Chapter IX: Part 9

Yuhina nigrimentum (_Hodgs.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 262; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 628.

A nest of the Black-chinned Yuhina, taken by Mr. Gammie on the 17th June below Rungbee, at an elevation of about 3500 feet, was placed in a large tree, at a height of about 10 feet from the ground, and contained four hard-set eggs. It is a mere pad, below of moss, mingled with a little wool and moss-roots, and above, that is to say the surface where the eggs repose, of excessively fine grass-roots.

Dr. Jerdon says:--"A nest was once brought me which was declared to belong to this species; it was a very small neat fabric, of ordinary shape, made with moss and grass, and contained three small pure white eggs. The rarity of the bird makes me doubt if the nest really belonged to it."

The eggs are tiny little elongated ovals, pure white, and absolutely glossless.

Two sent me by Mr. Gammie measure 0·58 by 0·42 and 0·57 by 0·43.

226. Zosterops palpebrosa (Temm.). _The Indian White-eye_.

Zosterops palpebrosus (_Temm.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 265; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 631.

The Indian White-eye, or White-eyed Tit as Jerdon terms it, breeds almost throughout the Indian Empire, sparingly in the hotter and more arid plains, abundantly in the Nilghiris and other ranges of the Peninsula to their very summits, and in the Himalayas to an elevation of 5000 or 6000 feet.

The breeding-season extends in different localities from January to September, but I think that everywhere April is the month in which most eggs are to be met with.

Sometimes they have two broods; whether this is always the case I do not know.

The nest is placed almost indifferently at any elevation. I have taken one from amongst the topmost twigs of a huge mohwa tree (_Bassia latifolia_) fully 60 feet high, and I have found them in a tiny bush not a foot off the soil. Still I think that perhaps the majority build at low elevations, say between 2 and 6 feet from the ground.

The nest is always a soft, delicate little cup, sometimes very shallow, sometimes very deep, as a rule suspended between two twigs like a miniature Oriole's nest, but on rare occasions propped in a fork. The nest varies much in size and in the materials with which it is composed.

Pine grass and roots, tow, and a variety of vegetable fibres, thread, floss silk, and cobwebs are all made use of to bind the little nest together and attach it to the twigs whence it depends. Grass again, moss, vegetable fibre, seed-down, silk, cotton, lichen, roots and the like are used in the body of the nest, which is lined with silky down, hair, moss, and fern-roots, or even silk, while at times tiny silvery cocoons or scraps of rich-coloured lichen are affixed as ornaments to the exterior.

One nest before me is a very perfect and deep cup, hung between two twigs of a mohwa tree and almost entirely hidden by the surrounding leaves. The exterior diameter of the nest is 2½ inches, and the depth 2 inches. The egg-cavity measures scarcely more than 1½ inch across and very nearly as much in depth. It is composed of very fine grass-stems and is thinly coated exteriorly with cobwebs, by which also it is firmly secured to the suspending twigs, and externally numerous small cocoons and sundry pieces of vegetable down are plastered on to the nest. Another nest, hung between two slender twigs of a mango tree, is a shallow cup some 2½ inches in diameter, and not above an inch in depth externally. The egg-cavity measures at most 1½ inch across by three-fourths of an inch in depth. The nest is composed of fine tow-like vegetable fibres and thread, by which it is attached to the twigs, a little grass-down being blended in the mass, and the cavity being very sparsely lined with very fine grass-stems. In another nest, somewhat larger than, the last described, the nest is made of moss slightly tacked together with cobwebs and lined with fine grass-fibres. Another nest, a very regular shallow cup, with an egg-cavity 2 inches in diameter and an inch in depth, is composed almost entirely of the soft silky down of the _Calatropis gigantea_, rather thickly lined with very fine hair-like grass, and very thinly-coated exteriorly with a little of this same grass, moss, and thread. Another, with a similar-sized cavity, but nearly three-fourths of an inch thick everywhere, is externally a mass of moss, moss-roots, and very fine lichen, and is lined entirely with very soft and brilliantly white satin-like vegetable down. Another, with about the same-sized cavity, but the walls of which are scarcely one-fourth of an inch in thickness, is composed _entirely_ of this satiny down, thinly coated exteriorly and interiorly with excessively fine moss-roots (roots so fine that most of them are much thinner than human hair); a few black horsehairs, which look coarse and thick beside the other materials of the nest, are twisted round and round in the interior of the egg-cavity. Other nests might be made entirely of tow, so far as their appearance goes; and in fact with a very large series before me, no two seem, to be constructed of the same materials.

I have nests before me now, taken in September, March, June, and August, all of which when found contained eggs.

Two is certainly the normal number of the eggs; about one fifth of the nests I have seen contained three, and once only I found four.

From Murree Colonel C.H.T. Marshall informs us that he took the eggs in June at an elevation of about 6000 feet.

Colonel G.F.L. Marshall says:--"I have taken eggs of this species at Cawnpore in the middle of June. I found six nests, five of which were in neem-trees. I also found the nest in Naini Tal at 7000 feet above the sea, with young in the middle of June; one only of all the nests I have seen was lined, and that was lined with feathers: they were, as a rule, about eight feet from the ground, but one was nearly forty feet up."

