Chapter XX: Part 20

"Common as it is in Sikhim I have but once taken its nest, and that in the first week of May, at 4000 feet elevation. The nest, which is well described by Mr. Davison, is made of black, fibry roots, sparingly lined with fine grass-stalks, and covered outwardly with small pieces of lichens bound to the sides with cobwebs. It is a very neat diminutive cup, measuring externally 1·9 inch across by an inch deep; internally 1·5 by half an inch.

"The whole nest, although quite a substantially built structure, is barely the eighth part of an ounce in weight. It was placed on the upper side of a horizontal branch close to its broken end, about fifteen feet from the ground, and contained two fresh eggs. I send you the nest and an egg, both of which will, I think, be found on comparison to agree exactly with those taken by Mr. Davison."

Mr. Mandelli has sent me two nests of this species, found on the 15th August above Namtchu in Native Sikhim. They were placed about two feet from each other, each in a small fork of the branches of a small tree which was situated in heavy forest. Each contained two fresh eggs. The nests are very similar, but one is rather larger and less tidily finished-off than the other. Both are shallow cups, miniatures of some of the nests of _Dicrurus_, composed of excessively fine grass-stems, coated exteriorly all round the sides with cobwebs, and, in the case of one of them, plastered exteriorly with tiny films of bark and dry leaves like some of the nests of the _Pericrocoti_. Both have a little soft silky vegetable down at the bottom of the cavity. The one nest is about two inches, the other about two and a half inches in diameter exteriorly, and both are a little less than three quarters of an inch high outside. The cavity in the one is about an inch and a half, in the other about an inch and three quarters in diameter, and both are about half an inch deep.

Eggs received from Sikhim are broad ovals, glossless, with greenish-white grounds, profusely speckled and mottled with slightly varying shades of brown, here and there intermingled with dull, pale inky purple. The markings are densest generally round the broadest part of the egg. They measured from 0·61 to 0·7 in length, and from 0·51 to 0·55 in breadth.

486. Tephrodornis pelvicus (Hodgs.). _The Nepal Wood-Shrike_.

Tephrodornis pelvica (_Hodgs.), Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 409; _Hume. cat._ no. 263.

The Nepal Wood-Shrike is a permanent resident throughout Burma, Assam, Cachar, and the sub-Himalayan Terais and Ranges to which the typical Indo-Burmese fauna extends. Still we have no information as to its nidification, and the only egg of the species that I possess was extracted from the oviduct of a female shot by Mr. Davison on the 26th of March, 1874, near Tavoy in Tenasserim. The egg is rather a handsome one--very Shrike-like in its character, but rather small for the size of the bird. In shape it is a broad oval, very slightly compressed towards one end. The shell is fine and compact, but has no gloss. The ground is white, with the faintest possible greenish tinge only noticeable when the egg is placed alongside a pure white one, such as a Bee-eater's for instance. The markings are bold, but except at the large end not very dense--spots and blotches of a light clear brown, and (chiefly at the large end) somewhat pale inky grey. Where the two colours overlap each other, there the result of the mixture is a dark dusky brown, so that the markings appear to be of three colours. Fully half the markings are gathered into a broad conspicuous but very broken and irregular zone about the broad end. The egg measured only 0·86 by 0·69.

Subsequently to writing the above Mr. Mandelli sent me a nest of this species found at Ging near Darjeeling on the 27th April. It contained four fresh eggs, and was placed on branches of a very large tree about 22 feet from the ground. The tree was situated at an elevation of about 3000 feet. The nest is a large massive cup, 5 inches in exterior diameter and rather more than 3 in height. It is composed of tendrils of creepers and stems of herbaceous plants, to many of which the bright yellow amaranth flowers remain attached; and all over the sides and bottom masses of flower-stems of grass with the white silky down attached are thickly plastered, which, intermingled as this white down is with the glistening yellow flowers, produces a very ornamental effect, and looks as it the bird had really had an eye to decoration.

Inside the nest is entirely lined with very fine grass-stems. The nest is everywhere about an inch thick, and the cavity about 3 inches in diameter by nearly 2 deep.

Eggs said to belong to this species kindly sent me by Mr. Mandelli, whose men obtained them on the 27th April, are very Shrike-like in their appearance. In shape they vary from broad to ordinary ovals, generally somewhat compressed towards the small end. The shell is white but almost glossless. The ground-colour is a dead white, and they are profusely speckled and spotted with yellowish brown, paler in some eggs, darker in others. In all the eggs the markings are by far the most numerous towards the large end. Two eggs measure 0·95 and 0·91 in length by 0·74 and 0·72 in breadth respectively.

487. Tephrodornis sylvicola, Jerdon. _The Malabar Wood-Shrike_.

Tephrodornis sylvicola, _Jerd., Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 409; _Hume, cat._ no. 204.

Major M. Forbes Coussmaker has furnished me with the following note on the nidification of the Malabar Wood-Shrike:--"I took the nest of this bird on April 13th, 1875. It was composed of fine roots and fibres, neatly woven into a shallow cup-like nest, secured to the fork of a horizontal bough and fixed in its place with cobweb, and covered externally with lichen corresponding to that on the bough. It measured 4·2 inches in diameter externally, and 2·4 internally and ·7 deep. Both parent birds were shot. The eggs two in number, rather round, coloured white with faint inky and brown spots."

