Chapter XXI: Part 21

The nest above referred to, and now in my museum, was a very shallow, rather broad cup. The egg-cavity about 2½ inches in diameter and about ¾ inch deep, and the nest very loosely put together of very fine twigs, and exteriorly coated and bound together with cobwebs. The sides of the nest are about 0·6 inch thick, but the bottom is a mere network of slender twigs, not above ¼ inch thick, and can be readily looked through.

Mr. I. Macpherson writes:--"This bird is found in the open scrub-forests of the Mysore district, but is nowhere common.

"14th May, 1880.--While passing a small sandal-wood tree a bird flew out, and on looking into the tree I found a very shallow nest at the junction of two small branches about 10 feet from the ground; the nest contained three eggs.

"Returned again in a quarter of an hour and shot the bird (the male) as it flew out of the tree. The eggs were within a few days of being hatched off.

"20th May, 1880.--While out driving this morning saw a male bird of this species fly out of a small sandal-wood tree close to the roadside. Pulled up to watch, and shortly saw the female bird fly into the tree. Got out and shot her and took the nest, which was beautifully fixed in a fork with three branches only eight feet from the ground.

"The nest contained three eggs very hard-set."

Mr. J. Davidson, C.S., remarks:--"This pretty little Cuckoo-Shrike is one of the earliest migrants in the rains, arriving about the 8th of June, and breeding all along the scrub-jungles which stretch between the Nasik and Khandeish Collectorates. It appears particularly partial to the Angan forest, and, as far as I remember, all the many nests I have seen have been in forks of angan trees. The nest is a pretty firm platform composed of fine roots; and the eggs, which much resemble those of the Magpie-Robin, are three in number."

Colonel Legge writes, in his 'Birds of Ceylon':--"With us this Cuckoo-Shrike breeds in April in the Western Province. Mr. MacVicar writes me of the discovery, by himself, of two nests last year near Colombo. One was built on the topmost branch of a young jack-tree about 40 feet high. It was very small and shallow, measuring 2·8 inches in breadth and only 0·8 inch in depth, and the old bird could be seen plainly from beneath sitting across it. The other was situated on the top of a tree about 20 feet from the ground, and was built in the same manner. The materials are not mentioned."

I have only seen two eggs of this species, sent me with the nest and parent bird by Mr. F.R. Blewitt. They are oval eggs, moderately broad and obtuse at both ends, about the same size as average eggs of _Lanius vittatus_. They are slightly glossy, have a pale greenish-white ground, and are thickly blotched and streaked throughout, but most densely so towards the large end, with somewhat pale brown, much the same colour as the markings on typical eggs of _L. erythronotus_. They measure 0·85 inch in length by 0·65 and 0·68 inch in breadth respectively. Other eggs since received from Calcutta and Mysore measure from 0·87 to 0·81 in length, and from 0·68 to 0·62 in breadth.

509. Campophaga terat (Bodd.)[A]. _The Pied Cuckoo-Shrike_.

[Footnote A: I cannot find any note among Mr. Hume's papers regarding the discovery of the nest of this bird. The nest may possibly have been found at Camorta (Nicobar Islands), where this species is not uncommon.--ED.]

Lalage terat (_Bodd.), Hume, cat._ no, 269 ter.

The eggs are quite of the _Graucalus_ and _Campophaga_ type, but perhaps a little more elongated in shape. Very regular, slightly elongated ovals, with scarcely any gloss on them, the ground greenish white, but everywhere thickly streaked and mottled and freckled over, most thickly about the large end, with a dull pale slightly olivaceous brown intermingled with brownish, or in some specimens faintly purplish grey. The two eggs I possess measure 0·85 and 0·87 in length, by 0·61 and 0·62 respectively in breadth.

510. Graucalus macii, Lesson. _The Large Cuckoo-Shrike_.

Graucalus macei, _Less., Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 417; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 270.

My friend Mr. F.R. Blewitt seems to be the only ornithologist who has taken many nests of the Large Grey Cuckoo-Shrike. I never was so fortunate as to find one. He says:--"This Shrike begins to pair about May, and in June the work of nidification commences. The place selected for the nest is the most lofty branch of a tree, and is built near the fork of two outlying twigs. If this bird has a preference it would appear to be for mango and mowa trees, on which I found most of the nests. The nest is in form circular, and its exterior is somewhat thickly made; the interior is moderately cup-shaped. Thin twigs and grass-roots are freely used in its construction, while the outer part of the nest is somewhat thickly covered with what appears to be spider's web. Altogether the nest, considering the size of the birds, is of light structure. I am sorry I did not take the dimensions of each nest secured, but I sent you two very perfect ones. I found the first eggs in the beginning of July. They are of a dull lightish green, with brown spots of all sizes, more dense towards the large end. The maximum number of eggs is three. The bird breeds from June to August."

The nests which Mr. Blewitt sent me remind one a good deal of those of the _Dicruri_. They are broad shallow saucers, with an egg-cavity about 3 inches in diameter, and ¾ inch in depth, composed in the only two specimens that I possess of very fine twigs, chiefly those of the furash (_Tamarix orientalis_). Exteriorly they are bound round with cobwebs, in which a quantity of lichen is incorporated. The nests are loose flimsy fabrics, which but for the exterior coating of cobwebs would certainly never have borne removal.

Dr. Jerdon remarks:--"I once obtained its nest and eggs. The nest was built in a lofty casuarina tree, close to my house at Tellicherry; it was composed of small twigs and roots merely, of Moderate size, and rather deeply cup-shaped, and contained three eggs, of a greenish-fawn colour, with large blotches of purplish brown."

