Chapter 9

From Kotagherry, Miss Cockburn remarks:--"The name 'Laughing-Thrush' is most applicable to this bird, and its notes are often mistaken for the sound of the human voice. This bird is very shy, except when its nest contains eggs or young, when it becomes extremely bold. I was quite surprised to see a pair whose nest I was taking come so close as to induce me to put out my hand to catch them. The Laughing-Thrush builds a pretty, though large, nest, and generally selects the forked branches of a thick bush, and commences its nest with a large quantity of moss, after which there is a lining of fine grass and roots, and the withered fibrous covering of the Peruvian Cherry (_Physalis peruviana_), the nest being finished with a few feathers, in general belonging to the bird. The inside of the nest is perfectly round, and rarely contains more than two eggs, belonging to the owner. The eggs are of a beautiful greenish-blue colour, with a few large and small brown blotches and streaks, mostly at the large end. I have found the nests of these birds in February, March, and April. Occasionally the Black-and-white Crested Cuckoo, which appears on these hills in the month of March, deposits its eggs (two in number) in the nest of this Thrush. They are easily distinguished, as their colour is quite different from the Thrush's eggs, being entirely dark bluish green."

Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan writing from South India, says, in 'The Ibis':--"It builds a very neat nest of moss, dried leaves, and the outer husk of the fruit of the Brazil Cherry, lined with feathers, bits of fur, and other soft substances. The nest is cup-shaped, and generally contains three eggs, most peculiarly marked with blotches, streaks, and wavy lines of a dark claret-colour on a light blue ground. The markings are almost always at the larger end."

The first specimens that I obtained of the eggs of this species were kindly sent to me by the late Captain Mitchell and Mr. H.R.P. Carter of Madras; they were taken on the Nilghiris. They are moderately broad ovals, somewhat pointed towards one end, larger than the average eggs of _T. lineatum_, and about the same size as large specimens of the eggs of _Crateropus canorus_ and _Argya malcolmi_. The ground-colour is of a delicate pale blue, and towards the large end, and sometimes over the whole surface, they are speckled, spotted, and blotched, but only sparingly, with brownish red and blackish brown, and amongst these markings a few cloudy streaks and spots of dull faint reddish purple are observable. The eggs have not much gloss.

Numerous other specimens subsequently received from Miss Cockburn and others correspond well with the above description. More or less pyriform varieties are common. In some eggs the markings are almost entirely wanting, there being only a very faint brownish-pink freckling at the large end; and in many eggs, even some that are profusely spotted all over, the markings consist only of darker or lighter brownish-pink shades. Occasionally a few, almost black, twisted lines are intermingled with the other markings, and in these cases the lines are frequently surrounded by a reddish-purple nimbus.

The eggs vary in length from 0·92 to 1·08, and in breadth from 0·74 to 0·8, but the average of twenty eggs measured was 1·0 by 0·76.

96. Trochalopterum fairbanki, Blanf. _The Palni Laughing-Thrush_.

Trochalopterum fairbanki, _Blanf., Hume, Cat._ no. 423 bis.

The Rev. S.B. Fairbank, the discoverer of this species, found its nest at Kodai Kanal, in the Palni Hills, in May. The nest was placed in the crotch of a tree, at about 10 feet from the ground, and at an elevation of nearly 6500 feet above the level of the sea. The eggs are moderately elongated ovals, with a fine, fairly glossy shell. The ground is pale greenish blue or bluish green; the markings are spots, small blotches, hair-lines, and hieroglyphic-like scrawls, rather thinly scattered about the surface, and varying in colour through several shades of brownish and reddish purple to bright claret-colour.

The only egg I have measures 1 inch in length by 0·8 inch in breadth.

99. Trochalopterum lineatum (Vig.). _The Himalayan Streaked Laughing-Thrush_.

Trochalopteron lineatum (_Vig.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 50; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 425[A].

[Footnote A: I omit the note on _T. imbricatum_ in the 'Rough Draft,' because, as I have shown in the 'Birds of India,' this bird was unknown to Hodgson, and his note refers to _T. lineatum_. Sufficient is now known about the nidification of this latter to render the insertion of Hodgson's note unnecessary.--ED.]