One of these eggs is a very regular oval, the shell fine but glossless, the ground-colour white, with a faint greenish tinge; round the large end is a pretty conspicuous zone of black or blackish-brown and pale inky purple spots and small blotches, and similar spots and blotches of the same colour are somewhat sparsely scattered over the rest of the surface of the egg. The egg measured 0·98 by 0·73.

488. Tephrodornis pondicerianus (Gm.). _The Common Wood-Shrike_.

Tephrodornis pondiceriana (_Gm.), Jerd B. Ind._ i, p. 410; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 265.

The Common Wood-Shrike lays during the latter half of March and April. This at least is, I think, the normal season, but Mr. W. Blevutt found a nest at Hansee on the 2nd of June containing two fresh eggs.

I have only taken one nest myself (though I have had many others sent me), and that was on the 2nd of April at Chundowah in Jodpoor, Rajpootana. The nest was in the fork of a ber tree (_Zizyphus jujuba_), on a small horizontal bough, about 5 feet from the ground. It was a broad shallow cup, somewhat oval interiorly, with the materials very compactly and closely put together. The basal portion and framework of the sides consisted of very fine stems of some herbaceous plant about the thickness of an ordinary pin. It was lined with a little wool and a quantity of silky fibre; exteriorly it was bound round with a good deal of the same fibre and pretty thickly felted with cobwebs. The egg-cavity measured 2·5 inches in diameter one way and only 2 the other way, while in depth it was barely ·86. The exterior diameter of the nest was about 4 inches and the height nearly 2 inches. It contained three fresh eggs, of a slightly greyish-white ground, very thickly spotted and speckled with yellowish brown, dark umber-brown, and a pale washed-out inky-purple. In all, the spots were thickest in a zone round the large end, where they became more or less confluent. I have, however, a large series of these nests, and taking them as a whole, although much more massive, they remind one no little of those of _Rhipidura albifrontata_ and _Terpsiphone paradisi_ and even _Aegithina tiphia_. They are broad shallow cups, measuring internally 2¼ inches across and about 7/8 inch in depth. They are placed in a horizontal fork of a branch, and are composed of vegetable fibre and fine grass-roots, thickly coated externally with cobwebs, by which also they are fixed on to branches, and lined internally with silky vegetable down or fibre. Externally their colour always approximates closely to the bark of the branch on which they are placed; they are not thin, basket-like structures like those of _Aegithina_ or _Rhipidura_, but are fully ½ inch thick at the sides and probably ¾ inch thick at the bottom.

Colonel G.F.L. Marshall writes:--"The Common Wood-Shrike builds in the Saharunpoor district in the latter half of March, the young being hatched early in April. The bird is common; but owing to the small size and bark-like colour of its nest, the latter is very difficult to find. On the 8th April I fired at a specimen and missed it; it then flew off and settled in a fork of another tree about 30 feet from the ground. On looking carefully with an opera-glass, I found that it was sitting on its nest. I drove it off and shot it. The nest was very small and shallow, cup-shaped, and wedged in between two small boughs at their junction, and not appearing either above or below. The egg-receptacle was 2¼ inches in diameter. The nest was made of grass and bits of bark, beautifully woven together and bound with cobwebs, and exactly resembling the boughs between which it was placed, or, I might say, wedged in. The eggs, four in number, were slightly set; they were small for the bird, and of a rather round oval shape; the colour was a creamy-yellow ground, thickly spotted and blotched with the different shades of brown and sienna, the bulk of the spots tending to form a zone near the thick end, as in the typical form, of the eggs of the _Laniidae_ and a number of faint purple blotches underlying the zone."

Major C.T. Bingham says:--"I have only found three nests of this bird, and these at Delhi. At Allahabad it was not very common. It is a difficult nest to find, being generally well hidden in the forks of leafy trees. All three nests I got were of one type--shallow saucers, made of vegetable fibre matted together into a soft felt-like substance. In two of the nests I found three and in the third one egg. These are thickly spotted and blotched with brown and a washed-out purple, on a pale greyish-yellow ground. The average measurements of the seven eggs are--length 0·77, breadth 0·61."

Colonel E.A. Butler writes from Sind:--

"_Hyderabad, 19th April_, 1878.--Noticed two young birds scarcely able to fly; fresh eggs were laid, therefore, about the beginning of March. On the 20th April near the same place I found a nest containing young birds. It consisted of a neat little cup composed of dry grass smeared all over exteriorly with cobwebs, and fixed in a fork of one of the outer branches of a large babool-tree about 10 feet from the ground. The nest was very small for the size of the bird, and had I not seen the old bird on it. I should have taken it for a nest of _Rhipidura albifrontata_."

The late Captain Beavan remarked that this bird "appears to come to the Maunbhoom District for the purpose of breeding. I procured the nest and eggs early in April, and the young were nearly fledged by the 20th of that month; they appear to come year after year to particular localities to breed.

"Several nests were brought me from the neighbourhood of Kashurghur both in 1864 and 1865, whereas none were seen elsewhere. The nest is very small for the size of the bird, and the material of which it is composed closely resembles the bird's plumage in colour. The nest is round and very shallow, something like a Chaffinch's, being very neatly made; diameter inside 2 inches, depth 1 inch; composed of grey fibres, bits of bark, grass, and the like, cemented with spider's web. The eggs are two in number, greenish white, spotted with brown and slate-coloured dots, which in most specimens form a well-defined zone round the thickest part of the egg, leaving both ends without marks. Length of the egg ·75 inch; breadth ·59 inch. This bird was not observed in Maunbhoom except during the breeding-season."

