Chapter XVIII: Part 18

This species or race breeds almost throughout the plains of Upper India and in the Sub-Himalayan ranges to an elevation of 3000 or 4000 feet. In the plains the breeding-season extends from the first downfall of rain in June (I have never found them earlier) to quite the end of August. In the moist Sub-Himalayan region, the Terais, Doons, Bhaburs, and the low hills, they commence laying nearly a month earlier.

This species often constructs as neatly sewn a nest as does the _Orthotomus_; in fact, many of the nests built by these two species so closely resemble each other that it would be difficult to distinguish them were there not very generally a difference in the lining. With few exceptions all the innumerable nests of _O. sutorius_ that I have seen were lined with some soft substance--cotton-wool, the silky down of the cotton-tree(_Bomlax heptaphyllum_) grass-down, soft horsehair, or even human hair, while the nests of _P. stewarti_ are almost without exception _lined_ with fine grass-roots.

Our present bird does not, however, invariably construct a "tailored" nest. When it does, like _O. sittorius_, it sews two, three, four, or five leaves together, as may be most convenient, filling the intervening space with down, fine grass, vegetable fibre, or wool, held firmly into its place by cross-threads, sometimes composed of cobwebs, sometimes made by the bird itself of cotton, and sometimes apparently derived from unravelled rags. It also, however, often makes a nest entirely composed of fine vegetable fibre, cotton, and grass-down, and lined as usual with fine grass-roots. Sometimes these nests are long and purse-like, and sometimes globular, either attached to, or pendent from, two or more twigs. One nest before me, a sort of deep watch-pocket, suspended from five twigs of the jhao (_Tamarix dioica_), measures externally 2·75 inches in diameter, is a good deal longer at what may be called the back than the front, and at the back fully 5·5 long. Internally the diameter is about 1·5, and the cavity, measuring from the lowest portion of the external rim, is 2·5. This is a _very_ large nest. Another, built between three leaves, has an external diameter of about 2½ inches, and is externally not above 3 inches long. It is unnecessary here to describe the beautiful manner in which, when it makes use of leaves, this bird sews them together, as this has already been well described by others where _O. sutorius_ is concerned, and _P. stewarti_ is, in some cases, when forming a nest with leaves, fully as neat a workman.

The nests vary so much, and I have heard so much, discussion about them, that having seen at least a hundred and having taken full notes of some twenty of them, I shall reproduce a few of these notes:--

"_Agra, July 17th_.--Two nests--one nearly globular, composed entirely of fibrous roots, hair, wool, and thread, and lined with fine grass, suspended by a few fibres and hairs between the fork of a branchlet in a little dense bush of Indian box; the other, suspended from the tendril of an elephant creeper, was principally formed by one of the leaves of this, to which, to form the remaining third of the exterior, a second leaf of the same plant was carefully sewn. Interiorly there was a little wool, and at the bottom fine grass.

"_July 20th_.--On a furash-tree (_Tamarix furas_), beautifully made of fine soft wool, shreds of tow and string, very fine grass and grass-roots, and the bottom neatly lined with very fine grass-roots. In shape the nest is like one half of a long old-fashioned silk purse, round-bottomed and very compact, with a long slit-like opening on one side towards the top. It contained five eggs.

"_July 26th_.--Two nests, one formed almost entirely in a single mango-leaf, the sides of which are curled round so as nearly to meet, and then laced by a succession of cross-threads of cobweb, carefully knotted at each place where the margin of the leaf is pierced. The intervening space is closed by fine tow, wool, and the silky down of the cotton-tree, with just the top of a small mango-leaf caught in from above so as to form an arched roof. The other nest was rounder in form, having less of a leafy structure. It had, however, the leaf of the _Phalsa_ forming the back and sides (partly), whilst the whole of the front was composed of soft wool, tow, dry grass-roots, thread, and a few pieces of the soft tree-cotton. It had a neighbouring leaf just caught in on one side. This contained four fresh eggs.

"_July 30th_.--A beautiful nest between three twigs, several of the leaves of each of which had been tacked on to the outside of the nest. The nest itself was firmly put together with fine grass-roots, and was nearly globular in shape, with one side continued upwards into a sort of hood overhanging the greater portion of the aperture. It contained four eggs of the usual deep red colour.

"_August 8th_.--At Bichpoori found a number of nests, and some of them of a strangely different type. One was inside a tiny hut on the line, about 3 feet above the head of the chaprassie's bed. It had no leaves about it, and was composed of thread, wool, and a few very fine grass-stems, and lined thinly with fine grass-stems and a little black horsehair. It was about two thirds of a sphere, the external diameter of which was about 3¼ inches, and the internal 2½ inches. The bird was on the nest, so that there could be no mistake, otherwise it would have been impossible to believe that it belonged to _P. stewarti_, of which we have taken so many sewn in leaves. A little further on another nest of the same species, built in the ragged eaves of a thatch, externally composed almost entirely of cotton-wool, with a little tow-fibre binding the structure together, internally as usual lined with very fine grass-roots with a few horsehairs. Another nest of the _Prinia_ was in one respect even more remarkable. It was built in the usual situation in a low herbaceous plant, sewn to and suspended from two leaves, and two or three others worked into its sides. It was constructed almost entirely of fine grass-roots and fibres, with a few tiny tufts of cotton-wool, and the leaves as usual firmly tacked on with threads and cobweb fibres. It would seem that, after constructing the nest, but before laying, a large female spider took possession of the bottom of the nest, and shut herself in by constructing a diaphragm of web horizontally across the nest, thus occupying the whole of the cavity of the nest. The little bird accepted this change of circumstances, built the nest a little higher at the sides, and over the spider's web placed a false bottom of fine grass-roots, on which she laid her four eggs, and there she was sitting when the nest was taken, the spider, alive and apparently happy in the cell below, plainly visible through the interstices of the grass, with a huge sac of eggs which she was incubating. Her chamber is fully one half of the nest."

