Chapter 36

From Mussoorie Captain Hutton remarks:--"This little bird appears on the hill, at about 5000 feet, in May. A nest taken much lower down in June was composed of grasses neatly interwoven in the shape of an ovate ball, the smaller end uppermost and forming the mouth or entrance; it was lined first with cottony seed-down, and then with fine grass-stalks; it was suspended among high grass, and contained five beautiful little eggs of a carneous white colour, thicky freckled with deep rufous, and with a darkish confluent ring of the same at the larger end. I have seen this species as high as 7000 feet in October. It delights to sit on the summit of tall grass, or even of an oak, from whence it pours forth a loud and long-continued grating note like the filing of a saw."

Writing of Nepal, Dr. Scully says:--"A nest taken on the 29th June contained only two fresh eggs. The nest was of the shape of a mangoe, the small end being uppermost, and the entrance on one side, near the top; its measurements externally were, in height 5·2, in breadth 3·6 in one direction and 2·65 in the other; the opening was nearly circular, 1·8 in diameter. It was rather flimsy in structure, composed of grass-down, more or less felted together, and bound round externally with dry green grass-blades; internally it was scantily lined with fine grass-stems, which were used to strengthen the lower lip of the entrance-hole. The eggs were fairly glossy, moderate or longish oval in shape, and measured 0·65 by 0·5 and 0·7 by 0·49; the ground-colour was pinkish white, the small end nearly free from markings, the middle portion with faint streaks and tiny indistinct spots of brownish red, and the large end with a zone of bright brownish red or a confluent cap of the same colour."

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"This Suya breeds from May to June in the warmest valleys up to 3500 feet. It affects open grassy tracts, and builds its nest in a bunch of grass, within a foot or two of the ground. The nest is an extremely neat egg-shaped structure, with entrance at side, made of fine grass-stems thickly felted over with the white seeds of a tall flowering grass, which gives it a very pretty appearance. Externally it measures 5 inches in height by 3 in diameter; the cavity is 2·25 wide and 2 deep, from lower edge of entrance. The entrance is about 2·25 across.

"The usual number of eggs is four. I have never found more, but on several occasions as few as two and three well-incubated eggs."

A nest of this species taken by Mr. Gammie near Mongphoo, on the 18th April, at an elevation of about 3000 feet, contained three fresh eggs. It closely resembles nests that I have taken of _S. crinigera_ in shape, somewhat like an egg, with the entrance on one side, near the top, exteriorly about 5 inches in length, and 2¾ inches in diameter, with an aperture a little less than 2 inches across. It was built amongst grass, of which a few fine stalks constitute the outer framework, and the whole body of the nest inside this framework consists solely of the flower-down of grass firmly felted together. It is lined pretty thickly everywhere with the excessively fine stalks which bear this down.

Taking a large series, I should describe the eggs as typically regular but somewhat elongated ovals, often fairly glossy, at times almost glossless. The ground varies from pale pinky white to pale salmon-colour. A dense, more or less mottled, zone or cap at the large end, varying in different specimens from reddish pink to almost brick-red, and more or less of speckling, mottling, or freckling of a somewhat lighter shade than the zone spreads in some thinly, in some densely over the rest of the egg.

In length they vary from 0·63 to 0·75, and in breadth from 0·46 to 0·55; but the average of sixty-five eggs is 0·69 by 0·52.

459. Suya atrigularis, Moore[A]. _The Black-throated Hill-Warbler_.

[Footnote A: I reproduce this article nearly as it appears in the 'Rough Draft;' but I have great doubts as to the occurrence of this bird in Kumaon, and I further doubt the identification of Hodgson's notes with this species. It is quite clear, from his specimens in the British Museum, that Hodgson confounded _S. atrigularis_ in winter plumage with _S. crinigera_, and his plate of the former in summer plumage contains no note on nidification.--ED.]

Suya atrogularis, _Moore, Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 184; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 549.

The Black-throated Hill-Warbler breeds in Kumaon and the Himalayas eastwards from thence, at elevations of 4000 to 6000 feet.