Mr. G.W. Vidal, writing from the South Konkan, remarks:--"Common, as also at Sávant Vádí. Nest found with three hard-set eggs on the 18th February, low down in a mango-tree. Nest a very neat compact cap of grasses and fibres, woven throughout with spiders' webs. Eggs greyish white, with brown and inky-purple spots."

Dr. Jerdon remarks:--"The nest has been brought to me in August at Nellore, chiefly made of roots and lined with hair; and the eggs, three in number, were greenish white with large brown blotches."

Major M.F. Coussmaker sends me the following note from Mysore:--"I took the nest of this bird on April 16th. It was composed of fine roots and fibres closely woven into a compact nest, secured to a horizontal bough with cobweb and covered externally with lichen to match the tree. It measured in diameter 4·1 inches externally and 2·2 internally and ·8 deep. The parent bird was shot from the nest.

"The nest contained two eggs, white with brown spots and markings. They were so broken when I got them that no reliable measurements could be taken."

Lastly, Mr. Gates writes from Pegu:--"Nest with three fresh eggs on the 3rd March near Pegu."

The eggs are very Shrike-like in appearance, and many of them are perfect miniatures of the eggs of _Lanius lahtora_, but some of them have a more uniformly brown tint than any of this latter species that I have yet met with. The ground-colour is generally either a very pale greenish white or a creamy-stone colour, and more or less thickly spotted and blotched with different shades of yellowish and reddish brown; many of the markings are almost invariably gathered into a conspicuous, but irregular and ill-defined, zone near the large end, in which zone clouds of subsurface-looking, pale, and dingy purple, not usually observable on any other portion of the egg, are thickly intermingled. The texture of the shell is fine and close, but scarcely any gloss is ever perceptible. Occasionally the eggs are very faintly coloured, and have a dull white ground, while the markings consist of only a few spots and specks of very pale purple and pale rust-colour confined to a zone near the large end.

In length the eggs vary from 0·69 to 0·8 inch, and in breadth from 0·57 to 0·65 inch; but the average of a dozen eggs is 0·75 by 0·61 inch nearly.

490. Pericrocotus speciosus (Lath.). _The Indian Scarlet Minivet_.

Pericrocotus speciosus (_Lath.). Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 419; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 271.

Captain Hutton records that the Indian Scarlet Minivet breeds both on the Doon and in the hills overlooking it, to an elevation of about 5000 feet. He says:--"The nest is generally placed high up on the branch of some tall tree, often overhanging the side of a fearful precipice. On the 6th and 17th of June I procured two nests in ravines opening upon the Doon, one of which contained four, and the other five eggs, of a dull-white colour, sparingly spotted and blotched with earthy brown, more thickly so at the larger end, where they form an open ring of spots; other small blotches of a fainter colour are seen beneath the shell.

"It is a curious fact that in the latter nest, out of the five eggs _three_ were ringed at the larger end, and the other two _at the smaller end_. The nest is rather coarsely made, being very thick at the sides, and the materials not neatly interwoven; it is composed externally of dried grasses and the fine stalks of various small plants, interspersed with bits of cotton and grass-roots, and lined with the fine seed-stalks of small grasses."

I am not at all sure that there is not some mistake here. The nest described is rather that of _L. erythronotus_ than of any of the _Pericrocoti_, and but for the excellent authority on which the above rests, I should certainly not have accepted it.

This species breeds in the forests of the central hills of Nepal; recording to Mr. Hodgson's notes and drawings they begin laying about April, and lay three or four eggs, which are neither described nor figured. The nest is a beautiful deep cup externally about 3·25 inches in diameter, and rather more than 2 inches high, composed of moss and moss-roots lined internally with the latter, and entirely coated exteriorly with lichen and a few stray pieces of green moss firmly secured in their places by spiders' webs. The nest is placed in some slender branch between three or four upright sprays. This, I may note, is just the kind of nest one would have expected this Large Minivet to build.

The only specimens, supposed to be the eggs of this species, that I possess I owe to Captain Hutton. They closely resemble the eggs of _L. erythronotus_, but are perhaps shorter, and hence _look_ broader than those of this latter. They are slightly bigger than the eggs of _L. vittatus_. In shape they seem to be typically a slightly broader oval than those of any of our true Shrikes, but elongated and pointed examples occur. Their ground-colour is a very pale greyish white, thickly spotted all over the large end, and thickly dotted elsewhere, with specks, spots, and tiny blotches of pale yellowish brown and pale inky-purple. Compared with the eggs of the other _Pericrocoti_, they are very dingily coloured. The eggs are devoid of gloss. I am doubtful about these eggs.

In length they vary from 0·88 to 0·93 inch, and in breadth from 0·72 to 0·75 inch; but the average of five eggs is 0·9 by 0·72 inch.

494. Pericrocotus flammeus (Forst.). _The Orange Minivet_.

Pericrocotus flammeus (_Forst.), Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 420; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 272.

The Orange Minivet lays, I believe, in June and July on the Nilghiris. I have never taken a nest myself, but I have received several, with a few words in regard to them, from Miss Cockburn.

The nests are comparatively massive little cups placed on, or sometimes in, the forks of slender boughs. They are usually composed of excessively fine twigs, the size of fir-needles, and they are densely plastered over the whole exterior surface with greenish-grey lichen, so closely and cleverly put together that the side of the nest looks exactly like a piece of a lichen-covered branch. There appears to be no lining, and the eggs are laid on the fine little twigs which compose the body of the nest.