I may add that this latter nest, with the _now_ dead spider, _in situ_, is still in our museum.

In number the eggs are sometimes four, sometimes five, and I have _heard_ of six being found.

They rear usually two broods; if their eggs are taken they will lay three or four sets; sometimes they use the same nest twice; sometimes, directly the first brood is at all able to shift for themselves, the parents leave them in the old nest, and commence building a new one at no great distance.

The late Mr. A. Anderson remarked:--"Owing to the inclemency of the weather (August) the geranium-pots in the garden were placed in the verandah of the house I am at present living in, and, strange to say, a pair of these Warblers commenced building in the leaves of one of the plants immediately under my window.

"When the nest was about half-finished the birds' forsook it without apparently any reason, as they were never molested in any way. On examining the nest, however, the cause was evident, and afforded a remarkable instance of instinct on the part of the little architects. The leaves that had been pierced and sewn together had actually commenced to _wither_, and in the course of a few days later the whole structure came down bodily.

"This is the only _Prinia_ to be found at Futtehgurh, and they are one of our most common garden-birds. Their beautiful brick-red eggs and neatly-sewn nests are too well known to require description.

"Four generally, and five frequently, is the number of eggs they lay. I have _one_ record of _six_ on the 17th August, 1873; in this case one egg was laid daily, the first having been laid on the 12th, and the sixth on the 17th."

Captain Hutton remarks:--"This is a true Tailor-bird in respect to the construction of the nest, which is composed of one leaf as a supporting base stitched to two others meeting it perpendicularly, the apices of all three being neatly sewn together with threads roughly spun from the cottony down of seeds. Between or within these leaves is placed the nest, very slightly and loosely constructed of fine roots, grass-stalks, and seed-down, the latter material being interwoven to hold the coarser fibres of the nest together. There is no finer lining within, and the edges of the exterior leaves are drawn together round the nest and held there partly by roughly-spun threads of down, and partly by the ends of the stiff fibres being thrust through them. The whole forms a very light and graceful fabric. Within this nest were four beautiful and highly polished eggs of a deep brick-red colour, darkest at the larger end, faint specks and blotches of a deeper colour being indistinctly discernible beneath the surface of the shell, which shines as if it had been varnished. The nest is not closed above, but is open and deeply cup-shaped. This was taken in the Dhoon on the 30th May."

Major C.T. Bingham says:--"Breeds at Allahabad in June, July, and August. At Delhi I have not yet found its nest. I once found in July three nests all attached together in a sort of triangle, but whether built by separate pairs of birds I cannot say. Only one nest contained eggs."

Colonel G.F.L. Marshall writes:--"A nest found in July in the Cawnpoor district was built of grass, a deep oblong domed nest with the entrance at the side near the top. It was placed close to the ground in a tuft of surkerry grass sloping rather backwards. The position is, I believe, unusual. The old birds were still putting finishing touches to the building when I found it."

The eggs are ovals, as a rule, neither very broad nor much elongated. Pyriform examples occur, but a somewhat perfect oval is the usual type, and the examination of a large series shows that the tendency is to vary to a globular and not to an elongated shape. The eggs are brilliantly glossy, and, though considerably smaller, strongly resemble, as is well known, those of the little short-tailed Cetti's Warbler.

In colour they are brick-red, some, however, being paler and yellower, others deeper and more mahogany-coloured. There is a strong tendency to exhibit all ill-defined cloudy cap or zone, of far greater intensity than the colour of the rest of the egg, at or towards the large end.

In length the eggs vary from 0·6 to 0·68, and in breadth from 0·45 to 0·5; but the average of seventy eggs measured is 0·62 by 0·46.

465. Prinia sylvatica, Jerd. _The Jungle Wren-Warbler_.

Drymoipus sylvaticus, _Jerd. B. Ind_ ii, p. 181; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 545. Drymoipus neglectus, _Jerd. R. Ind._ ii, p. 182; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 546.

Dr. Jerdon says:--"I found the nest in low jungle near Nellore, made chiefly of grass, with a few roots and fibres, globular, large, with a hole at one side near the top, and the eggs white, spotted very thickly with rusty red, especially at the thick end."

Mr. Blewitt appears to have taken many eggs of this species in the Raipoor District, and he has sent me the following notes, together with numerous eggs. He says:--

"The Jungle Wren-Warbler breeds in the Raipoor District from about the middle of June to the middle of August. Low thorn-bushes on rocky ground are chiefly selected for the nest, and both parent birds assist in building it and in hatching and rearing the young. A new nest is made each year, and four is the maximum number of eggs.

"On the 1st July this year I found a nest of this species in the centre of a low thorny bush, growing in rocky ground, about two miles north of Doongurgurh in the Raipoor District.