Capt. Hutton gives a very full account of the nidification of this species. He says:--"These beautiful little birds are exceedingly common at Mussoorie, at an elevation of about 5000 feet, during summer, but I never saw them much higher. They arrive from the plains about the middle of April, on the 17th of which month I saw a pair commence building in a thick bush of _Hibiscus_, and on the 27th of the same month the nest contained three small eggs hard-set. I subsequently took a second from a similar bush, and several from the drooping branches of oak-trees, to the twigs of which they were fastened. It is not placed on a branch, but is suspended between two thin twigs, to which it is fastened by floss silk torn from the cocoons of _Bombyx Huttoni_, Westw., and by a few slender fibres of the bark of trees or hair according to circumstances.

"So slight and so fragile is the little oval cup that it is astonishing the mere weight of the parent bird does not bring it to the ground, and yet within it three young ones will often safely outride a gale that will bring the weightier nests of Jays and Thrushes to the ground.

"Of seven nests now before me four are composed externally of little bits of green moss, cotton, and seed-down, and the silk of the wild mulberry-moth torn from the cocoons, with which last material, however, the others appear to be bound together within. The lining of two is of the long hairs of the yak's tail, two of which died on the estate where these nests were found, and a third is lined with black human hair. The other three are formed of somewhat different materials, two being externally composed of fine grass-stalks, seed-down, and shreds of bark so fine as to resemble tow; one is lined with seed-down and black fibrous lichens resembling hair, a second is lined with fine grass, and a third with a thick coating of pure white silky seed-down. In all the seven, the materials of the two sides are wound round the twigs, between which they are suspended like a cradle, and the shape is an ovate cup, about the size of half a hen's egg split longitudinally. The diameter and depth are respectively 2 inches and 1½ inch by three-fourths of an inch. The eggs are usually three in number."

Mr. Brooks, writing from Almorah, says:--"This morning, 28th April, I found a nest of _Zosterops palpebrosa_ containing two fresh eggs. Yesterday I found one of the same bird containing three half-fledged young ones. Near the Tonse River, in the Allahabad District, I found these birds in July nesting high in a mango-tree, the nest suspended like an Oriole's to several leaves; now I find it in low bushes, at heights of from 3 to 5 feet from the ground. The eggs, as before, skim-milk blue, without markings of any kind."

From Gurhwal Mr. R. Thompson says:--"A small cup-shaped elegant nest is built by this bird suspended by fastenings from the fork of a low branch. The nest is about 2½ inches in diameter and three-fourths of an inch in depth, composed of cobwebs, fine roots, hairs, &c., neatly interwoven and lined internally with vegetable down. The eggs, two, three, or four in number, are of a pale whitish-blue, oval, and somewhat larger than those of _Arachnechthra asiatica_. The birds select all kinds of trees, but the nest is always suspended. The breeding-season is about March and April, and the brood is quickly hatched and fledged.

"A nest found by me on the 22nd April, and containing four eggs, was built most ingeniously in a creeper that hung from a small tree. The birds had arranged it so that the long down-bearing tendril of the creeper blended with the nest, which in the main was composed of the material surrounding it.

"Another nest found on the 26th contained three young ones. It was built in a low branch of a large mango-tree, and might have been 12 feet from the ground. It was a neat compact structure, deeply hollow, and made up of cobwebs, fine straw, and hair, and lined with vegetable down, closely and neatly interwoven.

"The parent birds were evidently feeding the young on the ripe fruit of the _Khoda_ or _Chumroor_ (_Ehretia laevis_). I got one fruit from the old birds, being anxious to know what the young ones were getting for their dinner.

"The pairing-season commences about the end of March, when the males may be heard uttering a feeble kind of rambling song, which in reality is merely modified repetitions of a single note."

Mr. A. Anderson remarked that "the White-eye breeds throughout the North-Western Provinces and Oudh during the months of June, July, and August. The nest is a beautiful little model of the Oriole's; and according to my experience it is invariably _suspended_, and _not fixed in the fork of small branches_ as stated by Jerdon. I have on several occasions watched a pair in the act of building their nest. They set to work with cobwebs, and having first tied together two or three leafy twigs to which they intend to attach their nest, they then use fine fibre of the _sun_ (_Crotalaria juncea_), with which material they complete the outer fabric of their very beautiful and compact nest. As the work progresses more cobwebs and fibre of a silky kind are applied externally, and at times the nest, when tossed about by the wind (sometimes at a considerable elevation), would be mistaken by a casual observer for an accidental collection of cobwebs. The inside of the nest is well felted with the down of the madar plant, and then it is finally lined with fine hair and grass-stems of the softest kind. Sometimes the nest is suspended from only two twigs, exactly after the fashion of the Mango-birds (_Oriolus kundoo_); and in this case it is attached by means of silk-like fibres and fine fibre of _sun_ for about 1½ inch on each side; at others it is suspended from several twigs; and occasionally I have seen the leaves fixed on to the sides of the nest, thus making it extremely difficult of detection.

"In shape the nest is a perfect hollow hemisphere; one now before me measures (inside) 1·5 in diameter. The wall is about 0·3 in thickness.

"Almost all my nests have been built on the neem tree, the long slender _petioles_ of which are admirably adapted for its suspension.

"As a rule the nest is built at a considerable height, and owing to its situation there is not a more difficult nest to take. Great numbers get washed down in a half-finished state in a heavy fall of rain.

"The eggs are, exactly as Jerdon describes them, of a pale blue, 'almost like skimmed milk,' and the usual number is three, though four are frequently laid."