Next to the Common House-Sparrow, the Himalayan Streaked Laughing-Thrush is perhaps the most familiar bird about our houses at all the hill-stations of the Himalayas westward of Nepal and throughout the lower ranges on which these stations are situated; this species breeds at elevations of from 5000 to 8000 feet.

It lays from the end of April to the beginning of September, and very possibly occasionally even earlier and later. I took a nest on the 29th April near Mussoorie; Mr. Brooks obtained eggs in May and June at Almorah; Colonel G.F.L. Marshall at Mussoorie in July and August; and Colonel C.H.T. Marshall at Murree from May to the end of July. I again took them in July and August near Simla, and Captain Beavan found them as late as the 6th of September near the same station.

So far as my own experience goes, the nests are always placed in very thick bushes or in low thick branches of some tree, the Deodar appearing to be a great favourite. Those I found averaged about 4 feet from the ground, but I took a single one in a Deodar tree fully 8 feet up. The bird, as a rule, conceals its nest so well that, though a loose and, for the size of the architect, a large structure, it is difficult to find, even when one closely examines the bush in which it is. The nest is nearly circular, with a deep cup-like cavity in the centre, reminding one much of that of _Crateropus canorus_, and is constructed of dry grass and the fine stems of herbaceous plants, often intermingled with the bark of some fibrous plant, with a considerable number of dead leaves interwoven in the fabric, especially towards the base. The cavity is neatly lined with fine grass-roots, or occasionally very fine grass. The cavity varies from 3 inches to 3·5 in diameter, and from 2·25 inches to 2·75 in depth; the walls immediately surrounding the cavity are very compact, but the compact portion rarely exceeds from ·75 to 1 inch in thickness, beyond which the loose ends of the material straggle more or less, so that the external diameter varies from 5·5 inches to nearly 10.

The normal number of eggs appears to me to be three, although Captain Beavan cites an instance of four being found.

Captain Hutton tells us (J.A.S.B. xvii.) that in the neighbourhood of Mussoorie "this bird is met with in pairs, sometimes in a family of four or five, and may be seen under every bush. The nest is placed near the ground, in the midst of some thick low bush, or on the side of a bank amidst overhanging coarse grass, and not unfrequently in exposed and well-frequented places; it is loosely and rather slovenly constructed of coarse dry grasses and stalks externally, lined sometimes with fine grass, sometimes with fine roots. The eggs are three in number, and in shape and size exceedingly variable, being sometimes of an ordinary oval, at others nearly round."

From Almorah and Nynee Tal my friend Mr. Brooks writes to me "that this bird is common everywhere. The nest is generally placed in a low tree or bush where the foliage is thick. It is composed of grass, and lined with finer grass. The eggs are three in number, one inch and one line long by nine lines broad. They are of a light greenish blue, the tint being much the same as that of the eggs of _Acridotheres tristis_. They lay from the commencement of May to the end of June."

Colonel G.F.L. Marshall tells me that "the Streaked Laughing-Thrush is very common at Mussoorie, where it is called by the public the Robin of India. It breeds in July and August all about Landour. The nest is cup-shaped, rather shallow, and loosely put together, made of grass and fibre with some moss and a few dead leaves twisted into it; it is placed in a low bush or else on the ground concealed among the grass-roots on the hill-side. The eggs, three or four in number, are oval, rather large for the bird, and of a pure light-blue colour without spots. I took eggs on the 26th and 28th July and on the 16th August."

Sir E.C. Buck writes:--"At Mutianee, three marches north of Simla, I found on the 28th June a nest in a bush on the side of a scantily 'jungled' hill. It was 2 feet from the ground, constructed of grass and stalks externally, and lined with fibrous roots. It contained three fresh eggs. The nest measured--exterior diameter 6 inches, height exteriorly 4 inches; the interior diameter was 3 inches, and the depth of the cavity 2 inches."

The late Captain Beavan tells us that "on the 16th of August, 1866, I found a nest in the garden, in a rose-bush, with four pale blue eggs in it, like those of _Acridotheres tristis_. The nest is a large structure, firmly built of dry twigs, bark, sticks, ferns, and roots. Another nest, with three eggs only, was found in a thick clump of everlasting peas close to the ground on the 6th of September. The female sat very close, and this may have been the second nest of the same pair that built the nest mentioned above, as it was built not far from the first."

