Part 11

Captain Hutton writes to me:--"A nest of this bird was taken in the Dehra Dhoon on the 14th May, and was composed entirely of fine roots, the thinnest being placed within as a lining. Subsequently three others were procured, one of which was externally composed of coarse dry grasses and leaves, with a scanty lining of fine roots; the other two were constructed of the fine woody tendrils of climbing-plants and lined like the others with fine roots. These latter had a strong resemblance to some of the nests of _Garrulax albogularis_, while the difference exhibited in the nature of the materials used arises from the various character of the localities in which the bird may choose to build. Each nest contained four beautiful eggs of a full bright turquoise-green, shining as if varnished. The eggs were nearly all hard-set. This species does not ascend the hills, but appears to be confined to the Dhoon, where it may be seen in small parties in gardens, hedgerows, and low brushwood, turning over the dead leaves in search of seeds and insects. Its flight is low, short, and apparently laboured, from the shortness and rounded form of the wing, but on the ground it hops along with speed. The note is clamorous and chuckling and uttered in concert."

The late Mr. A. Anderson remarked:--"Although one of the most common birds in the North-West Provinces, and in fact verging on a nuisance, its nidification is interesting, inasmuch as its nest (in common with that of _A. malcolmi_) is used as a nursery for the young of _Hierococcyx varius_ and _Coccystes melanoleucus_.

"This Babbler builds, as a general rule, during the early part of the rains (June to August), laying usually three or four eggs of a bright greenish-blue colour. The nest itself recalls that of the Blackbird, but it is frequently very clumsily made. On the 21st June last a boy brought me a nest of this species containing _eight_ eggs. Two, if not three, of this clutch are easily separable from the others, being more oval and somewhat smaller, and are unquestionably parasitical eggs; but it is quite impossible to say whether they belong to _H. varius_ or _C. melanoleucus_.

"Again, on the 9th July, I took a nest in person, which also contained eight eggs. Seven of these are all alike and are well incubated, while the eighth is quite fresh, and doubtless owes its parentage to one of the above-mentioned Cuckoos.

"Strange to say I have now another nest marked down, which in like manner contains the same number of callow young. It is just possible that the foster-parents may have to perform double duty in this case.

"From the foregoing it may be inferred that _M. canorus_ does occasionally lay more than four eggs, or as the birds are gregarious even during the breeding-season, it is possible enough that two birds may occasionally deposit eggs in the same nest.

"I should not think that _H. varius_ (the "Brain-fever and Delirium-tremens Bird" as it is frequently called) had much difficulty in depositing her eggs in the nest of the _Malacocerci_, for I have frequently noticed that all the Babblers in the neighbourhood make a clean bolt of it immediately this Cuckoo puts in an appearance, no doubt owing to its great similarity to the Indian Sparrow-Hawk (_M. badius_).

"During the months of September and October I have observed several Babblers in the act of feeding one young _H. varius_, following the bird from tree to tree, and being most assiduous in their attentions to the young interloper."

Mr. H.M. Adam remarks:--"I took a nest of this bird in Agra on the 17th July. It contained five eggs, all of which were nearly hatched. Again on the 21st I took another nest containing only one hard-set egg."

Writing from Calcutta, Mr. J.C. Parker says:--"I found a nest of this bird, near my house in Garden Reach, on the 23rd June. It contained four fresh eggs."

Colonel Butler observes:--"The Bengal Babbler breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa as a rule, I think, during the rains and in the cold weather, but I have found nests as late as March. The nest is usually placed on the outside branch of some moderate-sized tree (neem &c.). It is a somewhat solidly built structure composed almost entirely of dead twigs, stems of dead leaves, and stalks of coarse dry grass, being lined with a few fine fibrous roots or stems of grass. I found nests on the following dates:--

"July 16, 1875. A nest containing 4 fresh eggs. "March 20, 1876. " " 4 fresh eggs. "May 29, 1876. " " 3 fresh eggs. "June 17, 1876. " " 3 fresh eggs. "June 17, 1876. " " 4 young birds. "Oct. 15, 1876. " " 4 fresh eggs. "Nov. 3, 1876. " " 4 slightly incubated.

"In some nests I have noticed a breach upon one side of the nest as if intended for the convenience of the bird's tail. It is not unusual to find an egg of _C. jacobinus_ in the nest."

Major C.T. Bingham writes:--"Common both at Allahabad and at Delhi; I have found this bird breeding from April to the end of July. All nests that I have found have, with the exception of one, been placed in low babool bushes; once only I found a nest near Delhi in the fork of a low bough of a mango-tree, this was on the 31st July. The nests are more or less loosely constructed cups of slender twigs and grass-roots and inclined."

Mr. J.R. Cripps writing from Eastern Bengal says:--"On the 15th April I found a nest on the very top of a mango-tree about 30 feet off the ground, shooting the male as it flew off the nest."