"The nest was about 4 feet from the ground, firmly attached to and supported by the branches. It was of a deep cup shape, 3·6 in diameter and 4·9 in height, composed of coarser and finer grasses firmly interwoven, and contained four fresh eggs. In the same locality we secured a second similarly situated nest, about 2½ feet from the ground, and it contained a single fresh egg. It was rather more neatly and massively made than the former. It was about 4 inches in diameter and 5 inches in height, and the egg-cavity was nearly 3 inches deep. The lining is of fine grass-stalks well interwoven. The exterior is composed of coarse grass mixed with a little greyish-white fibre.

"Subsequently several other similar and similarly situated nests were found."

Colonel E.A. Butler writes:--"The Jungle Wren-Warbler breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa in the months of July, August, and September. The following are the dates upon which I found nests this year (1876):--

"July 28. A nest containing 4 young birds.
" 29. " 5 fresh eggs.
Aug. 1. " 4 "
" 5. " 5 "
Aug. 13. " 5 "
" 16. " 4 young birds fledged.
" 17. " 5 "
" " " 3 "
" 19. " 4 "
" " " 5 "
" 30. " 5 "
Sept. 3. " 5 "

"In addition to the above, I found nests in the same neighbourhood in 1875. One on the 14th August containing four young birds almost ready to leave the nest. It was placed in the middle of a tussock of coarse grass on the side of a nullah on a bank overgrown with grass and bushes, and my attention was attracted first of all to the spot by the incessant chattering and uneasiness of the two old birds, one of which had a large grasshopper in its mouth. After hiding behind a bush for a few minutes, I saw the hen bird fly to the nest, which led to its discovery. The nest was dome-shaped, with an entrance upon one side, composed exteriorly of blades of rather coarse dry grass (green, however, as a rule when the nest is first built), and interiorly of similar, but finer, material. It is an easy nest to find when once the locality in which the birds breed is discovered, as it is a conspicuous ball of grass, smeared over, often more or less, exteriorly with a silky white vegetable-down or cobweb, and many of the blades of the tussock in which it is placed are often drawn down and woven into the nest, which at once attracts attention. Then, again, the cock bird is almost always to be found on the top of some low tree near the nest, uttering his peculiar ventriloquistic note '_tissip, tissip, tissip_,' etc. All the above nests were exactly alike and in similar situations, viz. fixed in the centre of a tussock of coarse grass on the banks of some deep nullahs running through a large grass 'Beerh.' The eggs remind me more of the English Robin's eggs than those of any other species I know. The ground-colour is dull white, sometimes tinted with pale green, and the markings reddish fawn. In some cases the eggs are peppered all over with a conspicuous zone at the large end, sometimes a dense cap instead of a zone. In other cases the markings, though always present, are almost invisible, as also the zone or cap. They are about the size of the eggs of the Spotted Flycatcher. I found a few other nests besides those I have mentioned during July and August 1875."

Captain Cock informed me that this species is "common in the jungles around Seetapore. Nest is largish, dome-shaped, and placed low down in a thorny bush. The bird lays in August five eggs, the _fac-simile_ of the eggs of _Pratincola ferrea_, perhaps of a more elongated type than the eggs of that bird."

Mr. H. Parker, writing on the birds of North-west Ceylon, refers to this bird under the titles _D. jerdoni_ and _D. valida_, and informs us that it breeds from January to May.

The eggs of this species are somewhat elongated ovals. The ground-colour is a greenish or greyish stone-colour, and they are finely and often rather sparsely freckled all over with very faint reddish brown, or brownish pink in most eggs; these frecklings are gathered together into a more or less dense zone round the large end, forming a conspicuous ring there much darker-coloured than the frecklings over the rest of the surface. The eggs have a faint gloss.

In length they vary from 0·68 to 0·75, and in breadth from 0·49 to 0·52, but the average appears to be 0·7 by 0·5.

466. Prinia inornata, Sykes. _The Indian Wren-Warbler_.

Drymoipus inornatus (_Sykes_), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p. 178; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 543. Drymoipus longicaudatus (_Tick._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 180. Drymoipus terricolor, _Hume_; _Hume, Rough Draft N, & E._ no. 543 bis.

The breeding-season of this Wren-Warbler commences with the first fall of rain, and lasts through July and August to quite the middle of September.

The birds construct a very elegant nest, always closely and compactly woven, of very fine blades, or strips of blades, of grass, in no nests exceeding one-twentieth of an inch in width, and in many of not above half this breadth. The grass is always used when fresh and green, so as to be easily woven in and out. Both parents work at the nest, clinging at first to the neighbouring stems of grass or twigs, and later to the nest itself, while they push the ends of the grass backwards and forwards in and out; in fact, they work very much like the Baya (_P. baya_), and the nest, though much smaller, is in texture very like that of this latter species, the great difference being that the Baya, with us, more often uses _stems_, and _Prinia_ strips of _blades_ of grass. The nest varies in shape and in size, according to its situation: a very favourite locality is in amongst clumps of the _sarpatta_, or serpent-grass, in which case the bird builds a long and purse-like nest, attached above and all round to the surrounding grass-stems, with a small entrance near the top. Such nests are often 8 or 9 inches in length, and 3 inches or even more in external diameter, and with an internal cavity measuring 1½ inch in diameter, and having a depth of nearly 4 inches below the lower margin of the entrance-hole. At other times they are hung between bare twigs, often of some thorny bush, or are even placed in low herbaceous plants; in these cases they are usually nearly globular, with the entrance-hole near the top; they are then probably 3½ inches in external diameter in every direction. In other cases they are hung to or between two or more leaves to which the birds attach the nest, much as a Tailor-bird would do, using, however, fine grass instead of cobwebs or cotton-wool for ligaments. I have never found more than five eggs in any nest, and four is certainly the normal number.