Major C.T. Bingham writes:--"Being at Landour for a few days in May I chanced on a nest of this bird, perhaps the commonest in the hills. It was placed under an overhanging bush on the side of Lal Tiba hill, and _on the ground_, being constructed rather loosely of pieces of the withered stem of some creeper, intertwined with a quantity of oak-leaves, and lined with grass-roots."

The eggs, of which I must have seen some hundreds, as this is the commonest Laughing-Thrush about both Mussoorie and Simla, are typically regular and moderately broad ovals. Abnormally elongated, spherical, and pyriform varieties occur; some are nearly round like a Kingfisher's, and I have seen one almost as slender as a Swift's, but, as a rule, the eggs vary but little either in shape or colour. They are perfectly spotless, moderately glossy, and of a delicate pale greenish blue, which of course varies a little in shade and intensity of colour, but which is very much paler on the average than those of any of the _Crateropi_, and at the same time less glossy. I am not at all sure whether _T. lineatum_ is rightly associated with species like _T. cachinnans, T. variegatum_, and _T. erythrocephalum_, which all have spotted eggs.

In length the eggs vary from 0·8 to 1·13, and in breadth from 0·63 to 0·8; but the average of fifty-eight eggs carefully measured is 1·01 by 0·73.

101. Grammatoptila striata (Vig.). _The Striated Laughing-Thrush_.

Grammatoptila striata (_Vig.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii; p. 11; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 382.

The Striated Laughing-Thrush, remarks Mr. Blyth, "builds a compact Jay-like nest. The eggs are spotless blue, as shown by one of Mr. Hodgson's drawings in the British Museum."

A nest of this species found near Darjeeling in July was placed on the branches of a large tree, at a height of about 12 feet.

It was a huge shallow cup, composed mainly of moss, bound together with stems of creepers and fronds of a _Selaginella_, and lined with coarse roots and broken pieces of dry grass. A few dead leaves were incorporated in the body of the nest. The nest was about 8 or 9 inches in diameter and about 2 in thickness, the broad, shallow, saucer-like cavity being about an inch in depth.

The nest contained two nearly fresh eggs. The eggs appear to be rather peculiarly shaped. They are moderately elongated ovals, a good deal pinched out and pointed towards the small end, in the same manner (though in a less degree) as those of some Plovers, Snipe, &c. I do not know whether this is the typical shape of this egg, or whether it is an abnormal peculiarity of the eggs of this particular nest. The shell is fine, but the eggs have very little gloss. In colour they are a very pale spotless blue, not much darker than those of _Zosterops palpebrosus_.

The eggs measure 1·3 and 1·32 in length, and 0·89 and 0·92 in breadth.

From Sikhim, Mr. Gammie writes:--"In the first week of May I took a nest of the Striated Laughing-Thrush out of a small tree growing in the forest at 5500 feet above the sea. It was fixed among spray about 10 feet up. In shape it is a shallow, broad cup, and is built in three layers: the outer one of twining stems, which besides holding the nest together fastened it to the spray; the middle layer is an intermixture of green moss and fresh fern-fronds, and the inner a thick lining of roots. Externally it measured 7·5 inches broad by 5·25 inches deep; internally 4 inches by 2·75 inches.

"It contained two hard-set eggs."

Several nests of this species that I have now seen have all been of the same type, large nests 9 or 10 inches in diameter, and 4 to 5 in height, the body of the nest composed mainly of green moss interwoven with and bound round about with the stems of creepers and a few pliant twigs, many of which straggle away a good deal outside the limits which I have assigned in stating the dimensions above. The cavities are not quite hemispherical, a little shallower, say 4·5 inches in diameter and 2 inches in depth, closely lined with fine black roots. They have all been placed in the branches of trees at heights of from 8 to 20 feet.

Eggs of this species obtained by Mr. Gammie in May, and Mr. Mandelli in July, are of precisely the same type. They are rather elongated ovals, a good deal pointed towards the small end, near which they are not unfrequently a good deal compressed, so as to render the egg slightly pyriform. The shell is fine and smooth, but has little gloss. The ground-colour is a very pale greenish blue or bluish green, in some almost white; some of them are absolutely spotless, none of them are at all well marked, but some bear from half a dozen to a dozen tiny specks of a dark colour. On one only there is a triangular spot about 0·05 each way, which proves on examination with a microscope to be a deep brownish red. On the other eggs the markings are mere specks.