The breeding-season lasts from April to July, but the birds mostly lay in May and June. Open grassy hillsides dotted about with scrub, thin forests, or gardens are the localities it affects. The nest is placed at times in some low bush surrounded with and grown through by grass, more commonly in clumps of grass, and never at any great height from the ground. It is more or less egg-shaped, and placed with the longer diameter vertical, the entrance being on one side above the middle. It is composed exteriorly sometimes of fine grass-roots, sometimes of the finest possible grass, loosely but sufficiently firmly interwoven, a little moss being often incorporated in the upper portion, and internally always, I think, exclusively of fine grass.

Four is perhaps the usual number of the eggs, but I have found five.

Mr. Gammie, writing from Sikhim, says:--"I have found four nests of this species this year in the Chinchona reserves, at elevations of from 4500 to 5500 feet, during the months of May and June. The nests were all in open grassy country, in grass by the sides of low banks, and not above a foot off the ground. They are globular, with a lateral entrance, composed of grass, and with a little moss about the dome. One I measured was 5·5 high, and 4·5 in diameter externally; internally the nest was 2·4 in diameter, and the cavity had a total height of 3·9, of which 2 inches was below the lower edge of the entrance. According to my experience four is the regular complement of eggs. I have repeatedly (three times this year) shot the female off the nest, and beyond question Jerdon is wrong about this bird's laying Indian-red eggs."

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes, this species breeds in groves and open forest in Sikhim and the central region of Nepal from April to June, building a large globular nest in clumps of grass, of dry grass, roots, and moss, lined with fine grass and moss-roots. The entrance, which is circular, is at one side; the nest is egg-shaped, the longer diameter being perpendicular, and is placed at a height of about 6 inches from the ground. A nest taken on the 30th. May measured 6·12 in height and 3·5 in diameter externally, and the circular aperture, which was just above the middle, was 1·75 in diameter. It contained four eggs, which are represented as ovals, a good deal pointed towards one end, measuring 0·69 by 0·55. The ground-colour is a pale green, and they are speckled and spotted with bright red, the markings being most numerous towards the large end, where they have a tendency to form a zone or cap.

Dr. Jerdon says that "it makes its nest of fine grass and withered stalks, large, very loosely put together, globular, with a hole near the top, and lays three or four eggs of an entirely dull Indian-red colour." This undoubtedly is a mistake; the eggs he refers to are, I think, those of _Neornis flavolivaceus_. He gave them to me, but was not certain of the species they belonged to.

The eggs of the present species are of much the same shape as those of the preceding, and there is a certain similarity in the colour of both; but in these eggs the ground-colour instead of being pink or pinky white, is a pale, delicate, sometimes greyish, green. Then though there is the same kind of zone round the large end, it is a purple or purplish, instead of a brick-red, and it is manifestly made up of innumerable minute specks, and has not the cloudy confluent character of the zone in _S. crinigera_. Outside the zone minute specks of the same purplish red are scattered, in some pretty thickly, in others sparsely, over the whole of the rest of the surface. As a body the eggs have a faint gloss, decidedly less, however, than those of _S. crinigera_, but some few are absolutely glossless.

In length the eggs vary from 0·63 to 0·79, and in breadth from 0·46 to 0·43; but the average of forty-five eggs is 0·68 by 0·5.

460. Suya khasiana, Godw.-Aust. _Austen's Hill-Warbler_.

Suya khasiana, _Godw.-Aust., Hume, cat._ no. 549 bis.

I found this bird high up in the eastern hills of Mauipur, frequenting dense herbaceous undergrowth of balsams and the like in forest. On the 11th of May I caught a female on her nest, containing four well-incubated eggs. The nest was placed in a wild ginger-plant, about two feet from the ground, in forest at the very summit of the Makhi hill.

462. Prinia lepida, Blyth. _The Streaked Wren-Warbler_

Burnesia lepida (_Blyth), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 185. Burnesia gracilis, _Rüpp., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 550.

I have never happened to meet with the nest of the Streaked Wren-Warbler, and all the information I possess in regard to its nidification I owe to others.

The late Mr. Anderson remarked:--"Although this species was far from uncommon, I found it very local and confined entirely to the tamarisk-covered islands and 'churs' along the Ganges.