Professor H. Littledale writing from Baroda says:--"The Large Cuckoo-Shrike is a permanent resident here. I found six nests last August near Baroda, each with one egg; and my men found a nest building in the Police Lines at Khaira on the 10th October."

Mr. J. Davidson informs us that "a pair of _Graucalus macii_ were apparently breeding near this place (the Kondabhari Ghât). He found a nest with two young in the previous September near the same place."

Mr. G.W. Vidal, referring to the South Konkan, says:--"Common; breeds in February and March."

A nest that was placed in the fork of a bough was composed entirely of slender twigs, the petioles of some pennated-leaved tree, bound together all round the outside with abundance of cobwebs, so that notwithstanding the incoherent nature of the materials the nest was extremely firm. It is a shallow saucer quite of the Dicrurine type, with a cavity 3 inches in diameter and barely 0·75 in depth.

The eggs are typically of a somewhat elongated oval, a good deal pointed towards one end, but some are broader and more of a typical Shrike shape. The eggs are of course considerably larger than those of _Lanius lahtora_. The shell is compact and fine, and faintly glossy. The ground-colour is a palish-green stone-colour, greener in some, and somewhat more creamy in others. The markings are very Shrike-like, and consist of brown blotches, streaks, and spots, with numerous clouds and blotches of pale inky-purple, which appear to underlie the brown markings. The markings in some eggs are all very faint, and, as it were, half washed out, while in others they are very bright and clear. In some these are comparatively sparse and few; in others close-set and numerous, especially in a broad zone near the large end; but this zone is by no means invariably present; in fact, not above one in five eggs exhibit it. There is something in these eggs which reminds one of some of the Terns' eggs; and although, when compared with a large series of _L. lahtora_, individuals of this latter species may be found resembling them to a certain extent, I do not think that at first sight any zoologist would have felt sure that they _were_ Shrike's eggs.

They vary in length from 1·12 to 1·41 inch, and in breadth from 0·8 to 0·95 inch, but the average of eight eggs is 1·26 by 0·9 inch nearly.

Subfamily ARTAMINAE.

512. Artamus fuscus, Vieill. _The Ashy Swallow-Shrike_.

Artamus fuscus, _V., Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 441; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 287.

Mr. R. Thompson says:--"I have frequently found the nests of the Ashy Swallow-Shrike, and have watched the old birds constructing them, but never took down their eggs. Two or three pairs may always be found nesting on the long-leaved pine, as one comes up from Kaladoongee to Nyneetal and passes halfway up from the first dâk chokee at Ghutgurh. They lay in May and June, constructing their nest on the horizontal extension of a main branch of some lofty tree, generally _Pinus longifolia_. The nest, composed of fine grasses, roots, and fibres, is a loose, only slightly cup-shaped structure, some 5 inches in diameter."

Dr. Jerdon says on the other hand:--"I have procured the nest of this bird situated on a palmyra tree on the stem of the leaf. It was a deep cup-shaped nest, made of grass, leaves, and numerous feathers, and contained two eggs, white with a greenish tinge, and with light brown spots, chiefly at the larger end. I see that Mr. Layard procured the nest in Ceylon, where this bird is common, in the heads of cocoanut trees, made of fibres and grasses, and it was probably the nest of this bird that was brought to Tickell as that of the Palm-Swift."

According to Mr. Hodgson this species begins to lay in March, the young being fledged in June; the nest is a broad shallow saucer, from 6 to 8 inches in diameter, composed of grass and roots, together with a little lichen, loosely put together, a green leaf or two being sometimes found as a lining to the nest. The nest is placed on some broad horizontal branch, where two or three slender twigs or shoots grow out of it, or on the top of some stump of a tree, or broken end of a branch, generally, at a considerable height from the ground. The eggs are _figured_ as white, spotted and blotched almost exclusively at the large end with yellowish brown, and measuring 0·8 by 0·52 inch, but no actual measurements are recorded.

Mr. Gammie, however, himself found, and kindly sent me, a nest and eggs of this species, at Mongpho near Darjeeling, at an elevation of about 3500 feet, on the 13th May, 1873. It was placed in the hole of a trunk of a dead tree at a height of about 40 feet from the ground, and it contained three hard-set eggs. The nest was a loose shallow saucer of coarse roots devoid of lining. The eggs were rather narrow ovals, a good deal pointed towards one end; the shell fine and with a slight gloss. The ground-colour was creamy white, and the markings, which are almost entirely confined to a broad ring round the large end and the space within it, consisted of spots and clouds of very pale yellowish brown, intermingled with clouds and specks of excessively pale, nearly washed out, lilac.

He subsequently furnished me with the following note from Sikhim:--"In the hills this bird is migratory, coming about the last week in February and leaving in the last week of October. It is exceedingly abundant on the outer ridges running in from the Teesta Valley, and most numerous about the elevation of 3000 feet, but stragglers get up as high as 5000 feet. It prefers dry ridges on which there are a few scattered tall trees, from the tops of which it can make short flights, over the open country, after insects. It goes very little abroad in the height of the day, and feeds principally in the evenings. It rarely keeps on the wing for more than a minute or two at a time, but occasionally will fly for ten minutes on end. It is quite as bold and persevering in its habit of attacking and driving off hawks and kites as the king-crow. Towards the end of September it begins to congregate in rows along dead branches in the tops of trees.