The eggs vary from 1·25 to 1·35 in length, and from 0·89 to 0·92 in breadth.

104. Argya earlii (Blyth). _The Striated Babbler_.

Chatarrhaea earlii (_Blyth), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 68; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 439.

The Striated Babbler breeds in suitable localities throughout Continental India, from Sindh to Tipperah and Assam, as also in Burmah. Reedy-margined lakes, canals and perennial streams are its favourite haunts, and wherever within the limits above indicated these abound, and the locality is moist and warm, _A. earlii_ is pretty sure to be met with.

They lay twice during the year, between the latter end of March and the early part of September, building a neat, compact, and rather massive cup-shaped nest, either between the close-growing reeds, to three or more of which it is firmly bound, or in some little bush or shrub more or less surrounded by high reed-grass. The broad leaves and stringy roots of the reed, common grass, and grass-roots are the materials of which it generally constructs its nest, which varies much in size, according to the situation and fineness of the material used. I have seen them composed almost wholly of reed-leaves, fully 7 inches in diameter and 5 in height, and again built entirely of fine grass-stems not more than 4 inches across and 3 inches in height. When semi-suspended between reeds, they are always smaller and more compact, while when placed in a fork of a low bush they are larger and more straggling. The cavity (always neatly finished off, but very rarely regularly lined, and then only with very fine grass-stems or roots) is usually about 3 inches in diameter by 2 inches in depth.

Colonel G.F.L. Marshall remarks:--"In the Saharunpoor District _A. earlii_ commences building about the middle of March, and the young are hatched towards the middle of April. The nest is usually placed in the middle of a tuft of Sarkerry grass, and sometimes in a bush or small tree, generally 3 or 4 feet from the ground. It is a deep cup-shaped structure, rather neatly made of grass without lining, and woven in with the stems if in a clump of grass, or firmly fixed in a fork if in a bush or low tree. The interior diameter is about 3 inches, and the depth nearly 2 inches. The eggs, four in number, are of a clear blue colour without spots of any kind. In shape they are oval, rather thinner at one end; the shell is smooth and thin. The eggs are of the same colour, but considerably larger than those of _Argya caudata. Argya earlii_ breeds commonly in the Sub-Siwalik District of the Doab; it seems fond of water, as most of the nests I have found were close to the canal bank. It is gregarious even in the breeding-season; small flocks of seven or eight keeping together, fluttering in and out of the low bushes, but seldom alighting on the ground, and occasionally making a noisy chattering cry, especially when disturbed."

From the Pegu District Mr. Oates writes:--"I found two nests on the 24th May, one quite empty though finished, the other containing three eggs.

"The nests were placed a few feet apart in an immensely thick patch of elephant-grass, the undergrowth being fine, once tall, but now dead, grass. It was upon this dead stuff, which in May is much flattened down, that I found the nests. They were not attached to anything, but simply laid in a depressed platform about a foot above the ground, in among the thickest of the stalks of elephant-grass.

"The nest is a bulky structure, some 6 or 8 inches in external diameter, and 4 inches in height, composed chiefly of coarse reeds, becoming finer interiorly till the egg-cup is reached, where the grasses employed are tolerably fine and neatly interwoven. The cavity itself is more than a hemisphere, the diameter being 3 inches and the depth about 2 inches.

"The eggs are of a beautiful blue colour, rather pointed at one end."

Colonel Tickell has the following note on the nidification of this species in the Asiatic Society Journal, 1848, p. 301:--

"_Burra phenga_.--Nest hemispherical, of grasses rather loosely interwoven; generally on bushes in jungle. Eggs two to four; rather lengthened shape; clear, full, verditer blue.--June."

