. The nest was placed in a low thorny bush, about a foot from the ground, on the side of a sloping bank in one of the large dry ravines that in the Etawah District fringe the River Junina for a breadth of from a mile to four miles. The nest was nearly egg-shaped, with a circular entrance near the top. It was loosely woven with coarse and fine grass, and a little of the fibre of the "sun" (_Crotalaria juncea_), and very neatly felted on the whole interior surface of the lower two thirds with a compact coating of the down of flowering-grasses and little bits of spider's web. It was about 5 inches in its longest and 3½ inches in its shortest diameter. It contained three fresh eggs, which were white, very thickly speckled with brownish pink, in places confluent and having a decided tendency to form a zone near the large end. Three or four days later we shot the female at the same spot.

[Footnote A: I reproduce the note on this bird as it appeared in the 'Rough Draft,' but I think some mistake has been made, as Mr. Hume himself suggests. Full reliance, however, may be placed on Mr. Doig's note, which is a most interesting contribution.--ED]

A similar nest and two eggs, taken in Jhansi on the 12th August, were sent me with one of the parent birds by Mr. F.R. Blewitt, and, again, another nest with four eggs was sent me from Hoshungabad.

There ought to be no doubt about these nests and eggs, the more so that I have several specimens of the bird from various parts of the North-Western Provinces and Central Provinces killed in August and September, but somehow I do not feel quite certain that we have not made some mistake. Beyond doubt the great mass of this species migrate and breed further north. I have never obtained specimens in June or July; and if these nests really, as the evidence seems to show, belonged to the birds that were shot on or near them, these latter must have bred in India before or after their migration, as well as in Northern Asia.

Though one may make minute differences, I do not think either of the three nests or sets of eggs could be certainly separated from those of _Franklinia buchanani_, which might well have eggs about both in April and August; and I am not prepared to say that in each of these three cases _Hypolais rama_, which frequents precisely the same kind of bushes that _F. buchanani_ breeds in, may not accidentally have been shot in the immediate proximity to a nest of the latter, the owner of which had crept noiselessly away, as these birds so often do.

Dr. Jerdon says:--"I have obtained the nest and eggs of this species on one occasion only at Jaulnah in the Dekhan; the nest was cup-shaped, made of roots and grass, and contained four pure white eggs."

I do not attach undue weight to this, for Dr. Jerdon did not care about eggs, and was rather careless about them; but still his statement has to be noted, and the whole matter requires careful investigation.

Mr. Doig found this species breeding on the Eastern Narra in Sind. He writes:--"I first obtained eggs of this bird in March 1879. The first nest was found by one of my men, who afterwards showed me a bird close to the place he got the eggs, which he said was either the bird to which the nest and eggs belonged or one of the same kind. This I shot and sent to Mr. Hume with one of the eggs to identify. Some time after I again came across a lot of these birds breeding, and this time lay in wait myself for the bird to come to the nest and eggs, and when it did I shot it. This I also sent to Mr. Hume to identify. Some time after I beard from Mr. Hume, who said that there must be some mistake, as the birds sent belonged to two different species, viz. _Sylvia affinis_ and _Hypolais rama_, and were both, he believed, only cold-weather visitants. This year I again 'went for' these birds and again sent specimens of birds and eggs to Mr. Hume, who informed me that the birds now sent were _H. rama_, and that the eggs must belong to this species soon after this Mr. Brooks saw the eggs with Mr. Hume and identified them as being those _H. rama_ and identical with eggs he saw at home collected by, I think, Mr. Seebohm of this species in Siberia. Only fancy a bird breeding on the Narra of all places, especially in May, June, and July, in preference to Siberia! Locally they are very numerous, as I collected upwards of 90 to 100 eggs in one field about eight acres in size. They build in stunted tamarisk bushes, or rather in bushes of this kind which originally were cut down to admit of cultivation being carried on, and which afterwards had again sprouted. These bushes are very dense, and in their centre is situated the nest, composed of sedge, with a lining of fine grass, mixed sometimes with a little soft grass-reed. The eggs are, as a rule, four in number, of a dull white ground-colour with brown spots, the large end having as a rule a ring round it of most delicate, fine, hair-like brown lines, something similar to the tracing to be seen on the eggs of _Drymoeca inornata_. The egg in size is also similar to those of that species."

The eggs of this species vary from broad to moderately elongated ovals, but they are almost always somewhat pointed towards the small end; the shell is fine but as a rule glossless; here and there, however, an egg exhibits a faint gloss. The ground-colour is whitish, never pure white, with an excessively faint greenish, greyish, creamy, or pinky tinge. The markings are very variable in amount and extent, but they are always black or nearly so and pale inky grey; perhaps typically the markings consist of a zone of black hair-lines twisted and entangled together, in which irregular shaped spots and small blotches of the same colour appear to have been caught, which zone is underlaid and more or less surrounded by clouds, streaks, and spots of pale inky grey. This zone is typically about the large end, but in one or two eggs is near the middle of the egg and in one or two is about the small end. Outside this zone a few small specks and spots, and rarely one or two tiny blotches, of both black and grey are thinly scattered; occasionally, however, the hair-lines so characteristic of this egg are almost entirely wanting, there is no apparent zone, and the markings, spots, and specks are thinly and irregularly distributed about the entire surface; here and there the whole of the dark markings on the egg are entirely confined to the zone, elsewhere only pale lilac specks are visible. Occasionally together with a well-defined zone numerous specks, spots, and a few hair-line scratches of black are intermingled with faint purplish-grey spots, and pretty thinly scattered everywhere.