"It begins to lay in April and, I think, has only one brood in the year. It builds in holes of trees, on surfaces of large horizontal branches 30 or 40 feet up, or in depressions in ends of lofty stumps. The nest is a shallow saucer, made entirely of light-coloured roots and twigs loosely put together. The usual number of eggs appears to be three."

Mr. J.R. Cripps informs us that at Furreedpore in Eastern Bengal this species is "common, and a permanent resident, very partial to perching on the tips of bamboos, and I have seen as many as 13 sitting side by side on a bamboo tip. I took seven nests this season, all from date-trees (_Phoenix sylvestris_), which trees are very common in the district. The nest is generally built at the junction of the leaf-stem and the trunk of the tree, though in two instances the nest was placed on a ledge from which all leaves had been removed to enable the tree to be tapped for its juice. In every instance the nest was exposed, and if any bird, even a hawk, came near, these courageous little fellows would drive it off. My nests were found from the 5th April to 6th June; shallow saucers made of fine twigs and grasses with a lining of the same, and contained two to four eggs in each. Height of nest from ground about 12 to 15 feet. On the 17th April I took two fresh eggs from a nest, and the birds laying again, I, on the 8th May, again took three fresh eggs. When on the wing they utter their note, generally returning to the same perch."

And he adds:--

"_16th April, 1878_.--Took two perfectly fresh eggs from a nest built on a date-tree. The date-trees in this district are tapped annually for the juice, from which sugar is manufactured. The leaves and the bark for a depth of 3 inches are sliced away from one half of the trunk, the leaves on the other half remaining, and at the root of one of these the nest was built, wedged in between the trunk and the leaves; the external diameter was 4½ inches, depth 3 inches, thickness of sides of nest ¾ inch; a rather shallow cup, composed exclusively of fine grasses with no attempt at a lining.

"_17th April, 1878_.--Secured two fresh eggs from another nest on a date-tree. In size and shape they were similar and the materials were the same grasses with no lining. The trees these nests were on formed a small clump alongside a ryot's house. People were passing under them all day, but the birds never noticed them. Any bird, from a Kite to a Bulbul, coming near received a warm welcome. The nests are at all times exposed, and the natives believe that two males and one female are found occupying one nest. The birds being gregarious build on adjoining trees, and while the ladies are engaged with their domestic affairs their lords keep each other company, so the natives put them down as polyandrous. I have found over a dozen nests, and every one has been the counterpart of the other, and only on date-trees."

Miss Cockburn writes from the Nilghiris:--"On the 17th May, 1873, a nest of this bird was found. It was formed in a perpendicular hole in a dried stump of a tree, about 15 feet in height. The nest consisted entirely of slight sticks lined with fine grass, no soft material being added as a finish, and the whole structure went to pieces when removed. This nest contained three eggs, their colour white, with a few dark and light brown spots and blotches all over, and a strongly marked ring round the thick end.

"The birds frequently returned to the place while the eggs were being taken, till one of them was shot."

Mr. J. Davidson remarks:--"This bird is very local in the Tumkur districts in Mysore, and I have only found it in three or four gardens. I knew it had been breeding (from dissection) since March, but till to-day (May 9th) I could not find its nest. To-day, however, I saw four or five birds perpetually flying round and round a very ragged old cocoanut-tree, the highest in that part of the garden, and determined to send a man up. Two birds, however, at that moment lit on one branch and I shot them both, and they proved to be fully-fledged young ones. I sent the man up, however, and was rewarded by his announcing two old nests and a new one containing one egg. The nests were near the trunk of the tree on the horizontal leaves, and were formed of thin roots and a little grass and were very slight. The egg, which is large for the size of the bird, is creamy white, with a broad ring round the larger end formed of blotches of orange, brown, and purple, and in the cap within the ring there are a number of faint purple spots. The egg was perfectly fresh, and the old birds defended it by swooping down upon the man; and I can't help thinking that both the young birds and the new nest belonged to one pair of birds, and that as soon as their first brood was fledged they had commenced to lay again."

A nest taken by Mr. Gammie on the 24th April, at an elevation of about 3500 feet in Sikhim, was placed on a dead horizontal limb near the top of a large tree. It contained four eggs slightly set; it is a somewhat shallow cup, interiorly 3 inches in diameter by nearly 1½ in depth, and composed almost entirely of fine roots, pretty firmly interwoven. It has no lining, but at the bottom exteriorly it is coated partially with a sort of plaster, composed apparently of strips of bark and vegetable fibre partially cemented together in some way.

The egg sent me by Miss Cockburn is of quite the same type as those found by Mr. Gammie, but it is a trifle longer, measuring 1·0 by 0·7, and the colouring is much brighter. The ground is a sort of creamy white. There is a strongly marked though irregular zone round the large end of more or less confluent brownish rusty patches (amongst which a few pale grey spots may be detected), and a good many spots and small blotches of the same are scattered about the whole of the rest of the surface of the egg.

Numerous eggs subsequently obtained by Mr. Gammie correspond well with those already described as procured by himself and Miss Cockburn.

In length the eggs vary from 0·82 to 1·0, and in breadth from 0·6 to 0·72, but the average is 0·94 by 0·68.

513. Artamus leucogaster (Valenc.). _The White-rumped Swallow-Shrike_.

Artamus leucorhynchus (_Gm.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 287 bis.