"The first nest was taken on the 13th March last, and contained three well-incubated eggs; of these I saved only one specimen, which is now in the collection of Mr. Brooks. The second was found on the following day, and contained two callow young and one perfectly fresh egg.

"The nest is domed over, having an entrance at the side; and the cavity is comfortably lined, or rather felted, with the down of the madar plant. It is fixed, somewhat after the fashion of that of the Reed-Warbler, in the centre of a dense clump of surpat grass, about 2 feet above the ground. On the whole the structure is rather large for so small a bird, and measures 6 inches in height by 4 inches in breadth.

"But while the _nest_ corresponds exactly with Canon Tristram's description[A] of those taken by him in Palestine, there are differences, oologically speaking, which induce me to hope that our Indian bird may yet be restored to specific distinction[B]. In the first place, my single eggs from each nest have a _green_ ground-colour, and are covered all over with reddish-brown spots. Now Mr. Tristram describes his Palestine specimens as 'richly coloured _pink_ eggs, with a zone of darker red near the larger end, and in shape and colour resembling some of the _Prinia_ group.' Is it possible for the same birds to lay such widely different eggs? If I had taken only one specimen, it might have been looked upon as a mere variety. Again, our Indian bird lays three eggs, and I have never seen the parent birds feeding more than this number of young ones, occasionally only two. Mr. Tristram, _per contra_, mentions having met with as many as five and six. The egg is certainly the prettiest, and one of the smallest, I have ever seen; indeed, I found it too small to risk measurement."

[Footnote A: Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine, P. 2. S. 1864, p. 437; Ibis, 865, pp. 82, 83.]

[Footnote B: The two birds are now considered distinct by all ornithologists.--ED.]

He adds:--"Since writing the above, which appeared in 'The Ibis,' I have discovered that this species breeds in September and October, as well as in February and March, so some of them probably have two broods in the year. I took a nest on the 9th October at Futtegurh, which contained two callow young and one (_fresh_) egg, which I send you, and which is exactly similar to all the others I have taken from time to time."

The egg sent me by Mr. Anderson is a very broad oval in shape, a good deal compressed however, and pointed towards the small end. The shell is very fine and has a decided gloss. In colouring the egg is exactly like those of some of the Blackbirds--a pale green ground, profusely freckled and streaked with a bright, only slightly brownish, red; the markings are densest round the large end, where they form a broad, nearly confluent, well-marked, but imperfect and irregular, zone. It measures 0·55 by 0·41.

Colonel C.H.T. Marshall says:--"The Streaked Wren-Warbler breeds in great numbers near Delhi in March; Mr. C.T. Bingham has found several of them in the clumps of surpat grass that had been cut within three feet of the ground on the alluvial land of the Jumna. It was when out with him in the end of March 1876 that I first saw the nest of this species. The locality of the nest is exactly that described by Mr. Anderson; it is oval in shape, with a large side entrance near the top; it is built of fine grass and seed-down, no cobweb being employed in the structure; it is loosely made, and there are always a few feathers in the egg-cavity. The whereabouts is generally pointed out by the cock bird, who, seated on the top of the highest blade of grass he can find near where his hen is sitting, pours out with untiring energy his feeble monotonous song, little knowing that by so doing he has betrayed the spot where he has fixed his nest to the marauder. The eggs, of which I have seen about fifteen or twenty, answer the description given in 'Stray Feathers' exactly."

Major C.T. Bingham tells us:--"Between the 12th and 31st March this year I found ten nests of this bird, which is very common in the grass-covered land of the Jumna. These nests were all alike, of fine dry grass mixed with the down of the surpat, which also thickly lined the inside. In shape the nests are blunt ovals, with a tiny hole for entrance a little above the centre. Seven out of the ten nests contained four eggs each, the rest three each. The eggs in colour are a pale yellowish white with a tinge of green, thickly speckled with dashes rather than spots of rusty red, tending in some to form a cap, in others a zone round the large end. The average of twenty eggs measured is 0·53 by 0·44 inch. The nests were all, with one exception, supported by stems of the grass being worked into the sides. The one exception was a nest I found in the fork of a tamarisk bush. It is not a difficult nest to find, for when you are in the vicinity of one, one of the birds will flit about the stems of the surrounding clumps of grass and above you freely, opening its tiny mouth absurdly wide, but giving forth the feeblest of feeble sounds."