The nests are externally from 3 to 3¼ inches in diameter, and about 1½ inch deep, with an egg-cavity about 2 inches in diameter and about ¾ inch in depth. Some, however, when placed in a fork are much deeper and narrower, say externally 2½ inches in diameter and the same height; the egg-cavity about 1¾ inch in diameter and 1¼ inch in depth.

Miss Cockburn notes that one nest was found on the 24th of June on a high tree, the nest being placed on a thin branch between 30 or 40 feet from the ground. It contained a single fresh egg, which was broken in the fall of the branch, which had to be cut. This egg, the remains of which were sent me, had a pale greenish ground, and was pretty thickly streaked and spotted, most thickly so at the large end, with pale yellowish brown and pale rather dingy-purple, the latter colour predominating.

Another egg which she subsequently sent me, obtained on the 17th of July, is a regular, moderately elongated oval, a little pointed towards one end. The shell is fine, but glossless. The ground is a delicate pale sea-green or greenish white, and it is rather sparsely spotted and speckled with pale yellowish brown. Only one or two purplish-grey specks are to be detected on this egg; it measures 0·9 by 0·67.

Mr. J. Darling, junior, sends me the following note:--"I had the good fortune to find a nest of the Orange Minivet at Neddivattam, about 6000 feet above the level of the sea, on the 5th September, 1870. It was placed on a tall tree near the edge of a jungle and was built in a fork, about 30 feet from the ground.

"The nest was built of small twigs and grasses, and covered on the outside with lichens, moss, and cobwebs, making it appear as part and parcel of the tree. I noticed it merely from the fact of seeing the bird sitting on her nest, and even then could not make up my mind, and came away. Being of an inquisitive nature, next day I went again and saw the bird in the same place, so I climbed up and managed to pull the nest towards me with a hook, and took two eggs, one of which I send you.

"In August 1874 at Vythory I saw a bird sitting on her nest, and watched her rear and take away her brood, but could not get at the nest."

An egg sent me by Mr. Darling is very similar to the eggs sent me by Miss Cockburn, except that the brown markings are rather more numerous, especially in a broad zone round the large end, and that with these a good many pale purple or lilac spots or specks are intermingled. It measures 0·88 by 0·68 inch.

495. Pericrocotus brevirostris (Vigors). _The Short-billed Minivet_.

Pericrocotus brevirostris (_Vig._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 421; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 273.

The Short-billed Minivet breeds in the Himalayas at elevations of from 3000 to 6000 feet in Kumaon, and again in Kulu and the valley of the Sutlej. It lays in May and June, building a compact and delicate cup-shaped nest on a horizontal bough pretty high up in some oak, rhododendron, or other forest tree. I have never seen one on any kind of fir-tree.

Sometimes the nest is merely placed on, and attached firmly to, the upper surface of the branch; but, more commonly, the place where two smallish branches fork horizontally is chosen, and the nest is placed just at the fork. I got one nest at Kotgurh, however, wedged in between two upright shoots from a horizontal oak-branch. The nests are composed of fine twigs, fir-needles, grass-roots, fine grass, slender dry stems of herbaceous plants, as the case may be, generally loosely, but occasionally compactly interlaced, intermingled and densely coated over the whole exterior with cobwebs and pieces of lichen, the latter so neatly put on that they appear to have grown where they are. Sometimes, especially at the base of the nest, a little moss is attached exteriorly, but, as a rule, there is nothing but lichen. The nest has no lining. The external diameter is about 2½ inches, and the usual height of the nest from 1½ to 2 inches; but this varies a good deal according to situation, and the bottom of the nest, which in some may be at most ¼ inch thick, in another is a full inch. The sides rarely exceed ¼ inch in thickness. The egg-cavity has a diameter of about 2 inches, and a depth of from 1 to 1·25 inch.

Five seems to be the maximum number of eggs laid, but I have now twice met with three, more or less incubated, eggs.

Mr. Hodgson notes:--"May 16th: At the top of the great forest of Sheopoori, secured a nest built near the top of a kaiphul tree, and laid on a thick branch amongst smaller twigs. The nest is about 2 inches deep and the same in diameter: inside it is 1·5 inch deep; it is made of paper-like bits of lichen welded together with spiders' webs, and with a lining of elastic fibres. It is the shape of a deep soap-stand, open at the top of course. It contained two eggs of a bluish or greenish-white ground, much spotted with liver colour, especially near the large end, where the spots are clustered into a zone."

Dr. Scully, writing also from Nepal, says:--"During the breeding-season (May and June) this Minivet is found in forests on the hills up to an elevation of 7500 feet. A nest was found in the Sheopoori forest on the 17th June, which contained two very young birds and one egg."

The eggs of this species that I have seen are moderately broad ovals, as a rule, very regular in their shape, and scarcely compressed at all towards the lesser end. The shell is fine and satiny, but the eggs have little or no real gloss. The ground-colour is a dull white, sometimes slightly tinged with pink, sometimes with green, and they are richly and profusely blotched, spotted, and streaked, most densely, as a rule, towards the large end, with brownish red and pale purple. Most eggs exhibit a more or less conspicuous, though irregular, zone round the larger end.

The eggs vary in length from 0·71 to 0·8 inch, and in breadth from 0·54 to 0·6 inch.

499. Pericrocotus roseus (Vieill.). _The Rosy Minivet_.

Pericrocotus roseus (_Vieill._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 422; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 275.