The eggs of this species are very variable in colour, shape, and size. Typically they are rather broad ovals, somewhat compressed towards one end, and much the shape of, though a good deal smaller than, those of our English Song-Thrush. Some are, however, long and cylindrical; others more or less spherical. The colour varies from a pale blue, like that of _Trochalopterum lineatum_, to a deep dull blue, recalling, but yet not so dark as, that of _Garrulax albigularis_. The eggs are typically glossy, but it is remarkable that in a large series the deepest coloured are always far the most glossy. Some deep blue eggs of this species are most intensely glossy, more so than almost any other of our Indian eggs, except those of _Metopidius indicus_. I need scarcely say that the eggs are entirely spotless and devoid of all markings, but I may note that each egg is invariably the same colour throughout, and that I have never met with a specimen in which the shade of colour varied in the same egg.

In length the eggs vary from 0·88 to 1·15, and in breadth from 0·75 to 0·82; but the average of fifty-one eggs measured is 1·01 by 0·78.

_C. malabaricus_.

The Jungle Babbler, like the White-headed one, breeds pretty well over the whole of Southern India, but while the latter is chiefly confined to the more open plain country, the former is the bird of the uplands, hills, and forests. Still the Jungle Babbler is found at times in the same localities as the White-headed one, and what is more, specimens occur, as in Cochin, which partake of the distinctive characters of both. A great deal still remains to be done in working out properly this group; both in Sindh on the west and the Tributary Mehals on the east, and again in some parts of the Nilghiris, races occur quite intermediate between typical _C. terricolor_ and typical _C. malabaricus_, while in the south, as already mentioned, forms intermediate between this latter and _C. griseus_ seem common. Three distinguishable races again of _C. griseus_ are met with, but running the one into the other, while intermediate forms between this species and _C. somervillii_ (Sykes) are also met with.

Mr. Davison remarks:--"This bird seems to be very irregular in its time of breeding. I have taken the nest in May, June, October, and December. The nest is rather a loose structure of dry grass and leaves, lined with fine dry grass; it is generally placed in the middle of some thick thorny bush, and cannot generally be got at without paying the penalty of well scratched hands. The eggs, generally five in number, are of a very deep blue with a tinge of green, but of not so decided a tinge as in the eggs of _M. griseus_. It breeds on the slopes of the Nilghiris, not ascending to more than about 6000 feet."

Mr. Wait, writing from Coonoor, says:--"_C. malabaricus_ builds a cup-shaped nest in small trees and bushes, and lays from three to five very round oval verditer-blue eggs."

Captain Horace Terry says of this species:--"Rather rare at Pulungi, but very common lower down on the slopes and in the Pittur valley. I got a nest on April 5th at Pulungi with three incubated eggs, and on the 6th one with two incubated eggs, in the Pittur valley. The last was built in a hollow in the top of a stump of a tree that had been broken off some ten feet from the ground."

Mr. I. Macpherson writes from Mysore:--"This bird is occasionally found with _C. griseus_ in the bigger scrub forests, but its chief habitat is the larger forests. Its breeding-season is much the same as _C. griseus_ but unlike it, it does not select thorny bushes for building in, its nests being generally found in small trees or bamboo-clumps. Four is the usual number of eggs laid, but five are often found, and the fifth I expect is frequently that of _H. varius_."

Three eggs sent me by Mr. Carter from Coonoor, in the Nilghiries, are absolutely undistinguishable from those of _Argya malcolmi_. Like these they are a uniform, rather deep greenish blue, devoid of spots or markings, and very glossy. I do not think that, if the eggs of _A. malcolmi, C. malabaricus_, and _C. terricolor_ were once mixed, it would be possible to separate them with certainty. Other eggs taken by Mr. Davison are similar but slightly smaller, and, taking them as a whole, I think they average rather darker than those of the two species just mentioned.

The eggs vary in length from 0·93 to 1·02, and in breadth from 0·71 to 0·82; but the average of nine eggs is 0·97 by nearly 0·77.

111. Crateropus griseus (Gm.). _The White-headed Babbler_.

Malacocercus griseus (_Gm._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 60; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 433.

I should say that the White-headed Babbler breeds all over the plain country of Southern India, not ascending the hills to any great elevation. At the same time, many people would very likely separate the Madras, Mangalore, and Anjango birds, and insist on their being different species; but for my part, seeing how the birds vary in each locality and what a perfect and unbroken chain of intermediate forms connects the most different-looking examples, and that all the several races are separable from the other species of this group by their more or less conspicuously pale heads, I prefer to keep them all as _C. griseus_.

This species, thus considered, breeds apparently twice a year from April to June, and again in October and even later.