Mr. R.M. Adam remarks:--"I had a nest brought me in Oudh on the 17th April, containing four eggs. About Agra and Muttra, where as you know the birds are _very_ common, I have always obtained the greatest number of eggs during August; four is the regular number; in one taken on the 16th August I found five eggs."

Mr. W. Blewitt writes:--"During July, August, and the early part of September I found multitudes of nests of this species in the neighbourhood of Hausie, almost exclusively in the Dhasapoor, Dhana, and Secundapoor _Beerhs_ or jungle-preserves.

"The nests, of which numerous specimens were sent to you, were of the usual type, and were nearly all found in ber (_Z. jujuba_) and hinse (_Capparis aphylla_) bushes, at heights of from 3 to 4 feet from the ground. I did not meet with more than four eggs in any one nest."

Colonel E.A. Butler says:--"The Indian Wren-Warbler is very common in the plains, frequenting low scrub-jungle and long grass studied with low bushes (_Calotropis, Zizyphus_, &c.). It breeds during the monsoon, commencing to build in July, during which month and August in the neighbourhood of Deesa I must have examined some three or four dozen nests. There are two distinct types of nests, and there may be two species of this genus in this part of the country; but I must confess that after shooting a large number of specimens of both sexes, and after examining an immense series of the eggs, I have failed to make out more than one species, and that Mr. Hume informs me is his _Drymoipus terricolor_. The nests alluded to vary as follows:--One type is very closely and compactly woven, as described of _D. terricolor_ ('Nests and Eggs, Rough Draft,' p. 349), with the entrance almost at the top. The other type is built of the same material, with the exception that the grass is rather coarser, but is more in shape like a Wren's nest, and the grass is somewhat loosely put together instead of being woven, and it has the entrance with a slight canopy over it upon one side. The eggs four, and not uncommonly five, in number, were exactly alike in both types, as also were the specimens of the birds themselves that I obtained.

"Nearly all the nests I have seen have been built on the outside of ber bushes (_Z. jujuba_), at heights varying from 2½ to 5 feet from the ground."

Mr. B. Aitken says:--"I found this nest at Bombay on the 13th October, 1873, at the edge of a tank some 2 feet above the ground. I have found four or five precisely similar ones before, generally in similar situations. The nest was strongly attached to the stems and leaves of four herbaceous plants growing close together. In many cases the strips of grass had been passed through and pierced the leaves. The nest is deep and purse-shaped; the sides were prolonged upwards, except in front where the entrance was, and joined above so as to form a canopy. The nest has no lining, and none of the nests of this species that I ever saw have ever had any lining. The whole nest inside and out is composed of fine strips of blades of grass interwoven. The eggs, five in number, varied much in size. In colour they were bright blue, most irregularly blotched with various shades of purplish brown: some of the blotches very large, some mere specks. Each egg had also washed-out stains or blotches. The smaller eggs were by far the brighter.

"By reason of the roof and walls the entrance to the nest was at one side, but there was nothing that could be called a hole. The roof projected over the entrance, forming a porch.

"Six or eight nests which I have seen of this species were all over water. But the birds are by no means confined to marshy localities.

"Even in the middle of the rains the nests are invariably made of dry yellow grass.

"One nest found in Berar was in a babool bush, where of course there could have been no leaves pierced."

Mr. E. Aitken writes:--"I have found a good many nests in Bombay, and it breeds in Poona too. My notes only mention two nests with eggs, on the 22nd and 25th August, but I found some much later; and I am almost certain it begins to lay much earlier, if not actually at the beginning of the monsoon, like _Orthotomus_ and _Prinia_.

"It builds in gardens and cultivated fields, especially in the vicinity of water, and often among plants growing in water.

"The nest is very firmly attached to the twigs of some plant where long grass or other plants completely surround and conceal it. It is usually about 3 foot from the ground. It varies much in size and shape, some being much deeper than others, and some having the top open; others an entrance somewhat to one side.

"I have always found three or four eggs--bright blue, with large irregular purplish-brown blotches and no hair-lines. I should have said that the nest is a bag, very uniformly woven, of fine grass, and _never with any lining_--at any rate in none that I have ever found. They never use the same nest twice, always building a fresh one even if you only rob without injuring the first. I think they have only one brood in the year, but, like _Orthotomus_ and _Prinia_, one or two nests are generally deserted or destroyed by some accident before they succeed in rearing a brood."

Major C.T. Bingham informs us that this Wren-Warbler is a common breeder both at Allahabad and at Delhi from March to September. Builds a neat bottle-shaped nest in clumps of surpat grass, of fine strips of the grass itself, which I have repeatedly watched the birds tearing off. The eggs are lovely little oval fragile shells of a deep blue, blotched and speckled and covered with fine hair-like lines, chiefly at the large end, of a deep chocolate-brown.

The eggs are a moderately long, and generally a pretty perfect, oval, often pointed towards one end, sometimes globular, seldom, if ever, much elongated. The shell is fine and glossy, and comparatively thick and strong. The ground-colour is normally a beautiful pale greenish blue, most richly marked with various shades of deep chocolate and reddish brown. Nothing can exceed the beauty or variety of the markings, which are a combination of bold blotches, clouds, and spots, with delicate, intricately interwoven lines, recalling somewhat, but more elaborate and, I think, finer than, those of our early favourite--the Yellow Ammer. The markings are invariably most conspicuous at the large end, where there is very commonly a conspicuous confluent cap, and the delicate lines are almost without exception confined to the broader half of the egg.