The only one of my contributors who appears to have taken the eggs of the Rosy Minivet is Colonel C.H.T. Marshall. Mr. R. Thompson says:--"They breed in the warmer valleys of Kumaon, up to an elevation of some 5000 feet, in May and June;" but he adds: "have never got down the nests."

Colonel Marshall, writing from Murree, says:--"The Rosy Minivet builds a beautifully little shallow cup-shaped nest, the outer edge being quite narrow and pointed. The external covering of the nest is fine pieces of lichen fastened on with cobwebs. It was found on the 12th of June, and contained three fresh eggs, white, with greyish-brown spots and blotches sparsely scattered about the larger end; the length is 0·8 by 0·55 inch; 5000 feet up."

The nest, which I owe to this gentleman, is externally a short section of a cylinder, rather than a cup, the walls standing up outside almost perpendicularly. It is 2·5 inches in diameter and nearly 1·75 in height. The rim of the nest is ¼ inch wide, and the cavity, a shallow cup, 2 inches wide by scarcely an inch deep; the walls of the nest increase in thickness as they approach the base.

Externally the whole surface is _entirely_ covered by small scales of lichen, firmly bound into their respective places by gossamer threads; internally the nest is a very loosely put together basket-work of excessively fine twigs and grass-stems not thicker than common needles. A morsel or two of moss have become involved in the fabric, as well as two fine blades of grass; but there is no lining, and the eggs are obviously laid upon the soft loose basket frame of the nest.

The egg which accompanied the nest is a regular oval, slightly compressed towards one end. The ground-colour is pale greenish white entirely devoid of gloss. The egg is richly blotched, spotted, and speckled (most densely so towards the larger end) with reddish brown and greenish purple, there being two conspicuously different shades (a much darker and a much lighter, the latter of which appears like subsurface tints) of each of these colours. This egg measures 0·82 by 0·6 inch nearly.

Another egg of the same clutch was less richly coloured, the markings being merely brown, with scarcely a perceptible reddish tinge, and dull mostly inky, but here and there somewhat reddish, purple. The markings, too, were fewer in number, but there was a more marked tendency for these to form a zone about the larger end.

In another clutch the markings were almost entirely confined to a dense zone round the larger end about a third of the way up from the middle of the egg. In this zone they were so densely set as to be quite confluent, and they consisted of yellowish brown and inky purple.

Mr. J.R. Cripps found the nest of this Minivet in the Bhaman tea-garden, in the Dibrugarh District of Assam, on the 31st May, 1879. The nest contained three eggs, and was placed on the upper side of a large lateral branch of a tree that grew on the main garden road, about 15 feet from the ground.

Seven eggs of this bird vary in length from 0·75 to 0·86, and in breadth from 0·58 to 0·6.

500. Pericrocotus peregrinus (Linn.). _The Small Minivet_.

Pericrocotus peregrinus (_Linn_), _Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 423; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 276.

Our Small Minivet lays during the latter half of June (as soon, in fact, as the rains set in), and throughout July and August. I believe it breeds pretty well all over India and Burma.

The nest is small and neat, and done up generally like a Chaffinch's, to resemble the bark of the tree on which it is placed.

The nests that I have seen have been invariably placed at a considerable height from the ground in the fork of a branch, most commonly, I think, a mango-tree, though I have occasionally noticed them in other trees.

The nest is a small moderately deep cup, with an internal cavity about 1·7 inch to 1·9 in diameter, and nearly an inch in depth. The sides of the nest are about 3/8 inch thick, and the thickness of the bottom of the nest varies according to the shape of the fork chosen, whether obtuse or acute-angled. In the former case the bottom of the nest is sometimes not above ¼ inch in depth. In the latter case, it is sometimes as much as an inch in thickness. It is composed of very fine, needle-like twigs (with at times here and there a few feathers) carefully bound together externally with cobwebs, and coated with small pieces of bark or dead leaves, or both, so that looked at from below with the naked eye it is impossible to distinguish it from one of the many little excrescences so common, especially on mango-trees. There appears to be rarely any regular lining, a very little down and cobwebs forming the only bed for the eggs, and even this is often wanting. Sometimes a few tiny dead leaves or a little lichen will be found incorporated in the nest, and occasionally, but rarely, fine grass-stems take the place of very slender twigs.

Three is, I believe, the normal number of the eggs. I extract a couple of old notes I made in regard to the nests of this species:--"_August 5th_.--Took three eggs of this bird, shooting the two old birds at the same time. The tree was a mango, the nest was in the fork of a branch, some 40 feet from the ground, built interiorly with very small twigs, with here and there a very few feathers intermixed, and was exteriorly coated with fine flakes of bark held in their place by gossamer threads. It was cup-shaped, with an interior diameter of 1-7/8 by ¾ inch.

"The eggs had a slightly greenish-white ground, thickly spotted and speckled, and towards the larger end blotched, with somewhat brownish red; the markings showing a decided tendency to form a zone round, or cap at the larger end."

"_Allygurh, August 27th_.--Another beautiful little nest in a mango-tree high up, a tiny cup about 1½ inch internal diameter by ¾ inch deep, woven with very fine twigs, and exteriorly coated with tiny fragments of bark and dead leaves firmly secured in their places with gossamer threads and cobwebs. It contained two fresh eggs; a pale slightly greenish-white ground, richly speckled and spotted and sparsely blotched with a purplish and a brownish red, the markings greatly predominating towards the larger end."