Writing on the Avifauna of Mt. Abu and N. Guzerat, Colonel E.A. Butler says:--"I found a nest in a tussock of coarse grass in the sandy bed of a river, amongst a number of tamarisk-bushes, on the 8th July, 1875, in the neighbourhood of Deesa. It was composed of fine dry fibrous roots and grass-stems exteriorly, and lined with silky vegetable down. It was a long bottled-shaped structure with a small entrance on one side. The nest, eggs, situation, locality, &c. all agree so exactly with the descriptions quoted by Dr. Jerdon and with Mr. Anderson's note in 'Nests and Eggs,' _Rough Draft_, that I should have found it difficult to avoid copying these two gentlemen in describing my own nest.

"The nest contained three hard-set eggs and one young one just hatched."

Referring to its occurrence in the Eastern Narra District, Mr. Doig tells us:--"This little Warbler is very common. I took the first nest in March and again in May; they build in stunted tamarisk-bushes; the nest is circular dome-shaped, with the entrance on one side the top, the inside being very beautifully and softly lined with the pappus of grass-seeds. Four is the usual number of eggs in one nest."

The Blackbird type of egg above described is by no means the commonest one; the great mass of the eggs have the ground greyish, greenish, or pinkish white, and they are very thickly and finely freckled and speckled all over, but most densely about the large end, with a slightly brownish, rarely a slightly purplish grey. Occasionally when the markings are very dense in a cap at the large end there is a distinct purplish-grey tinge there, and on the rest of the surface of the egg the markings are somewhat less thickly set, leaving small portions of the ground-colour clearly visible. Typically the eggs are moderately broad ovals, a little compressed towards the small end, and though none are very glossy, the great majority have a fair amount of gloss.

463. Prinia flaviventris (Deless.). _The Yellow-bellied Wren-Warbler_.

Prinia flaviventris (_Deless.) Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 169: _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 532.

Of the Yellow-bellied Wren-Warbler's nidification I know personally nothing.

Tickell describes the nest as pensile but quite open, being a hemisphere with one side prolonged, by which it is suspended from a twig. The eggs, he says, are bright brick-red without a spot.

Mr. H.C. Parker tells me that "this bird breeds in the Salt-Water Lake, or rather on the swampy banks of the principal canals that intersect it. The nest is nearly always placed on an ash-leaved shrub-like plant growing on the banks of the canal and overhanging the water. One taken on the 26th July, 1873, containing four nearly fresh eggs, was almost touching the water at high tide. The male has the habit, when the female is sitting, of hopping to the extreme point of a tall species of cane-like grass which grows abundantly in these swamps, whence he gives forth a rather pleasing song, erecting his tail at the same time, after which he drops into the jungle and is seen no more. It is almost impossible to make him show himself again."

The nest, which I owe to Mr. Parker, and which was found in the neighbourhood of the Salt-Water Lake, Calcutta, on the 26th July, is of an oval shape, very obtuse at both ends, measuring externally 4 inches in length and about 2¾ inches in diameter. The aperture, which is near the top of the nest, is oval, and measures about 1 inch by 1½ inch. The nest is fixed against the side of two or three tiny leafy twigs, to which it is bound lightly in one or two places with grass and vegetable fibre; and two or three leafy lateral twiglets are incorporated into the sides of the nest, so that when fresh it must have been entirely hidden by leaves. The nest was in an upright position, the major axis perpendicular to the horizon. It is a very thin, firm, close basket-work of fine grass, flower-stalks, and vegetable fibre, and has no lining, though the interior surface of the nest is more closely woven and of still finer materials than the outside. The cavity is nearly 2½ inches deep, measuring from the lower edge of the entrance, and is about 2 inches in diameter.

During this present year (1874) Mr. Parker obtained several more nests of this species, all built in the low jungle that fringes the mud-banks of the congeries of channels and creeks that are known in Calcutta by the name of the "Salt Lake."