Very commonly the smaller end of the egg is entirely spotless, and I have a beautiful specimen now before me in which the only markings consist of a ring of delicate lines round the large end. Some idea of the delicacy and intricacy of these lines may be formed when I mention that this zone is barely one tenth of an inch broad, and yet in a good light between twenty and thirty interlaced lines making up this zone may be counted.

The intricacy of the pattern is in some cases almost incredible, and, what with the remarkable character of the patterns and the rich and varying shades of their colours, these little eggs are, I think, amongst the most beautiful known.

Occasionally the ground-colour of the eggs, instead of being a bright greenish blue, is a pale, rather dull, olive-green, and still more rarely it is a clear pinkish white. These latter eggs are so rare that I have only seen six in about as many hundreds.

In size the eggs vary from 0·53 to 0·7 in length, and from 0·42 to 0·5 in breadth; but the average of one hundred and twenty eggs measured was 0·61 by 0·45.

467. Prinia jerdoni (Blyth). _The Southern Wren-Warbler_.

Drymoeca jerdoni (_Blyth_), _Hume, cat._ no. 544 ter.

Mr. Davison says:--"The Southern Wren-Warbler breeds chiefly on the slopes of the Nilgiris about the Badaga cultivation. The nest is entirely composed of fine grass, and is generally placed about 2 or 3 feet from the ground, either in a clump of long grass or attached to the branch of a small bush. It is often suspended, domed, and with the opening near the top. The eggs, generally three, are blue, spotted and lined with deep red-brown."

From Kotagherry Miss Cockburn tells us that "the Common Wren-Warbler has no song, but is loud and frequent in its repetition of a few notes during the breeding-season. Its nest, which is globular, is built in the same shape as that of _P. socialis_, with the entrance at one end, on some low bush, but it only uses _one_ material, namely fine long grass, and does not add any soft lining. The colour of its eggs, however, is totally different, of a light bluish green, and having a number of spots and streaks like dark threads carried round and through the spots, which are mostly at the thick end. The breeding-season lasts from April to July."

Mr. C.J.W. Taylor, writing from Manzeerabad, Mysore, says:--"Fairly common throughout the district. Eggs taken on the 15th July, 1882."

Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, remarks:--"It builds a neat pendent nest in long grass on the Nilgiris. The nest is composed entirely of short pieces of grass fitted together, and is very compact. The eggs are three in number, and are of a blue colour, with large blotches and hair-like streaks of a dark reddish brown at the upper end. An egg measured ·69 inch by ·5."

The eggs of this species do not differ materially in size, shape, or markings from those of _P. inornata_ which are very fully described above.

468. Prinia blanfordi (Walden). _The Burmese Wren-Warbler_.

Drymoeca blanfordi, _Wald., Hume, cat._ no. 543 ter.

Mr. Oates, who found this bird very common in Pegu, writes:--"The Burmese Wren-Warbler is perhaps the commonest bird of the Pegu plains. From Myitkyo on the Sittang, and possibly from further north, down to Rangoon, it is to be found in all the low tracts covered with grass.

"Where it occurs it is a constant resident and breeds from May to August. I have found the nest in the middle of May, but it is not till July that the bulk of the birds lay.

"The nest is never more than 4 feet from the ground, and is attached either to two or more stalks of elephant-grass or to the stem of a low weed, or to the blades of certain tender grasses which grow in thick tufts. There is little or no attempt at concealment. The materials forming the nest are entirely fine grasses, of equal coarseness or fineness throughout, gathered green, and so beautifully woven together that it is almost impossible to destroy a nest by tearing it asunder, although it may be looked through. In shape it is somewhat of a cylinder, with a tendency to swell out at the middle. Its length, or rather height (for its longer axis, being invariably parallel to the stalks to which the nest is attached, is generally upright), is from 6 to 8 inches, and its extreme width 4. The entrance is placed at the top of the nest, the sides of which are produced an inch or two above the lower edge of the entrance. The thickness of the walls is very small, seldom reaching half, and generally being only a quarter, of an inch. Occasionally the nest is almost globular, but the back of the entrance is in every case produced upwards some inches. There is no lining at all.

"The eggs never exceed four, and frequently are only three, in number, and the female does not commence sitting till the full number is laid. She deserts the nest on the slightest provocation; and if a nest with only one or two eggs is found, and the fingers inserted, it is useless to leave the eggs in hopes of getting more. She will lay no more. I have tested this in at least ten cases."

Major C.T. Bingham tells us:--"About Kaukarit, on the Houndraw river in Tenasserim, I found this species, in June 1878, very common. They were then breeding, and I found several nests, all, however, unfinished; these were, in material and make, very like the nests of _P. inornata_ which I had taken years ago in India."

The eggs of this species recall in many respects those of _P. inornata_, but the ground-colour is much more variable, and the markings are more blotchy and less intricate in shape. They are pretty regular ovals, and while some are very glossy others exhibit but little of this. The ground-colour is perhaps typically pale greenish blue, but in a great many specimens this is more or less obliterated by a reddish or pinkish tinge, as if the colour of the markings had run; in some the ground is a sort of reddish olive, in some pinky white. The markings are large blotches and spots, often forming zones or caps about the larger end, where they seem almost always to be most conspicuous, as they vary in colour from an intense burnt-sienna which is almost black, through a dingy maroon, and again to a dull, somewhat pale reddish brown; here and there individual eggs exhibit a hair-line or two, or a hieroglyphic-like mark, but these are the exceptions.