Mr. F.R. Blewitt, detailing his experiences in Jhansie and Saugor, says:--"Breeds in June and July. The tamarind-tree is by preference chosen by this bird for its nest; at least the three I saw were all on tamarind-trees. The nest, cup-shaped, is a compactly made structure; the exterior appeared to be composed of the very fine petioles of leaves, with a thick coating all over of what looked like spider's web; attached to this web-like substance here and there, for better disguise, were the dry leaves of the tamarind-tree; the lining of very fine grass. The outer diameter of a nest may fairly be given at 2·2 inches, inner at 1·8, depth of nest 0·9. Two is the regular number of eggs, at least that was the number in the three nests I took. In colour they are of a pale greenish white, sparingly speckled on the narrower half of the egg with brownish spots, but they have on the broader half the spots more dense, and forming at the end a more or less complete cap. The feat of securing a nest is a most hazardous one, for it is always fixed close in between two delicate forks at the extreme end of a slight side-branch near to the top of the tree. On each occasion that the nest was detected the male bird was found flitting about near to it, the female all the while sitting on the eggs. On the last two occasions of finding the nests, it was this flitting to and fro of the male that attracted us; otherwise the nest, is so small that from the ground the eye can scarcely distinguish it from the branch. The bird appears to be migratory, for since the termination of the breeding-season it has disappeared from these parts."

Major C.T. Bingham writes to me:--"Although this bird is common enough both at Allahabad and at Delhi, I have found it difficult to find its nest, from the fact that it is placed at the very extreme tip of leafy branches. However, with careful watching and patience, I managed to find one nest at Allahabad and five at Delhi. The first I found on the 3rd July at Chupree near Allahabad. It contained two well-fledged young ones, that hopped out as soon as the nest was touched. Out of the five at Delhi I managed to get six eggs; three of the nests when found being empty, were afterwards deserted by the birds. Of the two nests with eggs, one contained four and the other two. The nests are tiny little cups, made of very fine grass, and coated externally with cobwebs, to which are attached bits of bark and dry leaves. The eggs are a greenish stone-colour, thickly speckled with light purple and brownish red. The earliest nest I have found was on the 21st March, on the banks of the canal at Delhi, so that the bird occasionally, at Delhi at least, lays in spring. The average of eggs I have is 0·68 in length, and 0·55 in breadth."

Colonel E.A. Butler furnishes us with the following interesting note:--"Found a nest at Belgaum, containing two fresh eggs, on the 3rd September, 1879. It was situated in the fork of one of the small outer top branches of a tall mango-tree, and was on the whole about the prettiest nest I have seen in India. It consisted of a tiny cup about 1¼ x 2 inches measured interiorly, and 1-7/8 x 2½ inches exteriorly. Depth inside 1 inch, outside 1½ inches from rim to proper base, excluding about an inch of lichen continued down one side of the bough below the fork in which the nest was built. It was composed, so far as I could judge after a very minute examination, almost entirely of the white lichen which grows so freely on the bark of every tree during the rains, with a few cobwebs incorporated and wound round the outside to keep it together, assimilating so perfectly with the branch upon which it was placed, which was also overgrown with the same kind of lichen, that without watching the old birds closely it never could have been discovered.

"It contained no regular lining, though a few coarse dry leaf-stems of a dark colour were encircled within. I observed the birds building first on the 21st August, and the nest from below looked then almost finished. The cock and hen worked together, flying to and fro very busily with bits of lichen picked off the branches of another tree adjoining. On the 25th I watched the nest for some time, but the birds only came to it once, and then the hen bird went on and smeared some cobwebs round the outside, at least that is what she seemed to me to be doing. On the 28th I watched it again, and although both birds were in the adjoining tree, I did not see them go to the nest. On the 31st, about 10 A.M., I found the hen on the nest, and she remained on till about 10.30, when she flew off and joined the cock, who was sitting pluming himself on a branch of the next tree the whole time she was on the nest. Immediately she joined him, he commenced catching flies and feeding her, as if she were a young bird, and eventually they both flew away together. Arriving at the conclusion that she only went on the nest to lay, I decided on taking the nest three days later, and accordingly returned for that purpose with a small boy on the 3rd Sept., and found, as I expected, the hen sitting and the cock in another tree close by.

"I sent the boy up the tree, and as he approached the nest, which was some 30 or 35 feet from the ground, the hen bird became very uneasy, moving her head from side to side, and looking down to see what was going on below. When the boy was within about 10 feet of the nest she flew off and joined the cock, after which I saw her no more. The eggs were then secured with difficulty, as the branches surrounding the nest were very thin and blown about a good deal by the wind.

"After breaking off the bough, nest and all, the boy descended. One branch of the fork in which the nest was placed was rotten, and broke off at the junction at the base of the nest as the boy was descending the tree; but the nest, which was firmly bound to it with cobwebs, remained in its place and was not injured, and I had the nest and bough beautifully painted for me by a lady friend the same day. The eggs were pale bluish green, speckled and spotted, most densely at the large end, with two shades of dusky purple, the markings of the lighter shade appearing to underlie those of the darker. On the 6th Sept., the same pair of birds commenced a new nest on another mango-tree about 20 yards off. This time it was placed in a fork of one of the small outside lateral branches about 25 feet from the ground, and resembled in every respect the first nest. On the 15th Sept., the hen bird began to sit, and on the 18th I sent a boy up the tree by means of a ladder, and secured two more fresh, eggs, similar to those already described. On this occasion the two old birds evinced signs of the greatest anxiety, the hen remaining on the nest till the boy was close to her, and, joined by the cock immediately she left it, the pair kept flying from bough to bough in the greatest possible state of excitement the whole time the nest was being taken, the hen actually once or twice going on to the nest again after she had left it, when the boy was within 3 feet of her. On examining the nest I found that one of the branches of the fork consisted of a small rotten stump, similar to the one described in the first nest, and in the bottom of both nests there were three or four small black downy feathers, intermingled with the dead leaf-stems that constituted the lining."