"On the 7th September," writes Mr. E.M. Adam, "in my garden in Lucknow, I discovered a nest of this bird in course of construction, but when it was nearly finished the birds left it. The nest was a beautiful little cup made of fine grass and cobwebs. It was situated in a slender fork of a mango-tree about 15 feet from the ground."

Major C.T. Bingham says:--"Common both at Allahabad and at Delhi; breeds in both places in May, June, and July. All nests I have seen have been finely made little cups of fibres, bits of thread and cobwebs, lined interiorly with horsehair, generally suspended between two slender twigs at no great height from the ground."

Mr. E. Aitken writes:--"I have only actually taken one nest of the White-eye. That was in Poona (2000 feet above the sea) on the 21st July. The bird, however, builds abundantly in Poona about gardens, trees on the roadside, &c.

"This particular nest was fixed to a thin branch of a tamarind-tree on the side of a lane among gardens. It was within reach of my hand, and was attached both to the thin branch itself and to two twigs. It was well sheltered among leaves.

"The nest was a cup rather narrower at the mouth than in the middle. Its external diameter at the top was 2½ inches; internal diameter 1½ inch; depth 1½ inch internally. It was composed of a variety of fibres closely interwoven with some kind of vegetable silk, and was lined principally with horsehair and very fine fibres. It contained three eggs."

Mr. Davison tells us that "the White-eye breeds on the Nilghiris in February, March, April, and the earlier part of May.

"The nest is a small neat cup-shaped structure suspended between a fork in some small low bush, generally only 2 or 3 feet from the ground, but sometimes high up, about 20 or 30 feet from the ground. It is composed externally of moss and small roots and the down from the thistle; the egg-cavity is invariably sparingly lined with hair. The eggs, two in number, are of a pale blue, like skimmed milk."

From Kotagherry Miss Cockburn remarks:--"Their nests are, I think, more elegantly finished than those of any of the small birds I have seen up here. They generally select a thick bush, where, when they have chosen a horizontal forked branch, they construct a neat round nest which is left quite open at the top. The materials they commence with are green moss, lichen, and fine grass intertwined. I have even found occasionally a coarse thread, which they had picked up near some Badagar's village and used in order to fasten the little building to the branches. The inside is carefully lined with the down of seed-pods. White-eyes' nests are very numerous here in the months of January, February, and March. They are extremely partial to the wild gooseberry bush as a site to build on. One year I found ten out of eleven nests on these bushes, the fruit of which is largely used by the aborigines of the hills. A pair once built on a thick orange-tree in our garden. We often stood quite close to one of them while sitting on the eggs, and it never showed the slightest degree of fear. They lay two eggs of a light blue colour."

Mr. Wait, writing from Conoor, says that "_Z. palpebrosa_ breeds in April and May, building in bushes and shrubs, and making a deep round cup-shaped nest very neatly woven in the style of the Chaffinch, composed of moss, grass, and silk cotton, and sparsely lined with very fine grass and hair. The eggs are two in number, of a roundish oval shape, and a pale greenish-blue colour."

Finally Colonel Legge informs us that this species breeds in Ceylon in June, July, and August.

The eggs are somewhat lengthened ovals (occasionally rather broader), and a good deal pointed towards the small end. The shell is very fine but almost glossless; here and there a somewhat more glossy egg is met with. They are normally of a uniform very pale blue or greenish blue, without any markings whatsoever, but once in a way an egg is seen characterized by a cap or zone of a somewhat purer and deeper blue. Abnormally large and small specimens are common. They vary in length from 0·53 to 0·7, and in breadth from 0·42 to 0·58; but the average of thirty-eight eggs is 0·62 by 0·47, and the great majority of the eggs are really about this size.

229. Zosterops ceylonensis, Holdsworth. _The Ceylon White-eye_.

Zosterops ceylonensis, _Holdsw., Hume, cat._ no. 631 bis.

Colonel Legge, referring to the nidification of the Ceylon White-eye, says:--"This species breeds from March until May, judging from the young birds which are seen abroad about the latter month. Mr. Bligh found the nest in March on Catton Estate. It was built in a coffee-bush a few feet from the ground, and was a rather frail structure, suspended from the arms of a small fork formed by one bare twig crossing another. In shape it was a shallow cup, well made of small roots and bents, lined with hair-like tendrils of moss, and was adorned about the exterior with a few cobwebs and a little moss. The eggs were three in number, pointed ovals, and of a pale bluish-green ground-colour. They measured, on the average, ·64 by ·45 inch."

231. Ixulus occipitalis (Bl.) _The Chestnut-headed Ixulus_.

Ixulus occipitalis (_Bl.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 250; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 624.

A nest of this species, taken by Mr. Gammie out of a small tree below Rungbee, at an elevation of about 3000 feet, was a small, somewhat shallow cup, composed almost entirely of very fine moss-roots, but with a little moss incorporated in the outer surface. Externally the nest was about 3½ inches in diameter and 2 inches in height. The egg-cavity was about 2¼ inches by barely 1¼ inch. This nest was found on the 17th June and contained three hard-set eggs, _which_ were thrown away!

232. Ixulus flavicollis (Hodgs.). _The Yellow-naped Ixulus_.

Ixulus flavicollis (_Hodgs._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p. 259; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 623.

I have never taken a nest of the Yellow-naped Ixulus.