The eggs vary in length from 0·53 to 0·64 inch, and in breadth from 0·42 to 0·45; but the average of fourteen eggs is 0·58 by 0·44.

Very constantly smears or clouds of a paler shade than the blotches cover large portions of the surface between these. Occasionally all the markings are smeared and ill-defined, and in some eggs they are almost entirely wanting, and nothing but a scratch or two about the large end is to be seen.

Family LANIIDAE

Subfamily LANIINAE.

469. Lanius lahtora(Sykes). _The Indian Grey Shrike_.

Lamus lahtora (_Sykes), Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 400. Collyrio lahtora, _Sykes, Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 256.

The Indian Grey Shrike lays from January to August, and occasionally up to October, but the majority of my eggs have been obtained during March or April.

It builds, generally, a very compact and heavy, deep, cup-shaped nest, which it places at heights of from 4 to 10 or 12 feet from the ground in a fork, towards the centre of some densely growing thorny bush or moderate-sized tree, the various carounders, capers, plums, and acacias being those most commonly selected.

As a rule it builds a new nest every year, but it not unfrequently only repairs one that has served it in the previous season, and even at times takes possession of those of other species.

The nest is composed of very various materials, so much so that it is difficult to generalize in regard to them. I have found them built entirely of grass-roots, with much sheep's wool, lined with hair and feathers, or solidly woven of silky vegetable fibre, mostly that of the putsun (_Hibiscus cannabinus_), in which were incorporated little pieces of rag and strips of the bark of the wild plum (_Zizyphus jujuba_); but I think that most commonly thorny twigs, coarse grass, and grass-roots form the body of the nest, while the cavity is lined with feathers, hair, soft grass, and the like.

Generally the nests are very compact and solid, 6 or 7 inches in diameter, and the egg-cavity 3 to 4 in diameter, and 2 to 2½ in depth, but I have come across very loosely built and straggling ones.

They have at times two broods in the year (but I do not think that this is always the case), and lay from three to six eggs, four or five being the usual number.

Mr. F.R. Blewitt, writing from Jhansie and Saugor, and detailing his experiences there and in the Delhi Districts, says:--

"The Common Indian Grey Shrike breeds from February to July; it builds on trees; if it has a preference, it is for the close-growing roonj tree (_Acacia leucophlaea_). I have particularly noticed this fact both here and at Gurhi Hursroo. The nest in structure is neat and compact (though I have occasionally seen some very roughly put together), and generally-well fixed into the forks of an off-shooting branch. In shape it is circular, varying from 5 to 7½ inches in diameter, and from 1½ to 3½ inches in thickness; thorn twigs, coarse grass, grass-roots, old rags, &c. form the outer materials of the nest, and closely interwoven fine grass and roots the border-rim. The egg-cavity is deeply cup-shaped, from 3½ to 5 inches in diameter, and lined with fine grass and khus; exceptionally shreds of cloth are interwoven with the khus and grass.

"On one occasion I got a nest with the cup interior entirely lined with old cloth pieces, very cleverly and ingeniously worked into the exterior framework. Five is the regular number of eggs, though at times six have been obtained in one nest. The birds often make their own nests each year, but this is not invariably the case. When at Gurhi Hursroo in February last, I found on an isolated roonj tree four nests within a foot of each other. The under centre one, an _old_ Shrike nest (the other three were of other birds), was occupied by a Shrike sitting on five eggs. I very carefully examined it, and my impression at the time was that the parent birds had returned, to rear a second progeny, to the nest constructed by them the year previous.

"I do not know whether you have noticed the fact, but both _L. lahtora_ and _L. erythronotus_ often lay in old nests, of which they first carefully repair the egg-cavity with new materials. It is not only, however, in old nests of their own species that these birds make a home in the breeding-season. At times they take possession of fabrics clearly not the work of any Shrike. Quite recently I found a pair of _L. lahtora_ with four eggs in a small nest entirely woven of hemp, the bottom of which was thickly coated with the droppings of former occupants. Again, on the 8th June, a nest with four eggs was found on a roonj tree. This wonderful nest, which I have kept, is entirely composed of what I take to be old felt and feathers, the bottom of the cavity of which, when found, was almost covered with the dung of young birds.

"Evidently this nest was not _originally_ made by the Shrike, but, as would appear, was taken possession of by it, after the brood of some other species of birds had left it."

Mr. W. Theobald makes the following note of this bird's breeding in the neighbourhood of Pind Dadan Khan and Katas in the Salt Range:--"Lays in the last week of March to the end of April. Eggs five only, shape ovato-pyriform, size 1·06 inch by 0·8 inch; colour pale greenish white, blotched and tinged with yellowish grey and neutral markings; vary much in intensity and colour. Nest of twigs, lined with cotton or wool, and usually placed in stiff thorny bushes."

Lieut. H.E. Barnes, writing from Chaman in Southern Afghanistan, remarks:--"The Grey-backed Shrike is extremely common, breeding about the end of March, in much the same situations as in India. I have collected many specimens, and failed to detect any difference between the Indian bird and the one found here. The average of twelve eggs is ·97 by ·75."