The White-rumped Swallow-Shrike breeds, we know, in the Andamans and Great Cocos, and that is nearly all we do know. Mr. Davison says:--"On the 2nd of May I saw a bird of this species fly into a hollow at the top of a rotten mangrove stump about 20 feet high. The next day I went, but did not like to climb the stump, as it appeared unsafe, so I determined to cut it down, and after giving about six strokes that made the stump shake from end to end, the bird flew out. I made sure that as the bird sat so close the nest must contain eggs, so I ceased cutting and managed to get a very light native, who voluntered to climb it; but on his reaching the top, he found, to my astonishment, that the nest, although apparently finished, was empty. The nest was built entirely of grass, somewhat coarse on the exterior, finer on the inside; it was a shallow saucer-shaped structure, and was placed in a hollow at the top of the stump."

Family ORIOLIDAE.

518. Oriolus kundoo, Sykes. _The Indian Oriole_.

Oriolus kundoo, _Sykes, Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p. 107; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 470.

The Indian Oriole breeds from May to August (the great majority, however, laying in June and July) almost throughout the plains country of India and in the lower ranges of the Himalayas to an elevation of 4000 feet. In Southern and Eastern Bengal it only, so far as I know, occurs as a straggler during the cold season, and I have no information of its breeding there. It does not apparently ascend the Nilghiris, and throughout the southern portion of the peninsula it breeds very sparingly, if at all; indeed, it is just at the commencement of the breeding-season, when the mangoes are ripening, that Upper India is suddenly visited by vast numbers of this species migrating from the south.

The nest is placed on some large tree, I do not think the bird has any special preference, and is a moderately deep purse or pocket, suspended between some slender fork towards the extremity of one of the higher boughs. From below it looks like a round ball of grass wedged into the fork, and the sitting bird is completely hidden within it; but when in the hand it proves to be a most beautifully woven purse, shallower or deeper as the case may be, hung from the fork of two twigs, made of fine grass and slender strips of some tenacious bark and bound round and round the twigs, and secured to them much as a prawn-net is to its wooden framework. Some nests contain no extraneous matters, but others have all kinds of odds and ends--scraps of newspaper or cloth, shavings, rags, snake-skins, thread, &c.--interwoven in the exterior. The interior is always neatly lined with fine grass-stems.

Very commonly the bird so selects the site for its nest that the leaves of the twigs it uses as a framework form more or less of a shady canopy overhead; in fact, as a rule, it is from very few points of view that even a passing bird of prey can catch sight of the female on her eggs. Possibly the brilliant plumage of the bird (which has endowed it amongst the natives with the name of _Peeluk_, or "The Yellow One") may have had something to do with the concealment it so generally affects.

The nests vary a good deal in size. I have seen one with an internal cavity 3½ inches in diameter and over 2½ deep. I have seen others scarcely over 2½ inches in diameter and not 2 in depth, which you could have put bodily, twigs and all, inside the former. As a rule, the purse is strong and compact, the material closely matted and firmly bound together; but I have seen very flimsy structures, through which it was quite possible to see the eggs.

Four is the greatest number of eggs I have ever found in one nest, but it is quite common to find only three well-incubated ones.

Colonel C.H.T. Marshall reports having found several nests of this species about Murree at low elevations.

Mr. W. Blewitt tells me that he obtained two nests near Hansie on the 1st and 14th July respectively. The nests (which he kindly sent) were of the usual type, and were placed, the one on an acacia, the other on a loquat tree, at heights of 10 and 12 feet from the ground. Each contained three eggs, the one clutch much incubated, the other perfectly fresh.

Dr. Scully writes:--"The Indian Oriole is a seasonal visitant to the valley of Nepal, arriving about the 1st of April and departing in August. It frequents some of the central woods, gardens, and groves, and breeds in May and June."

Colonel J. Biddulph remarks regarding the nidification of this Oriole in Gilgit:--"A summer visitant and common. Appears about the 1st of May. Nest with three eggs hard-set, taken 8th of June; several other nests taken later on."

Writing from near Rohtuk, Mr. F.R. Blewitt says:--"The breeding-season is from the middle of May to July. The nest is made on large trees, and always suspended between the fork of a branch. I have certainly obtained more nests from the tamarind than any other kind of tree.

"The nest is cup-shaped, light, neat, and compact. The average outer diameter is 4·8 inches; the inner or cup-cavity about 3·6. Hemp-like fibre is almost exclusively used in the exterior structure of the nest, and by this it is firmly secured to the two limbs of the fork. Cleverly indeed is this work performed, the hemp being well wrapped round the stems and then brought again into the outer framework. Occasionally bits of cloth, thread pieces, vegetable fibres, &c. are introduced. On one occasion I got a nest with a cast-off snake-skin neatly worked into the outer material.

"The lining of the egg-cavity is simply fine grass, if we except the occasional capricious addition of a feather or two, an odd piece of cotton or rag, &c. Three appears to be the regular number of eggs. This bird is to be found in small numbers all over the country here; its habits are well described by Jerdon. It is, as I have observed, hard to please in its choice of a nest site. I have watched it for days going backwards and forwards, from tree to tree and from fork to fork, before it made up its mind where to commence work."