Mr. Gammie says:--"I have only as yet found a single nest of this species, and this was one of the most artfully concealed that I have ever seen. I found it in forest in the Chinchona reserves, at an elevation of about 5000 feet, on the 14th May. It was a rather deep cup, composed of moss and fine root-fibres and thickly lined with the latter, and was suspended at a height of about six feet amongst the natural moss, hanging from a horizontal branch of a small tree, in which it was entirely enveloped. A more beautiful or more completely invisible nest it is impossible to conceive. It contained three fresh eggs. The cup itself was exteriorly 3·7 inches in diameter and 1·9 in depth, while the cavity was 2·5 in diameter and 1·5 in depth."

The Yellow-naped Ixulus breeds, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, in the central region of Nepal and the neighbourhood of Darjeeling, laying during the months of May and June. It builds on the ground in tufts of grass, constructing its nest of moss and moss-roots, sometimes open and cup-like and sometimes globular, and lining it with sheep's wool. Mr. Hodgson figures one nest suspended from a branch, and although neither the English nor the vernacular notes confirm this, it is supported to a certain extent by Mr. Gammie's experience. At the same time, though the situation and surroundings of both seem to have been similar, Mr. Hodgson figures his nest, not cup-shaped, but egg-shaped, and with the longer diameter horizontal. Seven nests are recorded as having been taken, and all on the ground. One, cup-shaped, taken on the 7th June, 1846, which is also figured, in amongst grass and leaves on the ground, measured externally 3·5 inches in diameter, 2·5 in height, and internally 2 inches both in diameter and depth.

The full complement of eggs is said to be four. Two types of eggs are figured, both rather broad ovals, measuring about 0·75 by 0·6. The one has a buffy-white ground and is thinly speckled and streaked, except quite at the broad end, where the markings are nearly confluent, with pale dingy yellowish brown; the other has a pale earthy-brown ground, and is spotted similarly to the one just described, but with red and purple. This latter egg appears on the same plate with the suspended nest, and is, I think, doubtful.

Several nests of this species, which I owe to Captain Masson of Darjeeling, are very beautiful structures, moderately shallow and rather massive cups, externally composed of moss, and lined thickly with fine black moss-roots. The cavity of the nests may have been about 1¾ inch in diameter by less than 1½ inch in depth, but the sides of the nests are from one inch to 2 inches in thickness, constructed of firmly compacted moss.

Other nests of this species that have since been sent me show that the bird very commonly suspends its nest to one or two twigs, not unfrequently making it a complete cylinder or egg in shape, with the entrance at one side, but always using moss, in some cases fine, in some coarse, according to the nature of the moss growing where the nest is placed, as the sole material, and lining the cavity thickly with fine black moss and fern-roots.

Dr. Jerdon tells us that at Darjeeling he has repeatedly had the nest brought to him. "It is large, made of leaves of bamboos carelessly and loosely put together, and generally placed in a clump of bamboos. The eggs are three to five in number, of a somewhat fleshy-white, with a few rusty spots."

I cannot but think that in this case wrong nests had been brought to Dr. Jerdon. The eggs that I possess are all of one type--rather elongated ovals with scarcely any gloss, and strongly recalling in shape, size, and appearance densely marked varieties of the eggs of _Hirundo rustica_, but with the markings rather browner and slightly more smudgy.

The eggs are typically rather elongated ovals, often slightly compressed towards the small end, sometimes rather broader and slightly pyriform. The shell is extremely fine and compact, but has scarcely any gloss; the ground-colour is sometimes pure white, sometimes has a faint brownish-reddish or creamy tinge. The markings are invariably most dense about the large end, where they form a zone or cap, regular, well defined and confluent in some specimens, irregular, ill-defined and blotchy in others. As a rule these markings, which consist of specks, spots, and tiny blotches, are comparatively thinly scattered over the rest of the egg, but occasionally they are pretty thickly scattered everywhere, though nowhere anything like so densely as at the large end. The colour of the markings is rather variable. It is a brown of varying shades, varying not only in different eggs, but there being often two shades on the same egg. Normally it is I think an umber-brown, yellower in some spots, but varying slightly in tinge, leaning to burnt umber, sienna, and raw sienna.

Other eggs subsequently obtained by Mr. Gammie are of much the same character as those already described, but one is a good deal shorter and broader, and the markings are more decided red than are some of the yellowish-brown spots observable in the eggs first obtained.

In length the eggs seem to vary from 0·76 to 0·8, and in breadth from 0·54 to 0·58.

Subfamily LIOTRICHINAE.

235. Liothrix lutea (Scop.). _The Red-billed Liothrix_.

Leiothrix luteus (_Scop._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 250. Leiothrix callipyga (_Hodgs._), _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 614.

The Red-billed Liothrix breeds from April to August; at elevations of from 3000 to 6000 feet, throughout the Himalayas south, as a rule, of the first snowy range and eastward of the Sutlej; west of the Sutlej I have not heard of its occurrence. It also doubtless breeds throughout the hill-ranges running down from Assam to Burmah.

Mostly the birds lay in May, affecting well-watered and jungle-clad valleys and ravines. They place their nests in thick bushes, at heights of from 2 to 8 feet from the ground, and either wedge them into some fork, tack them into three or four upright shoots between which they hang, or else suspend them like an Oriole's or White-eye's nest.

The nest varies from a rather shallow to a very deep cup, and is composed of dry leaves, moss, and lichen in varying proportions, bamboo-leaves being great favourites, bound together with slender creepers, grass-roots, fibres, &c., and lined with black horse- or buffalo-hair, or hair-like moss-roots. The nests differ much in appearance: I have seen one composed almost entirely of moss, and another of nothing but dry bamboo-sheaths, with a scrap or two of moss. They are always pretty substantial, but sometimes they are very massive for the size of the bird.