The eggs vary from 0·53 to 0·68 in length and from 0·46 to 0·51 in breadth; but the average of a very large number is 0·61 by 0·49.

402. Sylvia affinis (Blyth). _The Indian Lesser White-throated Warbler_.

Sylvia curruca (_Gm.), apud Jerd. B.I._ ii, p. 209. Sterparola curruca (_Lath.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 583.

Of the nidification of the Lesser Whitethroat within our limits, I only know that it was found in May, breeding abundantly in Cashmere in the lower hills, by Mr. Brooks. He did not notice it comparatively high up; for instance at Goolmerg, which, though not above 9000 feet high, is at the base of a snowy range, he did not see it at all.

It builds a loose, rather shallow, cup-shaped nest, composed chiefly of grass, coarser on the exterior and finer interiorly, which it places in low bushes and thickets at no great elevation from the ground. The nest is more or less lined with fine grass and roots.

It lays four or sometimes five eggs.

Mr. Brooks writes:--"I found this Whitethroat tolerably numerous in Cashmere, where it appears generally distributed, occurring at from 5500 to 6500 feet elevation or thereabouts, It frequents places where there is abundance of brushwood or underwood, especially along the banks of rivers or near them.

"I found several nests, and they were all placed in small bushes, and from 4 to 6 feet above the ground. One was in a bush on a small island in the Kangan River, which runs into the Sind River; and this nest I well remember was just so high that I could not look into it as I stood. The nests precisely resembled in size and structure those of _C. garrula_ which I have seen at home, being formed of grasses, roots, and fine fibres, and I think scantily lined with a few black horsehairs; but I forget this now. They were slight, thinly formed nests, very neat but strong, and had bits of spider's web stuck about the outside here and there. This appears to be the decoration this bird and _C. garrula_ are partial to. They were not added, I think, for the purpose of rendering the nest inconspicuous, for there were just enough to give the nest a spotted appearance.

"The song of this species strongly resembles that of its congener, and is full, loud, and sweet. I found the nests by the song of the male, for he generally sings near the nest. The eggs don't differ from those of _C. garrula_ in my collection."

Major Wardlaw Ramsay says, writing of Afghanistan:--"This Warbler was very common and was breeding by the 27th May. All the nests found were shallow cups, composed entirely of dried grass, and situated in small bushes, frequently juniper, about 2½ feet from the ground. The eggs vary much both in size and colour--some being long ovals, nearly pure white, spotted with pale brown towards the larger end, and others of a much rounder form and a pale greenish white, thickly spotted in a broad zone near the thicker end and smeared with very pale brown, or else spotted and smeared with olive-brown over the whole of the thicker end."

The eggs are somewhat broad ovals, typically a good deal pointed towards the lesser end. They vary, however, much both in size and shape: some are short and broad, decidedly pointed at the small end; others are more elongated, and some are almost regular ellipsoids. The eggs have little or no gloss; the ground-colour is white, with a more or less perceptible though very faint greenish tinge. Typically they are very Shrike-like in their markings, the majority of these being gathered together in a more or less dense zone near the large end. The markings consist of small spots, blotches, and specks of pale yellowish brown, more or less intermingled with spots and specks of dull inky purple or grey; in many eggs there are very few markings, and these are mere spots except in the zone, while in others full-sized markings are scattered, though thinly, more or less over the whole surface of the egg. In some the zone is confluent and blurred; in others composed of small sharply defined specks and spots. Here and there a pretty large yellowish-brown cloud may be met with partially or entirely bounded by a narrow hair-like black line. Tiny black specks now and then occur, and little zigzag lines that might have been borrowed from a Bunting's egg; but these are not met with in probably more than one out of ten eggs.

In length the eggs vary from 0·6 to 0·75, and in breadth from 0·48 to 0·55; but the average of sixteen eggs is 0·66 by 0·5.

406. Phylloscopus tytleri, Brooks. _Tytler's Willow-Warbler_.

Phylloscopus tytleri, _Brooks, Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 560 bis.

Tytler's Willow-Warbler, as yet a rare bird in collections, and which appears only to straggle down to the plains of Upper India during the cold season, was found by Captain Cock breeding at Sonamerg (9400 feet elevation) in the Sindh Valley, Cashmere, in June.

Mr. Brooks, who discriminated the bird, said of it and its nidification:--"In plumage resembling _P. viridanus_, but of a richer and deeper olive; it is entirely without the 'whitish wing-bar,' which is always present in _viridanus_, unless in very abraded plumage. The wing is shorter, so is the tail; but the great difference is in the bill, which is much longer, darker, and of a more pointed and slender form in _P. tytleri_. The song and notes are utterly different, so are the localities frequented. _P. viridanus_ is an inhabitant of brushwood ravines, at 9000 and 10,000 feet elevation; while _P. tytleri_ is exclusively a pine-forest _Phylloscopus_. In the places frequented by _P. viridanus_, it must build on the ground, or very near it; but our new species builds, 40 feet up a pine-tree, a compact half-domed nest on the side of a branch.