Chapter 6

Machlolophus xanthogenys (_Vig._) _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 279; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 647.

The Yellow-cheeked Tit is one of the commonest birds in the neighbourhood of Simla, yet curiously enough I have never found a nest.

I have had eggs and nest sent me, and I know it breeds throughout the Western Himalayas, at elevations of from 4000 to 7000 feet; and that it lays during April and May (and probably other months), making a soft pad-like nest, composed of hair and fur, in boles in trees and walls; but I can give no further particulars.

Captain Hutton tells us that it is "common in the hills throughout the year. It breeds in April, in which month a nest containing four fledged young ones was found at 5000 feet elevation; it was constructed of moss, hair, and feathers, and placed at the bottom of a deep hole in a stump at the foot of an oak tree."

Writing from Dhurmsala, Captain Cock says:--"Towards the end of April this bird made its nest in a hole of a tree just below the terrace of my house. Before the nest was quite finished a pair of _Passer cinnamomeus_ bullied the old birds out of the place, which they deserted. After they had left it I cut the nest out and found it nearly ready to lay in, lined with soft goat-hair and that same dark fur noticed in the nest of _Parus monticola_."

Later he wrote to me that this species "breeds up at Dhurmsala in April and May. It chooses an old cleft or natural cavity in a tree, usually the hill-oak, and makes a nest of wool and fur at the bottom of the cavity, upon which it lays five eggs much like the eggs of _Parus monticola_. Perhaps the blotches are a little larger, otherwise I can see no difference. I noticed on one occasion the male bird carry wool to the nest, which, when I cut it out the same day, I found contained hard-set eggs. I used to nail a sheepskin up in a hill-oak, and watch it with glasses, during April and May, and many a nest have I found by its help. _Parus atriceps, P. monticola, Machlolophus xanthogenys, Abrornis albisuperciliaris_, and many others used to visit it and pull off flocks of wool for their nests. Following up a little bird with wool in its bill through jungle requires sharp eyes and is no easy matter at first, but one soon becomes practised at it."

The eggs are regular, somewhat elongated ovals, in some cases slightly compressed towards one end. The ground is white or reddish white, and they are thickly speckled, spotted, and even blotched with brick-dust red; they have little or no gloss.

They vary in length from 0·7 to 0·78, and in breadth from 0·52 to 0·55; but I have only measured six eggs.

43. Machlolophus haplonotus (Bl.). _The Southern Yellow Tit_.

_Machlolophus jerdoni (Bl.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 280.

Col. E.A. Butler writes:--"Belgaum, 12th Sept., 1879.--Found a nest of the Southern Yellow Tit in a hole of a small tree about 10 feet from the ground. My attention was first attracted to it by seeing the hen-bird with her wings spread and feathers erect angrily mobbing a palm-squirrel that had incautiously ascended the tree, and thinking there must be a nest close by, I watched the sequel, and in a few seconds the squirrel descended the tree and the Tit disappeared in a small hole about halfway up. I then put a net over the hole and tapped the bough to drive her out, but this was no easy matter, for although the nest was only about ¾ foot from the entrance, and I made as much noise as a thick stick could well make against a hollow bough, nothing would induce her to leave the nest until I had cut a large wedge out of the branch, with a saw and chisel, close to the nest, when she flew out into the net.

"The nest, which contained, to my great disappointment, five young birds about a week old, was very massively built, and completely choked up the hollow passage in which it was placed. The foundation consisted of a quantity of dry green moss, of the kind that natives bring in from the jungles in the rains, and sell for ornamenting flower vases, &c. Next came a thick layer of coir, mixed with a few dry skeleton-leaves and some short ends of old rope and a scrap or two of paper, and finally a substantial pad of blackish hair, principally human, but with cow- and horse-hair intermixed, forming a snug little bed for the young ones. The total depth of the nest exteriorly was at least 7 inches.

"The bough, about 8 inches in diameter, was partly rotten and hollow the whole way down, having a small hole at the side above by which the birds entered, and another rather larger about a foot below the nest all choked up with moss that had fallen from the base of the nest. It is strange that it should have escaped my eye previously, as the tree overhung my gateway, through which I passed constantly during the day. Immediately below the nest a large black board bearing my name was nailed to the tree.