Three is certainly the usual complement of eggs.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes, this species breeds in the central mountainous region of Nepal, and lays from April to August. The nest, which is somewhat purse-shaped, is placed in some upright fork between three or four slender branches, to all of which it is more or less attached. It is composed of moss, dry leaves, often of the bamboo, and the bark of trees, and is compactly bound together with moss-roots and fibres of different kinds; it is lined with horse-hair and moss-roots, and contains generally three or four eggs.

The following note I quote _verbatim_:--"_Central Hills, August 12th_.--Male, female, and nest. Nest in a low leafy tree 5 cubits from the ground in the Shewpoori forest; partly suspended and partly rested on the fork of the branch; suspension effected by twisting part of the material round the prongs of the fork; made of moss and lichens and dry leaves, well compacted into a deep saucer-shaped cavity; 3·62 high, 4·5 wide outside, and inside 2·25 deep and 3 inches wide; eggs pale verditer, spotted brown, and ready for hatching. The bird found in small flocks of ten to twelve, except at breeding-season."

A nest sent to me last year by Mr. Gammie was found by him on the 24th April, at an elevation of about 5000 feet, in the neighbourhood of Rungbee. It was built by the side of a stream in a small bush, at a height of about 3 feet from the ground, and contained three eggs. The nest is a deep and, for the size of the bird, very massive cup, exteriorly composed entirely of broad flag-like grass-leaves, with which, however, a few slender stems of creepers are intermingled, internally of grass-roots; the egg-cavity being thinly lined with coarse, black buffalo-hair. Externally the nest is more than 5 inches in diameter and nearly 4 inches high; but the egg-cavity, which is very regularly shaped, is 2½ inches in diameter and 2 inches in depth.

This year Mr. Gammie writes to me:--"I have taken many nests of the Red-billed Liothrix here in our Chinchona reserves, at all elevations from 3500 to 5000 feet. They breed in May and June, amongst dense scrub, placing their nests in shrubs, at heights of from 3 to 5 feet from the ground, and either suspending them from horizontal branches, or hanging them between several upright stems, to which they firmly attach them. The nest itself is cup-shaped and composed principally of dry bamboo-leaves held together by a few fibres, and a few strings of green moss wound round the outside. The lining consists of a few black hairs, and the usual number of eggs is three. A nest I recently measured was externally 4 inches in diameter and 2·7 in height, while the cavity was 2·6 across by 1·9 in depth."

Mr. Gammie subsequently found a nest on the very late date of 17th October at Rishap, Darjeeling. It contained three eggs, two of which were addled.

Dr. Jerdon says that at Darjeeling he "got the nest and eggs repeatedly; the nest made chiefly of grass, with roots and fibres, and fragments of moss, and usually containing three or four eggs, bluish, white, with a few purple and red blotches. It is generally placed in a leafy bush at no great height from the ground. Gould, quoting from Mr. Shore's notes, says that the eggs are black spotted with yellow: this is of course erroneous. I have taken the nest myself on several occasions, and killed the bird, and in every case the eggs were coloured as above."

I wish to add here, as I have abused him occasionally, that Mr. Shore was, I understand, a most excellent man, and that I have now come to the conclusion that the extraordinary fictions that he recorded about the eggs of birds can only have been due to colour-blindness of a peculiarly aggravated nature. It is not that he mistook eggs, but that he describes _impossible_ eggs--Kingfishers' eggs variegated black and white, and here in this case black eggs spotted with yellow! Why, there _are_ no such eggs in the whole world, I believe. On the other hand, his whole life proves that he could not have deliberately set to work to invent falsehoods. To return.

The eggs vary a good deal in shade and size, but are more or less long ovals, slightly pointed towards the lesser end. The ground-colour is a delicate very pale green or greenish blue, in one, not very common type, almost pure white, and they are pretty boldly blotched or spotted and speckled as the case may be, and clouded, most thickly towards the large end, and very often almost exclusively in a zone or cap round this latter, with various shades of red or purple and brown. Some blotches in some eggs are almost carmine-red, but the majority are brownish red or reddish brown, varying much in depth and intensity of colour. There is something Shrike-like in the markings of many eggs; and where the markings are most numerous, namely at the large end, they are commonly intermingled with streaks and clouds of pale lilac. The smaller end of the egg is often entirely free from markings. I should mention that all the eggs have a faint gloss, and that some are decidedly glossy.

They vary in length from 0·76 to 0·95, and in breadth from 0·59 to 0·66; but the average of thirty-four eggs is 0·85 by 0·62.

237. Pteruthius erythropterus (Vig.). _The Red-winged Shrike-Tit_.

Pteruthius erythropterus (_Vig.) Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 245; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 609.

Writing from Murree, Colonel C.H.T. Marshall says:--"There is no record about the nidification of this species. Its nest is exceedingly difficult to find, and it was only by long and careful watching through field-glasses that Captain Cock discovered that there was a nest at the top of a very high chestnut-tree, to and from which the birds kept flying with building-materials in their beaks. The nest is most skilfully concealed, being at the top of the tree, with bunches of leaves both above and below. The nest, like that of the Oriole, is built pendent in a fork. It is somewhat roughly made of moss and hair. The eggs are pinky white, blotched with red, forming in some a ring round the larger end. They average 0·9 in length and 0·65 in breadth. We were fortunate enough to secure two nests; both were more than 60 feet from the ground. Breeds in the end of May, at an elevation of 7000 feet."