Capt. Hutton records that "this is a common bird in the Dhoon, and arrives at Jerripanee, elevation 4500 feet, in the summer months to breed. Its beautiful cradle-like nest was taken in the Dhoon on the 29th of May, at which time it contained three pure white eggs, sparingly sprinkled over with variously sized spots of deep purplish-brown, giving the egg the appearance of having been splashed with dark mud. The spots are chiefly at the larger end, but there is no indication of a ring. The nest is a slight, somewhat cup-shaped cradle, rather longer than wide, and is so placed, between the fork of a thin branch, as to be suspended between the limbs by having the materials of the two sides bound round them. It is composed of fine dry grasses, both blade and stalk, intermixed with silky and cottony seed-down, especially at that part where the materials are wound round the two supporting twigs; and in the specimen before me there are several small silky cocoons of a diminutive _Bombyx_ attached to the outside, the silk of which has been interwoven with the fibres of the external nest. It is so slightly constructed as to be seen through, and it appears quite surprising that so large a bird, to say nothing of the weight of the three or four young ones, does not entirely destroy it."

From Futtehgurh, the late Mr. A. Anderson remarked:--"The nest and eggs of this bird so closely resemble those of its European congener (_O. galbula_) that little or no description is necessary. The Mango-bird lays throughout the rains, July being the principal month. One very beautifully constructed nest was taken by me on the 9th July, 1872, containing four eggs, which, according to my experience, is in excess of the number usually laid. I have frequently taken only a pair of well-incubated eggs.

"Two of the four eggs above alluded to were quite fresh, while the other two were tolerably well incubated. The nest is fitted outwardly with tow, which I have never before seen. One of the pieces of cloth used in the construction of this nest was 6 inches long."

"At Lucknow," writes Mr. R.M. Adam, "I found this species on the 20th May building a nest in a neem-tree, and on the 24th I took two eggs from the nest. On the 10th June I saw another pair, only making love, so they probably did not lay till the end of that month."

Dr. Jerdon notes that he "procured a nest at Saugor from a high branch of a banian tree in cantonments. It was situated between the forks of a branch, made of fine roots and grass, with some hair and a feather or two internally, and suspended by a long roll of cloth about three quarters of an inch wide, which it must have pilfered from a neighbouring verandah where a tailor worked. This strip was wound round each limb of the fork, then passed round the nest beneath, fixed to the other limb, and again brought round the nest to the opposite side; there were four or five of these supports on either side. It was indeed a most curious nest, and so securely fixed that it could not have been removed till the supporting bands had been cut or rotted away. The eggs were white, with a few dark claret-coloured spots."

Major Wardlaw Ramsay says, writing from Afghanistan:--"At Shalofyan, in the Kurrum valley, in June, I found them in great numbers: some were breeding; but as I saw quite young birds, it is probable that the nesting-season was nearly over."

Colonel Butler contributes the following note:--"The Indian Oriole breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa in the months of May, June, and July. I took nests on the following dates:--

"24th May, 1876. A nest containing 1 fresh egg.
29th " " " " 3 fresh eggs.
12th June " " " 2 much incubated eggs.
12th " " " " 3 fresh eggs.
13th " " " " 2 "
19th " " " " 3 "
29th " " " " 2 "
29th " " " " 2 "
29th " " " " 3 "
3rd July " " " 2 "
6th " " " " 3 "
30th " " " " 2 "

"The nest found on the 24th May was suspended from a small fork of a neem-tree about ten feet from the ground, and was very neatly built of dry grass (fine interiorly, coarse exteriorly), old rags, and cotton (woven, not raw). The rim was firmly bound to the branches of the fork with rags and coarse blades of dry grass. It is an easy nest to find when the birds are building, as both birds are always together and keep constantly flying to and from the nest with materials for building. The cock, as before mentioned, always accompanies the hen to and from the nest whilst she is building; but I do not think he assists in its construction, as I never saw him carrying any of the materials, neither have I ever seen him on the nest. On the contrary, whilst the hen is at the nest building he is generally waiting for her, either on the same tree or else on another close by, occasionally uttering his well-known rich mellow note. On the 29th May I sent a boy up a tree to examine a nest. The hen bird had been sitting for a week, and was on the nest when the boy ascended the tree. The cock bird flew past, and being a brilliant specimen I shot him, thinking of course that the nest contained a full complement of eggs. To my astonishment, however, though the hen bird sat very close, there were no eggs in the nest, and although she returned to it once or twice afterwards, she eventually forsook it without laying. Possibly she may have laid, and that the eggs were destroyed by Crows. In addition to the materials already mentioned, this nest was also composed of tow, string, and strips of paper, all neatly woven into the exterior, and many of the other nests mentioned were exactly similar; sometimes I have found pieces of snake-skin woven into the exterior.

"On the 9th of July I observed a pair of Orioles building on a neem-tree in one of the compounds in Deesa. When the nest was nearly finished a gale of wind rose one night and scattered it all over the bough it was fixed to. The birds at once commenced to remove it, and in a couple of days carried off: every particle of it to another tree about 100 yards off, upon which they built a new nest of the materials they had removed from the other tree. I ascended the tree on the 17th of July, and found it contained three fresh eggs.

"The eggs are pure white, sparingly spotted with moderately-sized blackish-looking spots, if washed the spots run. They vary a good deal in shape and size, some being very perfect ovals, others greatly elongated, &c."

Major C.T. Bingham writes:--"The Indian Oriole builds at Allahabad and at Delhi from the beginning of April to the end of July. In the cold weather this bird seems to migrate more or less, as but few are seen and none heard during that season. The nests are built generally at the top of mango-trees and well concealed; they are constructed of fine grass, beautifully soft, mixed with strips of plaintain-bark, with which, or with strips of cotton cloth purloined from somewhere, the nest is usually bound to a fork in the branch. The egg-cavity is pretty deep, that is to say from 1½ to 3 inches."