He adds subsequently:--"This is the commonest Shrike in the country; it breeds in March and April, and the young are easily reared in captivity."

Mr. W. Blewitt says that he "took four nests of this bird near Hansee on the 28th-30th March; they contained, one 5, two 4, and one 3 eggs; all but the latter (which, curiously enough, were a good deal incubated) quite fresh. The nests were placed in acacia and caper bushes, at heights of from 6 to 14 feet from the ground; they were from 6 to 7 inches in diameter exteriorly, rather loosely constructed of thorny twigs, with egg-cavities from 2 to 2½ inches deep, lined with fine straw and leaves." Again he writes: "Took numerous nests in the neighbourhood of Hansee during the month of July; most of the eggs were much incubated, and four was the largest number found in any one nest.

"The nests were all placed upon keekur trees at an average height of some 10 feet from the ground; they were composed of thorny twigs, some with and some without a lining of fine grass and feathers, and averaged some 5 or 6 inches in diameter by 2 to 4 inches in depth."

Major C.T. Bingham says that "this bird is excessively common about Delhi, far more so than at Allahabad. At the latter place I only found it breeding in March and April, but at Delhi I have found nests in every month from March to August. One evening in June I remember counting in my walk thirteen nests within the radius of a mile; some of these contained fresh eggs, some hard-set, some young. One nest I robbed in April of eggs contained young in the latter end of May, and I believe many of them have two if not more broods in the year. All nests that I have seen have been well made, firm, deep cups of babool branches, lined with grass-roots, and occasionally with bits of rag and tow. The eggs are broad ovals of a dead chalky bluish-white colour, spotted, chiefly at the large end, with purple and brown. Five is the greatest number of eggs I have found in a nest."

Mr. George Reid informs us that this Shrike breeds from March to July in the Lucknow Division, making a massive nest in babool trees, generally in solitary ones on open plains.

Colonel Butler writes:--"The Indian Grey Shrike breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa in February, March, April, May, June, and July. I nave taken nests on the following dates:--

"Feb. 19. A nest containing 4 slightly incubated eggs.
March 13. " " 4 fresh eggs.
" 16. " " 4 "
" 19. " " 4 "
" 20. " " 3 "
" 20. " " 4 "
" 28. " " 4 incubated eggs.
April 9. " " 4 " "
June 1. " " 2 fresh eggs.
" 7. " " 4 young birds.
" 7. " " 2 incubated eggs.
July 9. " " 4 " "

"The nest is usually placed in some low, isolated leafless thorny tree (_Acacia, Zizyphus_, &c.), from six to ten feet from the ground. It is solidly built of small dry thorny twigs, old rags, &c. externally, with a thick felt lining of the silky fibre of _Calotropis gigantea_. The eggs vary a good deal in shape, some being much more pointed at the small end than others; some I have are almost perfect peg-tops. They vary in number from three to five; and as a rule the colour is a dingy white, spotted and speckled sparingly all over with olive-brown and inky purple, which together form a well-marked zone at the large end."

Messrs. Davidson and Wenden remark:--"Common, and breeds abundantly in the Poona and Sholapoor Collectorates at the end of the hot weather. W. has noticed it breeding at Nuluar and Raichore. Davidson observed that it was very rare in the Satara Districts."

Mr. J. Davidson further informs us that _L. lahtora_ is a permanent resident in Western Khandeish, and breeds in every month from January to July.

My friend Mr. Benjamin Aitken furnishes me with the following interesting note:--"You say that the Indian Grey Shrike lays from February to July. Now, in Berar, where this bird is very common, I have found their eggs frequently in the first week of January, and on not only to July, but to September; and I once found a nest in October. I was never able to satisfy myself that the same pair had two broods in the year, but I scarcely think there can be any doubt about the matter. I once found, like your correspondent Mr. Blewitt, four nests in a small babool tree, and only one of them occupied. This was at Poona. My brother first pointed out to me that this species affects the dusty barren plain, whereas _L. erythronotus_ prefers the cool and shaded country. This difference in the habits of the two birds is very observable at Poona, where both species are exceedingly common. Where a _jungly_ or watered piece of country borders upon the open plain, you may see half a dozen of each kind within an area of half a mile radius, and yet never find the one trespassing upon the domain of the other. When you say you have never found a nest more than 1500 feet above the level of the sea, I would remind you that although _L. lahtora_ never ascends the hills, it is yet very abundant in the Deccan, which is 2000 feet above the sea-level.

"I think I have written to you before that during a residence of twelve years I never saw _L. lahtora_ in Bombay."

This Shrike is, however, essentially a plains bird, and never seems to ascend the Himalayas to any elevation. I have never myself found a nest more 1500 feet above the level of the sea.