"At Belgaum, on the 10th July, 1880, I observed a pair of Yellow Tits building in a crevice of a large banian tree about 9 feet from the ground. The two birds were flying to and from the nest in company, the hen carrying building-materials in her beak. I watched the nest constantly for several days, but never saw the birds near it again until the 18th inst., when the hen flew out of the hole as I passed the tree. I visited the spot on the 19th and 20th inst., tapping the tree loudly with a stick as I passed, but without any result, as the bird did not fly off the nest.

"On the 21st, thinking the nest must either be forsaken or contain eggs, I got up and looked into the hole, and to my surprise found the hen bird comfortably seated on the nest, notwithstanding the noise I had been making to try and put her off. As the crevice was too small to admit my hand, I commenced to enlarge the entrance with a chisel, the old bird sitting closer than ever the whole time. Finding all attempts to drive her off the eggs fruitless, I tried to poke her off: with a piece of stick, whereupon she stuck her head into one of the far corners and sulked. I then inserted my hand with some difficulty and drew her gently out of the hole, but as soon as she caught sight of me, she commenced fighting in the most pugnacious manner, digging her claws and beak into my hand, and finally breaking loose, flying, not away as might have been expected, but straight back into the hole again, to commence sulking once more. Again I drew her out, keeping a firm hold of one leg until I got her well away from the hole, when I released her. I then extracted five fresh eggs from the hole by means of a small round net attached to the loop end of a short piece of wire. The nest was a simple pad of human and cows' hair, with a few horsehairs interwoven, and one or two bits of snake's skin in the lining, having a thin layer of green moss and thin strips of inner bark below as a foundation--in fact a regular Tit's nest. The eggs, of the usual parine type, were considerably larger than the eggs of _P. atriceps_, broad ovals, slightly smaller at one end than the other, having a white ground spotted moderately thickly all over with reddish chestnut; no zone or cap, but in some eggs more freely marked at one end (either small or large end) than the other, some of the markings almost amounting to blotches and the spots as a rule rather large."

Messrs. Davidson and Wenden remark of this bird in the Deccan:--"Specimens of this Tit were procured at Lanoli in August and at Egutpoora in March. They certainly breed at these places, as in September, at the latter place, W. observed two parent birds with four young ones capable of flying out very short distances."

And Mr. Davidson further states that it is "common throughout the district of Western Kandeish. I saw a pair building in the hole of a large mango tree at Malpur in Pimpalnir in the end of May."

44. Lophophanes melanolophus (Vig.). _The Crested Black Tit_.

Lophophanes melanolophus (_Vig._) _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 273: _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 638.

The Crested Black Tit breeds throughout the Lower Himalayas west of Nepal, at elevations of from 6000 to 8000 feet.

The breeding-season lasts from March to June, but the majority have laid, I think, for the first hatch by the end of the first week in April, unless the season has been a very backward one. They usually rear two broods.

They build, so far as I know, always in holes, in trees, rocks, and walls, preferentially in the latter. Their nests involve generally two different kinds of work--the working up of the true nests on which the eggs repose, and the preliminary closing in and making comfortable the cavity in which the former is placed. For this latter work they use almost exclusively moss. Sometimes very little filling-in is required; sometimes the mass of moss used to level and close in an awkward-shaped recess is surprisingly great. A pair breed every year in a terrace-wall of my garden at Simla; elevation about 7800 feet. One year they selected an opening a foot high and 6 inches wide, and they closed up the whole of this, leaving an entrance not 2 inches in diameter. Some years ago I disturbed them there, and found nearly half a cubic foot of dry green moss. Now they build in a cavity behind one of the stones, the entrance to which is barely an inch wide, and in this, as far as I can see, they have no moss at all.

The nests are nothing but larger or smaller pads of closely felted wool and fur; sometimes a little moss, and sometimes a little vegetable down, is mingled in the moss, but the great body of the material is always wool and fur. They vary very much in size: you may meet with them fully 5 inches in diameter and 2 inches thick, comparatively loosely and coarsely massed together; and you may meet with them shallow saucers 3 inches in diameter and barely half an inch in thickness anywhere, as closely felted as if manufactured by human agency.