Mr. George Reid records the following note from Lucknow:--"The Mango-bird, or Indian Oriole, though a permanent resident, is never so abundant during the cold weather as it is during the hot and rainy seasons from about the time the mango-trees begin to bloom to the end of September. It frequents gardens, avenues, mango-topes, and is frequently seen in open country, taking long flights between trees, principally the banian and other _Fici_, upon the berries and buds of which it feeds. I have the following record of its nests:--

"June 16th. Nest and no eggs (building).
July 2nd. 2 eggs (fresh).
July 2nd. 1 egg (fresh).
July 5th. 3 eggs (fresh).
July 25th. 3 young (just hatched).
August 5th. 2 young (fledged)."

Messrs. Davidson and Wenden, writing of this bird in the Deccan, say:--"Common, and breeds in June and July."

Colonel A.C. McMaster informs us that he "found several nests of this bird at Kamptee during June and July; they corresponded exactly with Jerdon's admirable description. Has any writer mentioned that this bird has a faint, but very sweet and plaintive song, which he continues for a considerable time? I have only heard it when a family, old and young, were together, _i.e._ at the close of the breeding-season."

Lieut. H.E. Barnes, writing of Rajpootana in general, tells us that this Oriole breeds during July and August.

Mr. C.J.W. Taylor, speaking of Manzeerabad in Mysore, says:--"Abundant in the plains. Rare in the higher portions of the district. Breeding in June and July."

The eggs are typically a moderately elongated oval, tapering a good deal towards one end, but they vary much in shape as well as size. Some are pyriform, and some very long and cylindrical, quite the shape of the egg of a Cormorant or Solan Goose, or that of a Diver. They are always of a pure excessively glossy china-white, which, when they are fresh and unblown, appears suffused with a delicate salmon-pink, caused by the partial translucency of the shell. Well-defined spots and specks, typically black, are more or less thinly sprinkled over the surface of the egg, chiefly at the large end. Normally, as I said, the spots are black and sharply defined, and there are neither blotches nor splashes, but numerous variations occur. Sometimes, as in an egg sent me by Mr. Nunn, all the spots are pale yellowish brown. Sometimes, as in an egg I took at Bareilly, a few spots of this colour are mingled with the black ones. Deep reddish brown often takes the place of the typical black, and the spots are not very unfrequently surrounded by a more or less extensive brownish-pink nimbus, which in one egg I have is so extensive that the ground-colour of the whole of the large end appears to be a delicate pink. Occasionally several of the clear-cut spots appear to run together and form a coarse irregular blotch, and one egg I possess exhibits on one side a large splash. The eggs as a body, as might have been expected, closely resemble those of the Golden Oriole, to which the bird itself is so nearly related; and as observed by Professor Newton in regard to the eggs of that species, so in _my_ large series, the prevalence of greatly elongated examples is remarkable.

The eggs vary in length from 1·03 to 1·32, and from 0·75 to 0·87 in breadth; but the average of fifty eggs measured was 1·11 by 0·81.

521. Oriolus melanocephalus(Linn.). _The Indian Black-headed Oriole_.

Oriolus melanocephalus, _Linn., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 110; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E_ no. 472. Oriolus ceylonensis, _Bonap., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 111.

I have already noticed ('Stray Feathers,' vol. i, p. 439) how impossible it is to draw any hard-and-fast line, in practice, between this the so-called "Bengal Black-headed Oriole" and the supposed distinct southern species, _O. ceylonensis_, Bp.

The present species certainly breeds in suitable (i.e. well-wooded and not too bare or arid) localities throughout Northern and Central India, Assam, and Burma, and I have specimens from Mahableshwar, from the Nilgiris, and even Anjango, that are nearer to typical _O. melanocephalus_ than to typical _O. ceylonensis_. Of its nidification southwards I know nothing. I have only myself taken its eggs in the neighbourhood of Calcutta.

It appears to lay from April to the end of August. The nest of this species, though perhaps slightly deeper, is very much like that of _O. kundoo_; it is a deep cup, carefully suspended between two twigs, and is composed chiefly of tow-like vegetable fibres, thin slips of bark and the like, and is internally lined with very fine tamarisk twigs or fine grass, and is externally generally more or less covered over with odds and ends, bits of lichen, thin flakes of bark, &c. It is slightly smaller than the average run of the nests of _O. kundoo_. The egg-cavity measures about 3 inches in diameter and nearly 2 inches in depth. I myself have never found more than three eggs, but I daresay that, like _O. kundoo_, it may not unfrequently lay four.

The late Captain Beavan writes:--"A nest with three eggs, brought to me in Manbhoom on 5th April, 1865, is cup-shaped; interior diameter 3·5, depth inside 2 inches. It is composed outside of woolly fibres, flax, and bits of dried leaves, and inside of bents and small dried twigs, the whole compact and neat. The eggs are of a light pink ground (almost flesh-coloured), with a few scattered spots of brownish pink, darker and more numerous at the blunt end. They measure 1·125 by barely 0·8."

From Raipoor, Mr. F.R. Blewitt remarks:--"_Oriolus melanocephalus_ indiscriminately selects the mango, mowah, or any other kind of large tree for its nest, which is invariably firmly attached to the extreme terminal twigs of an upper horizontal branch, varying from 20 to 35 feet from the ground. Owing to the position it selects for the safety of its nest, it sometimes happens that the latter cannot be secured without the destruction of the eggs. It nidificates in June and July, and it would appear that both the birds, male and female, engage in the construction of the nest. Three is the normal number of the eggs, though on one occasion my shikaree found four in a nest."