Typically, the eggs are of a broad oval shape, more or less pointed towards one end, of a delicate greenish-white ground, pretty thickly blotched and spotted with various shades of brown and purple markings, which, always most numerous towards the large end, exhibit a strong tendency to form there an ill-defined zone or irregular mottled cap. The variations, however, in shape, size, colour, extent, and intensity of markings are very great; and yet, in the huge series before me, there is not one that an oologist would not at once unhesitatingly set down as a Shrike's. In some the ground-colour is a delicate pale sea-green. In some it is pale stone-colour; in others creamy, and in a few it has almost a pink tinge. The markings, commonly somewhat dull and ill-defined, are occasionally bold and bright; and in colour they vary through every shade of yellowish, reddish, olive, and purplish brown, while subsurface-looking pale purple clouds are intermingled with the darker and more defined markings. In one egg the markings may be almost exclusively confined to a broad, very irregular zone of bold blotches near the large end. In others the whole surface is more or less thickly clotted with blotches and spots, so closely crowded towards the large end as almost wholly to obscure the ground-colour there. As a rule, the markings are irregular blotches of greater or less extent, but occasionally these blotches form the exceptions, and the majority of the markings are mere spots and specks. In some eggs the purple cloudings greatly predominate; in others scarcely a trace of them is observable. Some eggs are comparatively long and narrow, while some are pyriform and blunt at both ends; and yet, notwithstanding all these great differences, there is a strong family likeness between all the eggs. In size they are, I think, somewhat smaller than those of _L. excubitor_. They vary in length from 0·9 to 1·17 inch, and in width from 0·75 to 0·83 inch; but the average of more than fifty eggs is 1·03 by 0·79 inch.

473. Lanius vittatus. _The Bay-backed Shrike_.

Lanius hardwickii (_Vigors), Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 405. Lanius vittatus, _Dum., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 260.

The Bay-backed Shrike breeds throughout the plains of India and in the Sub-Himalayan Ranges up to an elevation of fully 4000 feet.

The laying-season lasts from April to September, but the great majority of eggs are found during the latter half of June and July; in fact, according to my experience, the great body of the birds do not lay until the rains set in.

The nests are placed indifferently on all kinds of trees (I have notes of finding them on mango, plum, orange, tamarind, toon, &c.), never at any great elevation from the ground, and usually in _small_ trees, be the kind chosen what it may. Sometimes a high hedgerow, such as our great Customs hedge, is chosen, and occasionally a solitary caper or stunted acacia-bush.

The nests (almost invariably fixed in forks of slender boughs) are neat, compactly and solidly built cups, the cavities being deep and rather more than hemispherical, from 2·25 to fully 3·5 inches in diameter, and from 1·5 to 2 inches in depth. The nest-walls vary from 0·5 to 1·25 inch in thickness. The composition of the nest is various. The following are brief descriptions which I have noted from time to time:--

"Compactly woven of grass-stems and a few fine twigs, but with more or less wool, rag, cotton, or feathers incorporated; there _is no lining_.

"The nest was rather massive, externally composed of wool, rags, cotton, thread, and feathers, and a little grass; the cavity rather neatly lined with fine grass.

"Composed almost entirely of cobweb, with a few soft feathers, wool, string, rags, and a few pieces of very fine twigs compactly woven. The interior was lined with fine straw and fibrous roots."

Elsewhere I have recorded the following note on the nidification of this species:--

"This bird, or rather birds of this species, have been laying ever since the middle of April, but nests were then few and far between, and now in July they are common enough. The nest that we had just found was precisely like twenty others that we had found during the past two months. Rather deep, with a nearly hemispherical cavity; very compactly and firmly woven of fine grass, rags, feathers, soft twine, wool, and a few fine twigs, the whole entwined exteriorly with lots of cobwebs; and the interior cavity about 1¾ inch deep by 2¼ in diameter, neatly lined with very fine grass, one or two horsehairs, shreds of string, and one or two soft feathers. The walls were a good inch in thickness. The nest was placed in a fork of a thorny jujube or ber tree (_Zizyphus jujuba_), near the centre of the tree, and some 15 feet from the ground. It contained four fresh eggs, feebly coloured miniatures of the eggs of _L. lahtora_, which latter so closely resemble those of _L. excubitor_ that if you mixed the eggs, you could never, I think, certainly separate them again. The eggs exhibit the zone so characteristic of those of all Shrikes. They have a dull pale ground, not white, and yet it is difficult to say what colour it is that tinges it; in these four eggs it is a yellowish stone-colour, but in others it is greenish, and in some grey; near the middle, towards the large end, there is a broad and conspicuous, but broken and irregular zone of feeble, more or less confluent spots and small blotches of pale yellowish brown and very pale washed-out purple. There are a few faint specks and spots of the same colour here and there about the rest of the egg. In some eggs previously obtained the zone is quite in the middle, and in others close round the large end. In some the colours of the markings are clear and bright, in others they are as faint and feeble as one of our modern Manchester warranted-fast-coloured muslins, after its third visit to a native washerman. In size, too, the eggs vary a good deal.

"The little Shrike had a great mind to fight for his _penates_, and twice made a vehement demonstration of attack; but his heart failed him, and he retreated to a neighbouring mango branch, whence a few minutes after we saw him making short dashes after his insect prey, apparently oblivious of the domestic calamity that had so recently befallen him."

Mr. F.R. Blewitt, then at Gurhi Hursroo, near Delhi, sent me some years ago the following interesting note:--

"Breeds from March to at least the middle of August. It builds its nest in low trees and high hedgerows, preferring the former.

"In shape the nest is circular, with a diameter, outside, of from 5½ to 6½ inches, and from 1·5 to 2 in thickness.

"For the exterior framework thorny twigs, old rags, hemp, thread-pieces, and coarse grass are more or less used, and compactly worked together. The egg-cavity is deep and cup-shaped, lined with fine grass and khus; pieces of rag or cotton are sometimes worked up with the former.

"Five to six is the regular number of eggs. In colour they are a light greenish white, with blotches and spots generally of a light, but sometimes of a darker, reddish brown. The spots and blotches vary much in size, and they are mostly confined to the broad end of the eggs.