Six to eight is considered the full complement of eggs, but the number is very variable, and I have taken three, four, and five well-incubated eggs.

Captain Beavan, to judge from his description, seems to have found a regular cup-shaped nest such, as I have never seen. He says:--"At Simla, April 20th, 1866, I found a nest of this species with young ones in it in an old wall in the garden. I secured the old bird for identification, and then released her. The nest contained seven young ones, and was large in proportion. The outside and bottom consists of the softest moss, the nest being carefully built between two stones, about a foot inside the wall; the rest of it is composed of the finest grey wool or fur. Diameter inside 2·5; outside about 5 inches. Depth inside nearly 3 inches; outside 3·6."

Captain Cock told me that he "found several nests in May and June in Cashmere. The first nest I found was in a natural cavity high up in a tree, containing three eggs, which I unfortunately broke while taking them out of the nest. The interior of the cavity was thickly lined with fur from some small animal, such as a hare or rat. I found my second nest close to my tent in a cleft of a pine, quite low down, only 3 feet from the ground. I cut it out and it contained five eggs of the usual type--broad, blunt little eggs, white, with rusty blotches."

Colonel G.F.L. Marshall writes:--"I have only found two nests of this species in Naini Tal, both had young (two in one nest, in the other I could not count) on the 25th April; they were at about 7000 feet elevation, built in holes in walls, the entrance in both cases being very small, having nothing to distinguish it from other tiny crevices, and nothing to lead any one to suppose that there was a nest inside. It was only by seeing the parent birds go in that the nest was discovered."

The eggs of this species are moderately broad ovals, with a very slight gloss. The ground-colour is a slightly pinkish white, and they are richly blotched and spotted, and more or less speckled (chiefly towards the larger end), with bright, somewhat brownish red.

The markings very commonly form a dense, almost confluent zone or cap about the large end, and they are generally more thinly scattered elsewhere, but the amount of the markings varies much in different eggs. In some, although they are thicker in the zone, they are still pretty thickly set over the entire surface, while in others they are almost confined to one end of the egg, generally the broad end.

These eggs vary much in size and in density of marking. The ordinary dimensions are about 0·61 by 0·47, but in a large series they vary in length from 0·57 to 0·72, and in breadth from 0·43 to 0·54. The very large eggs, however, indicated by these _maxima_ are rare and abnormal.

47. Lophophanes rufinuchalis (Bl.). _The Simla Black Tit_.

Lophophanes rufinuchalis (_Bl.). Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p. 274.

Mr. Brooks informs us that this Tit is common at Derali and other places of similar elevation. "I found a nest under a large stone in the middle of a hill foot-path, up and down which people and cattle were constantly passing; the nest contained newly-hatched young. This was the middle of May."

Dr. Scully, writing of the Gilgit district, tells us that this Tit is a denizen of the pine-forests, where it breeds.

Finally Captain Wardlaw Ramsay, writing in the 'Ibis,' states that this Tit was breeding in Afghanistan in May.

Subfamily PARADOXORNITHINAE.

50. Conostoma aemodium, Hodgs. _The Red-billed Crow-Tit_.

Conostoma aemodium. _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 10; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 381.

A nest of the Red-billed Crow-Tit was sent me from Native Sikhim, where it was found at an elevation of about 10,000 feet, in a cluster of the small Ringal bamboo. It contained three eggs, two of which were broken in blowing them.

The nest is a very regular and perfect hemisphere, both externally and internally. It is very compactly made, externally of coarse grass and strips of bamboo-leaves, and internally very thickly lined with stiff but very fine grass-stems, about the thickness of an ordinary pin, very carefully curved to the shape of the nest. The coarser exterior grass appears to have been used when dry; but the fine grass, with which the interior is so densely lined, is still green. It is the most perfectly hemispherical nest I ever saw. Exteriorly it is exactly 6 inches in diameter and 3 in height; internally the cavity measures 4.5 in diameter and 2·25 in depth.

The egg is a regular moderately elongated oval, slightly compressed towards the smaller end. The shell is fine and thin, and has only a faint gloss. The ground-colour is a dull white, and it is sparsely blotched, streaked, and smudged with pale yellowish brown, besides which, about the large end, there are a number of small pale inky purple spots and clouds, looking as if they were beneath the surface of the shell.