About Madras the nest is commonly placed in thick thorny hedges of a shrub locally known as "Kurka-puli," said by Balfour to be _Garcinia cambogia_, but which does not look like a _Garcinia_ at all. The nest is a loosely-made cup, composed of grass-stems and roots, and the eggs vary from three to five in number.

Dr. Jerdon says:--"I have often found the nest of this bird, which is composed of small twigs and roots, carelessly and loosely put together, in general at no great height from the ground. It lays three or four blue eggs."

Colonel Butler writes:--"A nest containing four fresh eggs apparently of this species (it being the common Babbler in this district) was brought to me by some wood-cutters on the 18th March, 1880. It was taken in the jungles about six miles from Belgaum, and measured about 2¾ inches in diameter and about 2 inches deep interiorly, and was of the usual Babbler type, consisting of dry stems loosely but neatly constructed. The eggs were highly glossed and deep bluish green, some people might say greenish blue."

Mr. Iver Macpherson writes of this bird from Mysore:--"I have found their nests in every month between March and August, and they possibly breed both earlier and later. The nests are generally fixed in thorny bushes and at no great height off the ground. Four is the usual number of eggs laid, but very often five are found, and I feel much inclined to think that the fifth egg is often that of _H. varius_."

The eggs of this species that I possess were taken by Mr. Davison in May, in the immediate neighbourhood of Madras. They are all pretty regular, somewhat cylindrical ovals, excessively glossy, spotless, and of a deep greenish blue, much deeper than the eggs of any of the other _Crateropi_ are as a rule; in fact, they approach in colouring to the eggs of _Garrulax albigularis_.

They vary in length from 0·9 to 1·0, and in breadth from 0·62 to 0·74; but I have seen too few eggs to be able to strike any reliable average.

112. Crateropus striatus (Sw.). _The Southern-Indian Babbler_.

Malacocercus striatus (_Sw._), _Hume, Cat._ no. 432 bis.

Colonel Legge, writing of this bird's nidification in Ceylon, says:--"The breeding-season of the 'Seven Brothers' lasts from (page 80 in the book.) March until July. The nest is placed in a cinnamon-bush, shrub or bramble, at about four feet from the ground, and is a compact cup-shaped structure, usually fixed in a fork and made of stout grasses and plant-stalks and lined with fine grass, which, in some instances I have observed, was plucked green. The interior measures 2½ inches in depth by about 3 in width. The eggs are two or three in number, small for the size of the bird, glossy in texture, and of a uniform opaque greenish blue. They measure from 0·91 to 1·0 in length, by 0·7 to 0·74 in breadth."

113. Crateropus somervillii (Sykes). _The Rufous-tailed Babbler_.

Malacocercus somervillei (_Sykes_), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 63; _Hume Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 435.

Of the nidification of the Rufous-tailed Babbler (which, so far as I yet know, is confined to the narrow strip of country lying beneath the Ghâts for about 60 miles north and south of Bombay and to the hills or ghâts overlooking this), all I yet know is contained in the following brief note by Mr. E. Aitken: he says:--

"I once found a nest of the Rufous-tailed Babbler at Khandalla, I cannot tell the level precisely, but it cannot have been far from 2000 feet above the sea. It was at the end of May or the very beginning of June. The nest was in a small spreading tree in level, open forest country. The situation was just such a one as _A. malcolmi_ generally chooses--the end of a horizontal branch with no other branches underneath it; but it was not so high as those of _A. malcolmi_ usually are, for I could reach it from the ground. The nest was rather flat and contained three eggs, almost hatched, of an intense greenish-blue colour.

"In Bombay, where it is far more common, I once, on the 1st October, saw a pair followed by one young one and a young _Coccystes melanoleucus_. This was on a hill, and indeed these birds seem to confine themselves pretty much to hilly ground."

Mr. Benjamin Aitken writes:--"With reference to your remark that, as far as you know, the Rufous-tailed Babbler is confined to the strip of country beneath the Ghâts, I can certainly say that they are plentiful on the slopes of Poorundhur hill, eighteen miles south of Poona. It would be interesting to learn on which other of the Deccan hills it is found. This species is decidedly fond of hilly country. It is common on the two ranges of low hills that run along the east and west shores of the island of Bombay, but never shows a feather in the gardens and groves on the level ground. I spent the greater part of two days, when I could ill spare the time, in searching for the nests, but the birds breed in the date-trees, and it would be hopeless to think of finding a nest without cutting away many of the branches or fronds. Moreover, the bird is extremely wary, and it is by no means easy to guess on which particular tree it has its nest."

114. Crateropus rufescens (Blyth). _The Ceylonese Babbler_.

Layardia rufescens (_Blyth_), _Hume, Cat._ no. 437 bis.