Captain Cock says:--"I first found this bird building its nest on the top of a high chestnut-tree at Murree in the month of May. When the nest was ready I took my friend Captain C.H.T. Marshall to be present at the taking of it, as it had never, I think, been taken before. We took the nest on the 30th May.

"It was an open flattish cup, like the nest of _O. kundoo_ in structure, only shallower. It contained three eggs, pinky white, covered with a shower of claret spots that at the larger end formed a cap of dark claret colour. Another nest, which I took in June from the top of an oak, contained two eggs."

To Colonel Marshall and Captain Cock I am indebted for a nest and egg of this species.

The nest is a moderately deep cup, suspended between two prongs of a horizontal fork. Externally it is about 4 inches in diameter and about 3 inches in depth. The egg-cavity is nearly hemispherical, 3 inches in diameter and 1·5 in depth. It is a very loosely made structure, composed internally of not very fine roots and externally coated with green moss. Along the lines of suspension a good deal of wool is incorporated in the structure, and it is chiefly by this wool that the nest is suspended. The fork is a slender one, the prongs being from 0·3 to 0·4 in diameter.

The egg is a broad oval, a good deal pointed towards the small end. The shell is very fine and compact, and has a fine gloss. The ground-colour is white or pinky white, and is pretty thickly speckled and finely spotted all over with brownish red and a little pale inky purple. Just towards the large end the markings are very dense, and form, more or less of a confluent cap of mingled brownish red and pale lilac, the latter everywhere appearing to underlie the former.

The egg was taken on the 10th June, and measures 0·9 by 0·68.

239. Pteruthius melanotis, Hodgs. _The Chestnut-throated Shrike-Tit_.

Allotrius oenobarbus, _Temm. apud Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 246. Allotrius melanotis, _Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 611.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and figures, the Chestnut-throated Shrike-Tit breeds in Sikhim and Nepal up to an elevation of 6000 or 7000 feet. The nest is placed at a height of 6 to 10 feet from the ground, between some slender, leafy, horizontal fork, between which it is suspended like that of an Oriole or White-eye. It is composed of moss and moss-roots and vegetable fibres, beautifully and compactly woven into a shallow cup some 4 inches in diameter, and with a cavity some 2·5 in diameter and less than 1 in depth. Interiorly the nest is lined with hair-like fibres and moss-roots; exteriorly it is adorned with pieces of lichen. The eggs are two or three in number, very regular ovals, about 0·77 in length by 0·49 in width. The ground-colour is a delicate pinky lilac, and they are speckled and spotted with violet or violet-purple, the markings being most numerous towards the large end, where they have a tendency to form a mottled zone.

243. Aegithine tiphia (Linn.). _The Common Iora_.

Iora zeylonica (Gm.) _et_ I. typhia (_Linn.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, pp. 101, 103. Aegithine tiphia (_Linn.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ nos. 467, 468.

I have already on several occasions (see especially 'Stray Feathers,' 1877, vol. v, p. 428) recorded my inability to distinguish as distinct species _Ae. tiphia_ and _Ae. zeylonica_. I am quite open to conviction; but believing them, so far as my present investigations go, to be inseparable, I propose to treat them as a single species in the present notice.

The Common Iora (the genus, though possibly nearly allied, is too distinct from _Chloropsis_ to allow me to adopt, as Jerdon does, one common trivial name for both) breeds in different localities from May to September. I have taken nests and eggs of typical examples of both supposed species, and have had them sent me with the parent birds by many correspondents; and though both vary a good deal, I am convinced that all the variations which occur in the nests and eggs of one race occur also in those of the other. If one gets only two or three clutches of the eggs of each, great differences, naturally attributed to difference of species (see Captain Cock's remarks, _infrà_), may be detected; but I have seen more than fifty, and, so far as I am concerned, I have no hesitation in asserting that, as in the case of the birds so in that of their nests and eggs, no constant differences can be detected if only sufficiently large series are compared.

The birds build usually on the upper surface of a horizontal bough, at a height of from 10 to 25 feet from the ground. Sometimes, when the bough is more or less slanting, the nest assumes somewhat more of a pocket-shape. Occasionally it is built between three or four slender twigs, forming an upright fork; but this is quite exceptional.

As a rule nests of the Iora very closely resemble those of _Leucocerca_, so much so that when I sent a beautiful photograph of a nest, which I had myself watched building, of the latter species to Mr. Blyth, he unhesitatingly pronounced it to be a nest of the former. There is, however, a certain amount of difference; the Iora's nests are looser and somewhat less compact and firm. My experience does not confirm Mr. Brooks's remarks (_vide infrà_) that they are usually shallower; on the contrary all those now before me are, as indeed all the many I can remember to have seen were, deep, thin-walled cups, which had been placed on more or less horizontal branches, not uncommonly where some upright-growing twig afforded the nest additional security. The egg-cavity averages about 2 inches in diameter, and varies from an inch to 1¼ inch in depth; the walls, composed of vegetable fibres, and varying in different specimens from only one eighth to three eighths of an inch in thickness, are everywhere thickly coated externally with cobwebs, by which also the nest is firmly attached to the branch on which it is seated, as well as, where such adjoin the nest, to any little twig springing from that branch. Interiorly they are more or less neatly lined with very fine grass-stems. The bottom of the nest in its thinnest part is rarely above one eighth of an inch in thickness, but running, as it so often does, down the curving sides of the branch, it becomes a good deal thicker, and where placed on a small branch, say not exceeding an inch in diameter, the lateral portions of the bottom of the nest are sometimes more than half an inch in thickness.