The single egg preserved measures 1·11 by 0·8.

A nest sent me by Mr. Mandelli was found, he says, in May, in Native Sikhim, in a cluster of Ringal (hill-bamboo) at an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet. It is a large, rather broad and shallow cup, the great bulk of the nest composed of extremely fine hair-like grass-stems, obviously used when green, and coated thinly exteriorly with coarse blades of grass, giving the outside a ragged and untidy appearance. The greatest external diameter is 5.5, the height 3·2, but the cavity is 4·5 in diameter and 2.2 in depth, so that, though owing to the fine material used throughout except in the outer coating the nest is extremely firm and compact, it is not at all a massive-looking one.

60. Scaeorhynchus ruficeps (Bl.). _The Larger Red-headed Crow-Tit_.

Paradoxornis ruficeps, _Bl., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 5.

Mr. Gammie writes from Sikhim:--"In May, at 2000 feet elevation, I took a nest of this bird, which appears to have been rarely, if ever, taken by any European, and is not described in your Rough Draft of 'Nests and Eggs.' It was seated among, and fastened to, the spray of a bamboo near its top, and is a deep, compactly built cap, measuring externally 3·5 inches wide and the same in depth; internally 2·7 wide by 1·9 deep. The material used is particularly clean and new-looking, and has none of the secondhand appearance of much of the building-stuffs of many birds. The outer layer is of strips torn off large grass-stalks and a very few cobwebs; the lining, of fine fibrous strips, or rather threads, of bamboo-stems. There were three eggs, which were ready for hatching-off. They averaged 0·83 in. by 0·63 in. I send you the nest and two of the eggs.

"Both Jerdon and Tickell say they found this bird feeding on grain and other seeds, but those I examined had all confined their diet to different sorts of insects, such as would be found about the flowers of bamboo, buckwheat, &c. Probably they do eat a few seeds occasionally, but their principal food is certainly insects. Very usually, in winter especially, they feed in company with _Gampsorhynchus rufulus_. Rather curious that the two Red-heads should affect each other's society."

The eggs are broad ovals, rather cylindrical, very blunt at both ends. The shell fine, with a slight gloss. The ground is white, and it is rather thinly and irregularly spotted, blotched, and smeared in patches with a dingy yellowish brown, chiefly about the larger end, to which also are nearly confined the secondary markings, which are pale greyish lilac or purplish grey.

61. Scaeorhynchus gularis (Horsf.). _The Hoary-headed Crow-Tit_.

Paradoxornis gularis, _Horsf., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p, 5.

A nest sent me by Mr. Mandelli as belonging to this species was found, he tells me, at an elevation of 8000 feet in Native Sikhim on the 17th May. It was placed in a fork amongst the branches of a medium-sized tree at a height of about 30 feet from the ground. The nest is a very massive cup, composed of soft grass-blades, none of them much exceeding ·1 inch in width, wound round and round together very closely and compactly, and then tied over exteriorly everywhere, but not thickly, with just enough wool and wild silk to keep the nest perfectly strong and firm. Inside, the nest is lined with extremely fine grass-stems; the nest is barely 4 inches in diameter exteriorly and 2·5 in height; the egg-cavity is 2·4 in diameter and 1·2 in depth.

Mr. Mandelli sends me an egg which he considers to belong to this species, found near Darjeeling on the 7th May. It is a broad oval, very slightly compressed at one end; the shell dull and glossless; the ground a dead white, profusely streaked and smudged pretty thickly all over with pale yellowish brown; the whole bigger end of the egg clouded with dull inky purple and two or three hair-lines of burnt sienna in different parts of the egg. The egg measures 0·8 by 0·61.

Two eggs of this species, procured in Sikhim on the 17th May, are very regular ovals, scarcely at all pointed towards the lesser end. The ground-colour is creamy white, and the markings consist of large indistinct blotches of pale yellow; round the large end is an almost confluent zone or cap of purplish grey, darker in one egg; they have no gloss, and both measure 0·82 by 0·61.