This jungle consists chiefly of the blue-flowered holly-leaved _Acanthus ilicifolia_ and of the trailing semi-creeper-like _Derris scandens_. It is in amongst the drooping twigs of the latter that the nest is invariably made.

The nests vary a good deal in shape; some are regular cylinders rounded off at both ends, with the aperture on one side above the centre--a small oval entrance neatly worked. Such a nest is about 4.5 inches in length externally from top to bottom, and 2·75 in diameter; the aperture 1·3 in height, and barely 1·0 in width.

Others are still more egg-shaped, with a similar aperture near the top, and others are more purse-like. The material used appears to be always much the same--fine grass-stems intermingled with blades of grass, and here and there dry leaves of some rush, a little seed-down, scraps of herbaceous plants, and the like; the interior, always of the finest grass-stems, neatly arranged and curved to the shape of the cavity. The nests are firmly attached to the drooping twigs, to and between which they are suspended, sometimes by line vegetable fibre, but more commonly by cobwebs and silk from cocoons, a good deal of both of which are generally to be seen wound about the surface of the nest near the points of suspension or attachment.

Four appears to be the full number of the eggs. Mr. Doig, writing from Sind, says:--"This bird is tolerably common all along the Narra, but as it keeps in very thick jungle it is not often seen unless looked for. I took my first nest on the 12th, and my second on the 17th of May. This evidently is the second brood, as I noticed on the same day a lot of young birds which must have been fully six weeks old. One nest was lined with horsehair and fine grasses. Four was the normal number of eggs."

Mr. Gates writes:--"The Yellow-bellied Wren-Warbler is very abundant throughout Lower Pegu in suitable localities. In the plains between the Sittang and Pegu rivers they are constant residents, breeding freely from May to August and September. In Rangoon also, all round the Timber Depot at Kemandine, and in the low-lying land between the town proper and Monkey Point, they are very numerous."

The eggs are of the well-known _Prinia_ type--broad regular ovals, of a nearly uniform mahogany-red, and very glossy. To judge from the few specimens I have seen, they average a good deal smaller, and are somewhat less deeply coloured, than those of _P. socialis_. They vary from 0·52 to 0·6 in length, and from 0·43 to 0·48 in breadth.

464. Prinia socialis, Sykes. _The Ashy Wren-Warbler_.

Prinia socialis, _Sykes, Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p. 170: _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 534. Prinia stewarti, _Blyth, Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 171; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 535.

_Prinia socialis_.

The Ashy Wren-Warbler breeds throughout the southern portion of the Peninsula and Ceylon, alike in the low country and in the hills, up to all elevation of nearly 7000 feet.

The breeding-season extends from March to September, but I am uncertain whether they have more than one brood.

Dr. Jerdon says:--"Colonel Sykes remarks that this species has the same ingenious nest as _O. longicauda_. I have found the nest on several occasions, and verified Colonel Sykes's observations; but it is not so neatly sewn together as the nest of the true Tailor-bird, and there is generally more grass and other vegetable fibres used in the construction. The eggs are usually reddish white, with numerous darker red dots at the large end often coalescing, and sometimes the eggs are uniform brick-red throughout."

Now, first, as regards the eggs, it is clearly wrong to say that the eggs are usually reddish white; that such eggs, as exceptions, may have occurred I do not doubt, but I have seen more than fifty eggs of this bird taken by Miss Cockburn, Messrs. Carter, Davison, Wait, Theobald, and others, and all were without exception mahogany- or brick-red, at times mottled, somewhat paler and darker here and there, but making no approach, even the most distant, to what Dr. Jerdon says is the _usual_ type. Moreover, I have taken _many hundreds_ of the eggs of _stewarti_ (the northern, rather smaller form), which is not only _most_ closely allied but really _very_ doubtfully distinct, and yet I never met with one single egg of this type. At the same time Mr. Swinhoe ('Ibis,' 1860, p. 50) tells us that _P. sonitans_ also at times exhibits a reddish-white egg; so I do not for a moment question that Dr. Jerdon had seen such eggs, only it must be understood that, so far from constituting the _usual type_, it is in reality a most abnormal and rare variety. Out of eight correspondents who have collected for me in Southern India, I cannot learn that any one has ever yet even seen an egg of this type.