One nest which I obtained recently in the Botanical Gardens at Calcutta was built in an upright fork of four slender twigs; and in this case the bottom of the nest was obtusely conical, and at its deepest point may have been nearly an inch in depth. I have never seen a similar nest.

The eggs are normally three in number, but I have at times found only two, and these more or less incubated.

Mr. Brooks, writing of a nest he took in the Mirzapoor District, says:--"Did you ever get particulars of the nest of _Iora zeylonica_ on the forked branch of a mango-tree 12 or 14 feet from the ground? Nest composed of the same materials as that of _Leucocerca albifrontata_, but not quite so neat and much more shallow; eggs salmon-coloured and spotted with pale reddish brown, intermixed with a few larger dashes of purple-grey. The bird lays in July; three eggs. This is the only nest I have not taken since I came to India the second time."

From Raipoor, Mr. F.R. Blewitt remarks:--"The Iora breeds from July to September, and certainly _not_, as Dr. Jerdon supposes, twice a year. Both birds assist in the building of the nests, and there evidently appears to be no choice of any particular kind of tree on which to build. I have found them indiscriminately on the mango, mowah, neem, and other trees. The nest is invariably made either just above or between the fork of two outshooting slender horizontal branches. It is very neatly made, deeply cup-shaped, of grass and fibres, with spider's web on the exterior. The maximum number of eggs is three; they are of a pale whitish colour, marked generally, chiefly at the broad end, with brownish spots. The brown spots vary in size on different eggs. I secured the first eggs on the 12th July, and the last on the 2nd September. A pair of birds were on this last date just completing their nest, which unfortunately was destroyed by the heavy rains."

Captain Cock says:--"_Iora tiphia_ is tolerably common at Seetapoor (Oudh), and I have several times taken their nests and eggs. I may here mention that I have taken eggs of _Iora zeylonica_ at Etawah, and that knowing the birds well, I can say that it is quite a distinct bird; although in the marking of its eggs there is a slight resemblance, yet the nests of the two species are quite different. On the 13th May I observed a nest of _I. tiphia_ on a young mango-tree, at the edge of a croquet-ground in our garden. I shot both male and female and took the eggs; the nest was placed on the upperside of a sloping bough, was covered outside with cobweb, and lined with thin dry grass. It contained two fresh eggs of a delicate pink colour, with broad irregularly-shaped dashes of light brown down the sides of the shell, not tending to coalesce in any way at either apex. Another pair also built their nest on the edge of the same ground in another tree; but unfortunately in a weak moment I pointed out the nest to a lady friend, and as thereafter no one ever played croquet on the ground without staring at the nest, the birds got disgusted and soon deserted it."

To this I need merely add that _of course_ typical _Ae. tiphia_ and typical _Ae. zeylonica_ are very distinct, but that as every intermediate form occurs, they are not, according to my views of what constitutes a species, entitled to specific separation, and that as regards nest and eggs, according to my experience, every variety in the one is to be found in the other.

Dr. Jerdon, speaking of Southern India, remarks:--"I have seen the nest and eggs on several occasions. The nest is deep, cup-shaped, very neatly made with grass, various fibres, hairs, and spiders' webs; and the eggs, two or three in number, are reddish white, with numerous darker red spots, chiefly at the thicker end. It breeds in the south of India in August and September; perhaps, however, twice a year."

Writing from South Wynaad, Mr. J. Darling (Junior) says:--"I found the nest, which with the eggs and both parents I have now sent you, in the Teriat Hills on the 24th May, at an elevation of about 2300 feet. It was placed on, and near the extremity of, a bough, at a height of about 10 feet from the ground. It is round, about 2 inches in height and the same in diameter, and the cavity was about an inch or a trifle more in depth. It is built of grass and reed-bamboo-fibres, and is coated with spider's web. It only contained two eggs."

Both parents (sexes ascertained by dissection) are in the typical _tiphia_ plumage, without one particle of black on either head, nape, or back.

Mr. Davidson writes:--"In the Satara and Sholapur districts the cock puts on his summer plumage in May and the whole back of head, neck, and back (not rump) is glossy and black.

"This bird lays from the end of June to beginning of August. It is very shy when building and is easily caused to forsake its nest; if a single egg is taken from the nest it does not forsake it, however, but lays on (three instances this year)."

Mr. W.E. Brooks has favoured me with the following very interesting note on the habits of this Iora:--

"Ioras are very numerous and have such a variety of notes that I thought at first there were several sorts; but as far as I can see there is but one species. Iora spreads its tail in a wonderful manner, and comes spinning round and round towards the ground looking more like a round ball than a bird. All the time it descends it utters a strange note, something like that of a frog or cricket, a protracted sibilant sound. This bird is close to _Liothrix_ and _Stachyrhis_, although it belongs to the plains."

Colonel Butler writes:--"A nest on the 17th August, 1880, on the outside branch of a silk-cotton tree in Belgaum about 12 feet from the ground, containing three fresh eggs.

"I found many other nests building all through the hot weather and rains; but in every single instance except the present one they were deserted before they were completed."