Colonel Legge writes regarding the nidification of this bird in Ceylon:--"This bird breeds in the Western Province in March, April, and May, and constructs a nest similar to the last [_M. striatus_], of grass and small twigs, mixed perhaps with a few leaves, and placed among creepers surrounding the trunks of trees or in a low fork of a tree. It conceals its habitation, according to Layard, with great care; and I am aware myself that very few nests have been found. It lays two or three eggs, very similar to those of the last species, of a deep greenish blue, and pointed ovals in shape--two which were taken by Mr. MacVicar at Bolgodde measuring 0·95 by 0·75, and 0·92 by 0·74 inch."

115. Crateropus cinereifrons (Blyth). _The Ashy-headed Babbler_.

Garrulax cinereifrons (_Blyth_), _Hume, Cat._ no. 409 bis.

Colonel Legge, in his work on the birds of Ceylon, says:--"The breeding-season of this bird is from April to July. Full-fledged nestlings may be found abroad with the parent birds in August; and from this I base my supposition, for I have never found the nest myself. Intelligent native woodmen, in the western forests, who are well acquainted with the bird, have informed me that it nests in April, building a large, cup-shaped nest in the fork of a bush-branch, and laying three or four dark blue eggs. Whether this account be correct or not, future investigation must decide."

116. Pomatorhinus schisticeps, Hodgs. _The Slaty-headed Scimitar Babbler_.

Pomatorhinus schisticeps, _Hodgs., Jerd. B.I._ ii, p. 29; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 402.

Speaking of the Slaty-headed Scimitar Babbler, Dr. Jerdon says:--"A nest made of moss and some fibres, and with four pure white eggs, was brought to me at Darjeeling as belonging to this bird."

Two nests were sent me by Mr. Mandelli as belonging to this species, the one found near Namtchu on the 3rd April containing four fresh eggs, the other near Tendong on the 15th June, containing three. Another nest which he found on the 22nd April, near the same place as the first, contained four fresh eggs. All were placed on or very near to the ground in brushwood and grass; all appear to have been large, rather saucer-like nests, from 5·5 to 6·5 inches in diameter externally, and 2·5 to 3 in height. Outside and below they are composed chiefly of coarse grass, dead leaves, especially fern-leaves, while interiorly they are composed of and lined with finer--in some cases _very_ fine--grass. The cavities average, I should guess, 3·75 inches in diameter, and 1·5, or a little more perhaps, in depth.

Mr. J.R. Cripps has the following note on the breeding of this bird in Assam:--"A nest I got was situated at the roots of a clump of bushes, overhanging a small river. A bridge spanning this river was within ten yards, the intervening space being open; and for such a shy bird to have chosen such an exposed situation to build in astonished me."

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"A nest of this Babbler taken on the 20th May much resembled that of _P. ferruginosus_, both in size and structure. The egg-cavity had, however, a lining of at least half an inch in thickness of soft, fibrous material extracted from the bark of some tree, and a little fine grass for the eggs to lie on. It was on the ground, among low jungle, in the Ryeng Valley, at 2000 feet of elevation, and contained four eggs, two of them hatching off and two addled. According to my experience, nests containing so large a proportion of addled eggs are unusual."

Eggs sent by Mr. Mandelli as belonging to this species closely resemble those of _Pomatorhinus ferruginosus_, but are somewhat smaller; they are oval eggs a good deal pointed towards one end, pure white, and with a high gloss. They were obtained on the 5th and 22nd of April in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling, and measure from 0·95 to 1·04: in length, and 0·72 to 0·73 in breadth. Eggs sent by Mr. Gammie are precisely similar.

Two other eggs of this species subsequently obtained were slightly shorter and broader, and measured 0·95 by 0·77, and 0·98 by 0·78.

118. Pomatorhinus olivaceus, Blyth. _The Tenasserim Scimitar Babbler_.

Pomatorhinus olivaceus, _Blyth, Hume, Cat._ no. 403 bis.

Mr. Davison writes:--"I found a nest of this bird on the morning of the 21st January, 1875, at Pakchan, Tenasserim Province, Burma. It was placed on the ground at the foot of a small screw pine, growing in thick bamboo-jungle; it was a large globular structure, composed externally of dry bamboo-leaves, and well secreted by the mass of dry bamboo-leaves that surrounded it; it was in fact buried in these, and if I had not seen the bird leave it, it would most undoubtedly have remained undiscovered. Externally it was about a foot in length by 9 inches in height, but it was impossible to take any accurate measurement, as the nest really had no marked external definition. Internally was a lining about half an inch thick, composed of thin strips of dry bark, fibres, &c. The entrance was to one side, circular, and measuring 2·5 inches in diameter; the egg-cavity measured 4 inches deep by about 3 in height.

"In the nest were three pure white ovato-pyriform eggs, but so far incubated that they would probably have hatched off before the day was out.

"The measurements of two were 1·1 and 1·09 in length by 0·75 in breadth."