Buchanan Hamilton tells us that this species "frequents the groves and gardens of Bengal during the whole year, and builds a very rude nest of bamboo-leaves and the fibres that invest the top of the cocoanut or other palms. In March I found a nest with the young unfledged."

I confess that I believe this to be a mistake: neither season nor nest correspond with what I have myself seen about Calcutta. The nests, so far from being _rude_, are very neat.

Mr. J.R. Cripps writes from Furreedpore in Eastern Bengal:--"Very common, and a permanent resident. On the 20th April I found a nest containing two half-fledged young ones; in the garden was a clump of mango-trees, and attached to one of the outer twigs, but overhung by a lot of leaves, and about 12 feet from the ground, hung the nest, of the usual type."

Mr. J. Davidson met with this Oriole on the Kondabhari Ghât in Khandeish. On the 16th August he saw a brood, while on an adjoining tree there was a nest with two slightly-set eggs. He says:--"It was a very deep cup on the end of a thin branch, and though in cutting the branch to get at the nest, it got turned at right angles to its proper position, the eggs were uninjured. I do not think this nest belonged to the same pair as that which had young ones flying.

"These Orioles are very common here, and I found three nests: one was new and empty; from another the birds had just flown; while the remaining one contained one fresh egg. The bird would no doubt have laid more; but to get at the nest I had to cut the branch off, and it was only then I discovered that only one egg had been laid."

Major C.T. Bingham says:--"Plentiful at Allahabad across the Ganges, notwithstanding which I only found one nest, and that I have no note about, but I remember it was some time in June, and contained four half-fledged young ones; the materials of the nest were the same as those used by _O. kundoo_."

Writing of his experience in Tenasserim he adds:--"On the 5th March I found a nest of this bird in a small tree near the village of Hpamee. It, however, contained three unfledged young, so I left it alone.

"On the 21st April I found a second nest suspended from the tip of a bamboo that overhung the path from Shwaobah village to Hpamee. This contained two awfully hard-set eggs, white, with a few dark purple blotches and spots at the larger ends. Nest made of grass and dry bamboo-leaves, lined with the dry midribs of leaves, and firmly bound on to the fork of the bamboo with a strip of some bark."

Mr. Oates writes from Pegu:--"My nests of this Oriole have been found in March, April, and May, but I have no doubt they also breed in June. No details appear necessary."

Typically the eggs are somewhat elongated ovals, only slightly compressed towards one end, but pyriform as well as more pointed varieties may be met with. The shell is very fine and moderately glossy. The ground-colour varies from a creamy or pinky white to a decided but very pale salmon-colour. They are sparingly spotted and streaked with dark brown and pale inky purple. In most eggs the markings are more numerous towards the large end. Some have no markings elsewhere. The dark spots, especially towards the large end, are not unfrequently more or less enveloped in a reddish-pink nimbus. Though much larger and much more glossy, some of the eggs, so far as shape, colour, and markings go, exactly resemble some of the eggs of _Dicrurus ater_. The eggs of _O. kundoo_ are typically excessively glossy china-white, with few well-defined black spots. The eggs of _O. melanocephalus_ are typically somewhat less glossy, with a pinky ground and more numerous and less defined brownish-purple spots and streaks. I have not yet seen one egg of either species that could be mistaken for one of the other, although of course abnormal varieties of each approach each other more closely than do the typical forms.

The dozen eggs that I possess of this species vary from 1·1 to 1·2 in length, and from 0·78 to 0·87 in breadth, and the average is 1·14 by 0·82. Although the average is somewhat larger than that of the preceding species, and although none of the eggs are quite _as_ small as many of those of _O. kundoo_, still none are nearly so large as the finest specimens of the latter's egg. Probably had I an equally large series of the eggs of the present species, we should find that as regards size there was no perceptible difference between the two.

522. Oriolus traillii (Vigors). _The Maroon Oriole_.

Oriolus traillii (_Vig._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 112; _Hume, cat._ no. 474.

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"I took a nest of this Oriole on the 24th April, at an elevation of about 2500 feet. It was suspended, within ten feet of the ground, from an outer fork of a branch of a small leafy tree, which grew in a patch of low dense jangle. It is a neat cup, composed of fibrous bark and strips of the outer part of dry grass-stems, intermixed with skeletonized leaves and green moss, and lined with fine grass. Besides being firmly bound by the rim of the cup to the horizontal forking branches by fibrous barks, several strings extended from one branch to the other, both under and in front of the nest, while other strings from the body of the nest were fastened to an upright twig that rose immediately behind the fork, thus most securely retaining it in its position.

"Externally the nest measured 5 inches wide by 2·75 in height; internally 3·25 wide by 2 deep. It contained three fresh eggs.

"The female came quite close, making loud complaints against the robbing of her nest."

The nest is that of a typical Oriole, usually very firmly and substantially built, and of course always suspended at a fork between two twigs. A nest taken by Mr. Gammie in Sikhim on the 20th April, at an elevation of about 2500 feet, is a deep substantial cup, nearly 4 inches in diameter and 2½ in depth internally. It is everywhere nearly an inch in thickness. The suspensory portion composed of vegetable fibres; towards the exterior dead leaves, bamboo-sheaths, green moss, and tendrils of creeping plants are profusely intermingled; interiorly, it is closely and regularly lined with very fine grass.