Major Bingham writes from Tenasserim:--"This species is common throughout the country. As a rule its nest is well hid, but one I saw in the compound of a house in Maulmain was placed in the exposed leafless fork of a tree, not above six feet from the ground. It contained no eggs when I examined it, and was deserted a day or two after. This was in the beginning of May."

Mr. Oates remarks on the breeding of this bird in Pegu:--"Nests are found chiefly in June and July, but the birds probably lay also in May."

In shape the eggs are moderately broad ovals, slightly pointed towards one end. They vary, however, a good deal, some being much more elongated than others. They are almost entirely devoid of gloss. The ground-colour is generally greyish white, but some have creamy and some a salmon tinge; typically they have numerous long streaky pale brown or reddish-brown blotches, chiefly confined to the large end, where they often seem to spring from an irregular imperfect zone of the same colour. The colour of the blotches varies a good deal. In some it is a pale greyish or purplish brown; in others decidedly reddish, or even well-marked and somewhat yellowish brown. Some pale, purplish streaks and clouds generally underlie the brown blotches where they are thickest, and there form a kind of nimbus. In some eggs the markings are confined to a narrow imperfect zone of pale purplish specks or very tiny blotches round the large end, and some of the eggs remind one of those of _Leucocerca albifrontata_. The peculiar streaky longitudinal character of the markings, almost wholly confined to the large end, best distinguishes the eggs of the Ioras from those of any other Indian bird with which they are likely to be confounded.

In length they vary from 0·63 to 0·76, and in breadth from 0·51 to 0·57: but the average of forty-seven eggs measured is 0·69, nearly, by a trifle more than 0·54.

246. Myzornis pyrrhura, Hodgs. _The Fire-tailed Myzornis_.

Myzornis pyrrboura, _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 263; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 629.

I have received a single egg said to belong to the Fire-tailed Myzornis from Native Sikhim, where it was found in May in a small nest (unfortunately mislaid) which was placed on a branch of a large tree at no great height from the ground. The place where it was found had an elevation of about 10,000 feet. Although the parent bird was sent with the egg, I cannot say that I have any great confidence in its authenticity, and only record the matter _quantum valeat_.

The egg is a very regular, rather elongated oval. The egg was never properly blown and has been consequently somewhat discoloured. It may have been pure white, and it may have been fairly glossy when fresh, but it is now a dull ivory-white with scarcely any gloss. It measured 0·68 in length by 0·5 in breadth.

252. Chloropsis jerdoni (Bl.). _Jerdon's Chloropsis_.

Phyllornis jerdoni, _Bl., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 97; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 463.

I have never myself found the nest of Jerdon's Chloropsis, but my friend Mr. F.R. Blewitt has sent me numerous specimens of both nests and eggs from Raipoor and its neighbourhood.

In that part of the country July and August appear to be the months in which it lays; but elsewhere its eggs have been taken in April, May, and June, so that its breeding-season is much the same as that of many of the Bulbuls. The nest is a small, rather shallow cup, at most 3½ inches in diameter and 1½ in depth; is composed externally entirely of soft tow-like vegetable fibre, which appears to be worked over a light framework of fine roots and slender tamarisk-stems, amongst which, some little pieces of lichen are intermingled. There is no attempt at a lining, the eggs being laid on the fine grass and slender twigs (about the thickness of an ordinary-sized pin) which compose the framework of the nest.

The eggs as a rule appear to be two in number.

Mr. Blewitt remarks:--"The Green Bulbul breeds in July and August. The bird does not preferentially select any one description of tree for its nest, though the greater number secured were taken from mowah trees (_Bassia latifolia_). The nest is generally firmly affixed at the fork of the end twigs of an upper branch from 15 to 25 feet from the ground. Sometimes, however, eschewing twigs, the bird constructs its nest on the _top_ of the main branch itself, cunningly securing it with the material to the rough exterior surface of the branch. Three is certainly the maximum number of eggs. During the period of nidification the parent birds are very watchful and noisy, and their alarm and over-anxiety on the near approach of a stranger often betray the nest."

The late Captain Beavan recorded the following interesting note in regard to this species:--

"This handsome bird is very abundant in Manbhoom, where it is called 'Hurrooa' by the natives. Its note is so much like that of _Dicrurus ater_ that I have frequently been deceived by the resemblance. It breeds in the district. A nest with two eggs was brought to me at Beerachalee on April 4th, 1865. It is built at the fork of a bough and neatly suspended from it, like a hammock, by silky fibres, which are firmly fixed to the two sprigs of the fork, and also form part of the bottom and outside of the nest. The inside is lined with dry bents and hairs. The eggs (creamy white with a few light pinky-brown spots) are rather elongated, measuring 0·85 by 0·62. Interior diameter of nest 2·25, depth 1·5. The cry of alarm of this species is like that of _Parus major_"

Dr. Jerdon remarked ('Illustrations of Indian Ornithology'), writing at the time from Southern India:--

"I have seen a nest of this species in the possession of S.N. Ward, Esq. It is a neat but slightly cup-shaped nest, composed chiefly of fine grass, and was placed near the extremity of a branch, some of the nearest leaves being, it was said, brought down and loosely surrounding it. It contained two eggs, white, with a few claret-coloured blotches. Its nest and eggs, I may remark, show an analogy to that of the Orioles."

Mr. Layard tells us that this species is "extremely common in the south of Ceylon, but rare towards the north. It feeds in small flocks on seeds and insects, and builds an open cup-shaped nest. The eggs, four in number, are white, thickly mottled at the obtuse end with purplish spots."