Mr. J.R. Cripps writes of this bird in Eastern Bengal:--"Very common, and a permanent resident, keeping to grass-fields in small parties of seven to ten. Very noisy. On the 2nd December, 1877, I found a nest with three slightly-incubated eggs in a small babool bush which stood in a 'sone' grass-field. The nest was a deep cup, whose foundation was a few leaves over which sone-grass was woven rather loosely. Lining of fine grass-roots. The nest was placed in amongst some coarse grass which grew up in the centre of the bush, and was three feet from the ground. External height 4, diameter 4¼, internal diameter 2½, depth 2½ inches. Both Messrs. Marshall and Hume in their works on 'Birds' Nesting' give March and September as the two periods for these birds to lay, but the clutch I found were exceptionally late."

Mr. J. Inglis writes from Cachar:--"The Striated Reed-Babbler is exceedingly common during the whole year. It breeds from March onwards, making its nest in longish grass."

The eggs closely resemble those of _A. caudata_ both in colour and shape, but they are conspicuously larger. To judge from Hewitson's figure, for I have never seen the egg, they in shape, size, and colour closely resemble the eggs of _Accentor alpinus_, some I have being very slightly larger, and others exactly the same size as the figure referred to.

In length the eggs vary from 0·78 to 1·01, and in breadth from 0·65 to 0·75, but the average of a large series is 0·88 by 0·7.

105. Argya caudata (Duméril). _The Common Babbler_.

Chatarrhaea caudata (_Dum.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 67; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E_ no. 438.

The Common Babbler breeds throughout India, not, however, ascending any of our many mountain-ranges to any great elevation.

They lay pretty well all the year round; at any rate from early in March, to early in September their eggs are common. Mr. W. Blewitt took a nest at Hansie on the 3rd January, and single nests are recorded by others as found in October, December, and February. They certainly have two broods a year, and perhaps more, the first being hatched from March to May, the second from June to August.

They build in low thorny bushes, and occasionally in clumps of high grass, the nest being rarely more than 3 feet from the ground. The nest itself is cup-shaped, and composed of grass and roots, often unlined, at times lined with very fine grass-stems or horse-hair. As a rule, it is neatly and compactly built, with a deep cavity some 2 to 3 inches in diameter, and 1·75 to 2·25 in depth, but I have seen straggling, ragged, and comparatively shallow nests of this species, having an external diameter of fully 7 inches. Three is the normal number of the eggs, but four are occasionally met with.

Mr. Brooks says:--"This species builds in much the same sort of places as _A. malcolmi_, but it chooses a low thick bush, the nest not being more than 3 feet from the ground. Nest neatly built of grass, roots, hair, &c., and the eggs bright bluish green, very glossy, and much resembling those of _Accentor modularis_."

Mr. R.M. Adam remarks:--"I took a nest of this bird in Oudh on the 22nd April. It contained a young bird and one unhatched egg. The nest was made of grass not well worked together, and had a lining of finer grass. The ground-work was composed of twigs and stems of creepers interlaced. The exterior diameter of the nest measured 5 inches, and the egg-cavity was 2 inches deep. In one case this bird did not lay till the fifth day after the nest was finished. About Agra this bird breeds during July and August.

"This Bush-Babbler is very common about the Sambhur lake. I have noted it breeding from the beginning of March till the beginning of July. Although this species generally prefers building in the hedges of prickly-pear, I have taken the nests in orange-trees, the karounda, the babool, &c."

Messrs. Davidson and Wenden state that in the Deccan it is "very common and breeds."

Major C.T. Bingham says:--"This bird, uncommon at Allahabad, is plentiful here at Delhi. I found several nests between March and June, all of the Babbler type, deep cups, rather more firmly built than those of the preceding bird, but constructed like them of coarse roots of grass, with finer ones for the inside. They are never placed at any great height from the ground, and generally in some thorny bush. I have found mostly three, rarely four eggs in any one nest."

Mr. Benjamin Aitken writes:--"I never saw the Common Babbler in Poona, and it certainly does not occur in Bombay. But it is very abundant on the arid plains of Berar, breeding in the low babool-bushes, where large numbers of its eggs are destroyed by lizards. I have found four eggs in a nest oftener than three."

Colonel Butler writes:--"The Common Babbler breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa principally during the monsoon; but I have found nests occasionally at other seasons of the year, as the following table of dates will show:--

"April 29, 1876. A nest containing 3 fresh eggs. "May 16, 1876. " " 3 fresh eggs. "May 21, 1876. " " 2 fresh eggs. "Nov. 15, 1876. " " 4 young birds.