In his recent "Notes on Birds'-nesting in Rajpootana," Lieut. H.E. Barnes writes, "The Small Minivet breeds during July and August."

Mr. Benjamin Aitken writes:--"You say that the Small Minivet lays during the latter half of June and throughout July and August. I would therefore remark that on the 11th November, 1871, I saw several newly-fledged young ones at Poona. There could be no mistake about this, as I stood under the tree, which was a small one, and saw the young ones being fed."

Messrs. Davidson and Wenden remark that in the Deccan it is "common, and breeds in the rains."

The latter gentleman subsequently added the following note:--"In July, my men found a nest with two eggs at Nulwar, Deccan. It was built on a small branch of a tamarind-tree, 20 feet from the ground. The nest is similar to that described in the 'Rough Draft' as being found at Allyghur. The whole of the bark used on the outer coating is that of tamarind-tree, and there are a good many feathers and much down incorporated into the structure, inside and out. The eggs differ considerably in colouring. In both the ground-colour is greenish white. One is profusely speckled all over, but more thickly at the smaller end, with brownish red and a few purple blotches, whilst the other egg has the specks less numerous but larger, and chiefly on the larger end, with little or no purple, and the small end almost unsullied."

Finally, Mr. Oates records that "in Lower Pegu nests of this bird may be found from the end of April to the middle of June."

The eggs are of a rather broad oval shape, and, as is often the case even in the typical Shrikes, very blunt at both ends. The ground-colour is a pale delicate greenish white, and they are more or less richly marked with bright, slightly brownish-red specks, spots, and blotches, which, always more numerous at the large end, have a tendency there to form a mottled irregular cap. In many eggs, besides these primary markings, a number of small faint, patches and blotches of pale inky purple are observable, almost exclusively at the large end. The eggs appear to be quite devoid of gloss. I have eggs both of _Copsychus saularis_ and _Thamnobia cambaiensis_, strange as it may seem, closely resembling, except in size, some types of this bird's egg; and I have one egg of _Merula simillima_ from the Nilghiris, which, though immensely larger, so far as tint, colour, and character of ground and markings go, is positively identical with eggs that I have of this species.

In length the eggs vary from 0·6 to 0·7 inch, and in breadth from 0·5 to 0·56 inch, but the average of twenty-eight eggs is 0·67 nearly by 0·53 inch.

501. Pericrocotus erythropygius (Jerd.). _The White-bellied Minivet_.

Pericrocotus erythropygius (_Jerd.), Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 424; _Hume, cat._ no. 277.

Mr. J. Davidson, C.S., is apparently the only ornithologist who has discovered the nest of the White-bellied Minivet. Writing on the 25th August, from Khandeish, he says:--"Yesterday I took two nests of _Pericrocotus erythropygius_. Both nests were like those of _P. peregrinus_, and were placed about 2½ feet from the ground in a fork of a straggling thorn-bush among thin scrub-jungle. One contained 3 young birds, and one 3 hard-set eggs. I watched the nest, and found the cock sitting on the eggs, and watched him for a minute, so there is no possibility of mistake; but the eggs are not the least what I expected. They are fairly glossy, one being very much elongated, of a greenish-grey ground, with long longitudinal dashes of dark brown, as unlike Minivets' eggs as they can possibly be. They were the only two pairs I saw in a long morning walk, and the nests were easily found by watching the birds. I wish I had known the birds were breeding where they were, as by going three weeks ago I should probably have found many nests, as there are miles and miles of similar jungle, and it is barely 12 miles from Dhulia. It is very provoking. I have had great trouble trying to make the Bhils work for me. They will bring in eggs but not mark them down."

Later on, Mr. Davidson wrote:--"I happened to be staying a few days at Arvee, in the extreme south of Dhulia, and found this bird breeding there in considerable numbers. This was in the end of August (26th to 31st), and I was rather late, most of the nests containing young, and in some cases the young were able to fly. I, however, found eight nests with eggs (most of them hard-set). All the nests, which are small and less ornamented than those of _P. peregrinus_, were placed from 3 to 4 feet from the ground, in a small common thorny scrub. They were all placed in low thin jungle, and never where the jungle was thick and difficult to walk through. A great deal of the jungle round Arvee is full of anjan-trees, but none of the birds seem to breed in these."

The nests are elegant little cups, reminding one of those of _Rhipidura albifrontata_, measuring internally about 1·75 inch in diameter and 1 inch in depth, the thickness of the walls of the nest being usually somewhat less than a quarter of an inch. Interiorly the nest is composed of excessively fine flowering-stems of grasses, and externally and on the upper edge it is densely coated with fine, rather silky greyish-white vegetable fibres, in places more or less felted together. It is not ornamented externally with moss and lichen, as those of so many of the _Pericrocoti_ commonly are, only occasionally one or two little ornamental brown patches of withered glossy vegetable scales are worked into the exterior of the nest.