A nest sent me by Mr. Mandelli was found on the 3rd April at Namtchu, and contained three fresh eggs. It is precisely similar to the one above described, except that in the lining roots are mingled with the fine grass, and that instead of being suspended in a fork, it was partly wedged into and partly rested on a fork.

As a rule, however, as I know from other nests subsequently obtained, the nests are always suspended like those of the Common Oriole.

Two eggs of this species obtained by Mr. Gammie closely resemble those of _O. melanocephalus_. In shape they are regular moderately elongated ovals; the shell is strong, firm, and moderately glossy. The ground is white with a creamy or brownish-pink tinge; the markings are blackish-brown spots and specks, almost confined to a zone about the large end, where they are all more or less enveloped in a brownish-red haze or _nimbus_. In length they measure 1·12 by 0·82, and 1·14 by 0·83.

Family EULABETIDAE

523. Eulabes religiosa (Linn.). _Jerd. B. Southern Grackle_.

Eulabes religiosa (_Linn.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 337; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 692.

The Southern Grackle breeds in Southern India and Ceylon from March to October.

Mr. Frank Bourdillon, writing from Travancore, gives me the following account of the eggs. He says:--"This bird, an abundant resident, lays a blue egg pretty evenly marked with brown spots, some light and some darkish, in a nest of straw and feathers in a hole of a tree generally a considerable height from the ground.

"I have only taken one nest, which contained a single egg slightly set, on 23rd March, 1873, the egg measuring 1·37 long and 0·87 broad."

Later Mr. Bourdillon says:--"Since writing the foregoing I took on 21st April two fresh eggs from the nest of a Southern Hill-Mynah (_Eulabes religiosa_). The nest was of grass, feathers, and odds and ends in a hole in a nanga (_Mesua coromandeliana_) stump, about 25 feet from the ground. The eggs of this Mynah are blue, with purplish and more decided brown spots.

"I am _positive_ as to the identity of the egg. Both the eggs taken last year and the two taken the other day were obtained under my personal supervision. In both instances I watched the birds building, and when we robbed the nests saw the female fly off them."

These two eggs sent me by Mr. Bourdillon are very beautiful. In shape they are very gracefully elongated ovals; the shell is very fine and smooth, but has only a rather faint gloss. The ground-colour is a delicate pale sea-green or greenish blue, and the eggs are more or less profusely spotted or splashed with purplish, or, in some spots, chocolate-brown and a very pale purple, which looks more like the stain that might be supposed to be left by one of the more decided coloured markings that had been partially washed out than anything else.

The eggs measure 1·37 by 0·9 and 1·35 by 0·87.

Mr. J. Darling, junior, writes:--"The Southern Grackle breeds in the S. Wynaad rather plentifully, and I have had numbers of tame ones brought up from the nest, but have never succeeded in getting a perfect egg owing to my having found all the nests in very hard places to get at.

"I cut down a tree containing a nest and broke all the eggs, which must have been very pretty--blue ground, very regularly marked with purplish-brown spots. The nest was composed of sticks, twigs, feathers, and some snake-skin. I have found them in March, April, September, and October. I hope this year to get a number of eggs, as Culputty is a very good place for them."

Mr. C J.W. Taylor notes from Manzeerabad in Mysore:--

"Common up in the wooded portions of the district. Breeding in April and May."

Mr. T. Fulton Bourdillon, speaking of this Grackle in Travancore, says:--"This bird lays one or two light blue eggs beautifully blotched with purple in the holes of trees. It does not like heavy jungle, but after a clearing has been felled and burnt it is sure to appear. During the fine weather it is very abundant on the hills, descending to the low country at the foot when the rains have fairly set in. The nest scarcely deserves the name, being only a few dead leaves or some powdered wood at the bottom of the hole, and there about the end of March the egg or eggs are laid. The young birds, which can be taught to speak and become very tame, are often taken by the natives, as they can sell them in the low country. I have obtained on the following dates eggs and young birds:--

"March 29th. One egg slightly set.
April 20th. Two young birds.
April 22nd. " "
April 25th. Two eggs slightly set.
May 2nd. One young bird.

"I also had three eggs, slightly set, brought me on May 21. They are rather smaller and a deeper blue than the ones obtained before, being 1·25 x 1, 1·19 x ·95, 1·21 x ·97 inch. They were all out of the same nest, so that the bird sometimes lays three eggs, though the usual number is two."

Colonel Legge writes in the 'Birds of Ceylon':--"The Black Myna was breeding in the Pasdun Korale on the occasion of a visit I made to that part in August, but I did not procure its eggs."

Other eggs subsequently sent me by Mr. Bourdillon from Mynall, in Southern Travancore, taken on the 9th and 13th April, 1875, are precisely similar to those already described. The eggs that I have measured have only varied from 1·22 to 1·37 in length, and from 0·86 to 0·9 in width.

524. Eulabes intermedia[A] (A. Hay). _The Indian Grackle_.

[Footnote A: Mr. Hume does not recognize _E. javanensis_ and _E. intermedia_ as distinct. The following account refers to the nidification of the latter, except perhaps Major Bingham's later note, in which he states that he procured two distinct sizes of eggs in the Meplay valley (Thoungyeen). It is very probable that Major Bingham found the nests of both species on this occasion. I have seen no specimen of _E. javanensis_ from the Thoungyeen valley, but at Malewun, further south, it occurs along with _E. intermedia_.--ED.]

Eulabes intermedia (_A. Hay_), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 339. Eulabes javanensis (_Osbeck_), _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 693.