Family CRATEROPODIDAE.

Subfamily CRATEROPODINAE.

62. Dryonastes ruficollis (J. & S.) _The Rufous-necked Laughing-Thrush_.

Garrulax ruticollis (_J. & S.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 38; _Hume, Rough Draft N.& E._ no. 410.

Of the Rufous-necked Laughing-Thrush, Mr. Blyth remarks:--"Mr. Hodgson figures the egg of a fine green colour."

The egg is not figured in my collection of Mr. Hodgson's drawings.

Writing from near Darjeeling, in Sikhim, Mr. Gammie says:--"I have seen two nests of this bird; both were in bramble-bushes about five feet from the ground, and exactly resembled those of _Dryonastes caerulatus_, only they were a little smaller. One nest had three young ones, the other three very pale blue unspotted eggs, which I left in the nest intending to get them in another day or two, as I wanted to see if more eggs would be laid, but when I went back to the place the nest had been taken away by some one. Both nests were found here in May, one at 3500 feet, the other at 4500 feet.

"I have taken numerous nests of this species from April to June, from the warmest elevations up to about 4000 feet. They are cup-shaped; composed of dry leaves and small climber-stems, and lined with a few fibrous roots. They measure externally about 5 inches in width by 3·5 in depth; internally 3·25 across by 2·25 deep. Usually they are found in scrubby jungle, fixed in bushes, within five or six feet of the ground. The eggs are three or four in number."

Many nests of this species sent me from Sikhim by my friends Messrs. Mandelli and Gammie are all precisely of the same type--deep and rather compact cups, varying from 5 to 6 inches in external diameter, and 3·25 to 3·75 in height; the cavities about 3·25 in diameter and 2·25 in depth. The nest is composed almost entirely of dry bamboo-leaves bound together loosely with stems of creepers or roots, and the cavity is lined with black and brown rootlets, generally not very fine. They seem never to be placed at any very great elevation from the ground.

The eggs of this species, of which I have received a very large number from Mr. Gammie, are distinguishable at once from those of all the other species of this group with which I am acquainted. Just as the egg of _Garrulax albigularis_ is distinguished by its very deep tone of coloration, the egg of the present species is distinguished by its extreme paleness. In shape the eggs are moderately broad ovals, often, however, somewhat pyriform, often a good deal pointed towards the small end. The shell is extremely fine and smooth, and has a very fine gloss; they may be said to be almost white with a delicate bluish-green tinge. In length they vary from 0·95 to 1·1, in breadth from 0·6 to 0·83; but the average of forty-one eggs is 1·02 by 0·75.

65. Dryonastes caerulatus (Hodgs.). _The Grey-sided Laughing-Thrush_.

Garrulax caerulatus (_Hodgs._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 36; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 408.

A nest of the Grey-sided Laughing-Thrush found by Mr. Gammie on the 17th June near Darjeeling, below Rishap, at an elevation of about 3500 feet, was placed in a shrub, at a height of about six feet from the ground, and contained one fresh egg. It was a large, deep, compact cup, measuring about 5·5 inches in external diameter and about 4 in height, the egg-cavity being 4 inches in diameter and 2¾ inches in depth. Externally it was entirely composed of very broad flag-like grass-leaves firmly twisted together, and internally of coarse black grass and moss-roots very neatly and compactly put together. The nest had no other lining.

This year (1874) Mr. Gammie writes:--"This species breeds in Sikhim in May and Jane. I have found the nests in our Chinchona reserves, at various elevations from 3500 to 5000 feet, always in forests with a more or less dense undergrowth. The nest is placed in trees, at heights of from 6 to 12 feet from the ground, between and firmly attached to several slender upright shoots. It is cup-shaped, usually rather shallow, composed of dry bamboo-leaves and twigs and lined with root-fibres. One I measured was 5 inches in diameter by 2·5 in height exteriorly; the cavity was 4 inches across and only 1·3 deep. Of course they vary slightly. As far as my experience goes, they do not lay more than three eggs; indeed, at times only two."

Dr. Jerdon remarks that "a nest and eggs, said to be of this bird, were brought to me at Darjeeling; the nest loosely made with roots and grass, and containing two pale blue eggs."