The eggs are not at all like those of the other _Pericrocoti_ with which we are best acquainted; though less densely, and even more streakily marked, they most remind me of the egg of _Volvocivora_, and in a lesser degree of that of _Hemipus picatus_.

The eggs vary in shape from rather broad to rather elongated ovals. The shell is very fine and smooth, but has scarcely any perceptible gloss. The ground-colour is greenish or greyish white, and they are profusely marked with comparatively fine longitudinal streaks of a moderately dark brown, which in some lines is more of a chocolate, in others perhaps more umber. At both ends of the egg, but especially the smaller end, the markings often become spotty or speckly, but the fine longitudinal streaking of the sides of the egg is very conspicuous.

In size the eggs vary from 0·69 to 0·71 in length, by 0·51 to 0·58 in breadth. I have measured too few eggs to be able to give a reliable average.

505. Campophaga melanoschista (Hodgs.). _The Dark-grey Cuckoo-Shrike_.

Volvocivora melaschistos, _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 415: _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 269.

I have never found the nest of the Dark-grey Cuckoo-Shrike. Captain Hutton tells us:--

"This, too, is a mere summer visitor in the hills, arriving up to 7000 feet about the end of March, and breeding early in May. The nest is small and shallow, placed in the bifurcation of a horizontal bough of some tall oak tree, and always high up; it is composed externally almost entirely of grey lichens picked from the tree, and lined with bits of very fine roots or thin stalks of leaves. Seen from beneath the tree the nest appears like a bunch of moss or lichens, and the smallness and frailty would lead one to suppose it incapable of holding two young birds of such size. Externally the nest is compactly held together by being thickly pasted over with cobwebs. The eggs, two in number, of a dull grey-green, closely and in part confluently dashed with streaks of dusky brown."

This species, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes and drawings, breeds in Nepal in the central districts of the hills from April to July, laying three or four eggs. The nest is a broad shallow saucer, some 4 inches in external diameter and 1·75 inch in height; it is placed in a fork where two or three slender branches divide, to one or more of which it is firmly bound with vegetable fibres and grass-roots, and is composed of fine roots and vegetable fibres, and plastered over externally with pieces of lichen and moss. The eggs are regular ovals, with a pale-greenish ground, blotched and spotted with a somewhat olivaceous brown.

A nest of this species found at Mongphoo (elevation 5500 feet) on the 15th June contained three eggs nearly ready to hatch off. The nest was placed on a nearly horizontal fork of a small branch. It is composed of very fine twigs loosely twisted together and coated everywhere exteriorly with cobwebs and scraps of grey lichen. At the lower part, which, owing to the slope of the branch, had to be thicker, it is exteriorly about an inch and a half in height. At the upper end it is only about half an inch high. The shallow saucer-like cavity is about two and a half inches in diameter and about half an inch in depth.

The eggs of this species, sent me by Captain Hutton from Mussoorie, much resemble those of _Graucalus macii_ and _C. sykesi_, but they are decidedly longer than the latter, and the general tone of their colouring is somewhat duller. In shape they are somewhat elongated ovals, more or less compressed towards one end; the general colour is greenish white, very thickly blotched and streaked with dull brown and very pale purple. The markings are very closely set, leaving but little of the ground-colour visible. They have little or no gloss.

They measure 1·03 by 0·72 inch, and 0·95 by 0·68 inch.

Other eggs that I have since obtained have been quite similar, but have not had the markings quite so densely set: the secondary markings have been greyer and less purple, and several eggs have exhibited an appreciable gloss; others, again, were quite like those first described and entirely devoid of gloss. They measured 0·9 to 0·98 in length by 0·65 to 0·71 in breadth.

508. Campophaga sykesi (Strickl.). _The Black-headed Cuckoo-Shrike_.

Volvocivora sykesii (_Strickl.), Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 414; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 268.

Mr. F.R. Blewitt took the eggs of Sykes's Cuckoo-Shrike many years ago. He furnishes the following note:--

"I first met with this bird in the southern part of Bundlekund. Nowhere here is it common, and I have never seen more than a pair together. It is to be found in wooded tracts of country, but more frequently among thin large trees surrounding villages. Dr. Jerdon has correctly described its restless habits, and its careful examination of the foliage and branches of trees for food. It is usually a silent bird, but during the earlier portion of the breeding-season the male bird may frequently be heard repeating for minutes together his clear plaintive notes. Each time, as it flies from one tree to another, the song is repeated. The flight is easy, slightly undulating, and the strokes of the wing somewhat rapid. In the latter end of July I procured one nest. It was found on a mowa-tree (_Bassia latifolia_), placed on and at the end of two small out-shooting branches. When my man, mounting the tree, approached the nest the parent birds evinced the greatest anxiety, flew just above his head, uttering all the while a sharply repeated cry. Even when one of the birds was shot the other would not leave the spot, but remained hovering about and uttering its shrill cry. The nest is slightly made, and constructed of thin twigs and roots; the exterior is covered slightly with spider's web. If we except the size, the formation of this Cuckoo-Shrike's nest is almost identical with that of _Graucalus macii_. I secured two eggs in the nest. In colour they are, when fresh, of a deepish green, mottled with dark brown spots; indeed the eggs, when first taken, a good deal resemble those of _Copsychus saularis_. The maximum number of eggs, no doubt, is three, as those I secured were fresh-laid. The bird breeds from June to August."