Part 38

Many other nests subsequently obtained were similar in their materials, the great body of the nest consisting of grass-down, slightly felted together and wound round with slender blades of grass. The nest, however, is by no means always cup-shaped; it is often covered in above, an aperture being left on one side near the top.

A nest which I found near Kotegurh is composed of fine grass _very_ loosely and slightly put together, all the interspaces being carefully filled in with grass-down firmly felted together. The nest is nearly the shape of an egg, the entrance being on one side, and extending from about the middle to close to the top. The exterior dimensions of the nest are about 5½ inches for the major axis, and 3 inches for the minor. The entrance-aperture is circular, and about 2 inches in diameter. The thickness of the nest is a little over three eighths of an inch; but the lower portion, which is lined with _very_ fine grass-stems, is somewhat thicker. The nest was in a thorny bush,

## partly suspended from just above the entrance-aperture and partly

resting against, though not attached to, some neighbouring twigs. It contained seven eggs, and was taken at Kirlee (Kotegurh) on the 30th May. Of course, the position of the nest was that of an egg standing on end and not lying on its side.

They lay from five to seven eggs, and have, _I think_ two broods.

Dr. Jerdon states that "it makes a large, loosely constructed nest of fine grass, the opening near the top a little at one side, and lays three or four eggs of a fleshy white, with numerous small rusty-red spots tending to form a ring at the large end."

Writing about a collection of eggs made at Murree, Messrs. Cock and Marshall tell us:--"Nest built in high jungle-grass, loosely but neatly made of very fine grass and cobwebs, opening at one side near the top. Breeds late in June at about 4000 feet elevation."

From Almorah Mr. Brooks writes that this species was "common on hill-sides where low bushes were numerous. One nest found was suspended in a low bush, and was a very neat purse-shaped one, with an opening near the top and rather on one side. It was composed of fine soft grass of a kind which had dried green, and was intermixed with the down of plants and lined with finer grass. The eggs were four in number; the ground-colour white, speckled sparingly with light red, but having also a broad zone or ring of deeper reddish brown very near the large end--on the top of the larger end, in fact.

"Laying in Kumaon in May."

From Mussoorie Captain Hutton remarks:--"This little bird appears on the hill, at about 5000 feet, in May. A nest taken much lower down in June was composed of grasses neatly interwoven in the shape of an ovate ball, the smaller end uppermost and forming the mouth or entrance; it was lined first with cottony seed-down, and then with fine grass-stalks; it was suspended among high grass, and contained five beautiful little eggs of a carneous white colour, thicky freckled with deep rufous, and with a darkish confluent ring of the same at the larger end. I have seen this species as high as 7000 feet in October. It delights to sit on the summit of tall grass, or even of an oak, from whence it pours forth a loud and long-continued grating note like the filing of a saw."

Writing of Nepal, Dr. Scully says:--"A nest taken on the 29th June contained only two fresh eggs. The nest was of the shape of a mangoe, the small end being uppermost, and the entrance on one side, near the top; its measurements externally were, in height 5·2, in breadth 3·6 in one direction and 2·65 in the other; the opening was nearly circular, 1·8 in diameter. It was rather flimsy in structure, composed of grass-down, more or less felted together, and bound round externally with dry green grass-blades; internally it was scantily lined with fine grass-stems, which were used to strengthen the lower lip of the entrance-hole. The eggs were fairly glossy, moderate or longish oval in shape, and measured 0·65 by 0·5 and 0·7 by 0·49; the ground-colour was pinkish white, the small end nearly free from markings, the middle portion with faint streaks and tiny indistinct spots of brownish red, and the large end with a zone of bright brownish red or a confluent cap of the same colour."

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"This Suya breeds from May to June in the warmest valleys up to 3500 feet. It affects open grassy tracts, and builds its nest in a bunch of grass, within a foot or two of the ground. The nest is an extremely neat egg-shaped structure, with entrance at side, made of fine grass-stems thickly felted over with the white seeds of a tall flowering grass, which gives it a very pretty appearance. Externally it measures 5 inches in height by 3 in diameter; the cavity is 2·25 wide and 2 deep, from lower edge of entrance. The entrance is about 2·25 across.

"The usual number of eggs is four. I have never found more, but on several occasions as few as two and three well-incubated eggs."

A nest of this species taken by Mr. Gammie near Mongphoo, on the 18th April, at an elevation of about 3000 feet, contained three fresh eggs. It closely resembles nests that I have taken of _S. crinigera_ in shape, somewhat like an egg, with the entrance on one side, near the top, exteriorly about 5 inches in length, and 2¾ inches in diameter, with an aperture a little less than 2 inches across. It was built amongst grass, of which a few fine stalks constitute the outer framework, and the whole body of the nest inside this framework consists solely of the flower-down of grass firmly felted together. It is lined pretty thickly everywhere with the excessively fine stalks which bear this down.

Taking a large series, I should describe the eggs as typically regular but somewhat elongated ovals, often fairly glossy, at times almost glossless. The ground varies from pale pinky white to pale salmon-colour. A dense, more or less mottled, zone or cap at the large end, varying in different specimens from reddish pink to almost brick-red, and more or less of speckling, mottling, or freckling of a somewhat lighter shade than the zone spreads in some thinly, in some densely over the rest of the egg.

In length they vary from 0·63 to 0·75, and in breadth from 0·46 to 0·55; but the average of sixty-five eggs is 0·69 by 0·52.

459. Suya atrigularis, Moore[A]. _The Black-throated Hill-Warbler_.

[Footnote A: I reproduce this article nearly as it appears in the 'Rough Draft;' but I have great doubts as to the occurrence of this bird in Kumaon, and I further doubt the identification of Hodgson's notes with this species. It is quite clear, from his specimens in the British Museum, that Hodgson confounded _S. atrigularis_ in winter plumage with _S. crinigera_, and his plate of the former in summer plumage contains no note on nidification.--ED.]

Suya atrogularis, _Moore, Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 184; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 549.

The Black-throated Hill-Warbler breeds in Kumaon and the Himalayas eastwards from thence, at elevations of 4000 to 6000 feet.

The breeding-season lasts from April to July, but the birds mostly lay in May and June. Open grassy hillsides dotted about with scrub, thin forests, or gardens are the localities it affects. The nest is placed at times in some low bush surrounded with and grown through by grass, more commonly in clumps of grass, and never at any great height from the ground. It is more or less egg-shaped, and placed with the longer diameter vertical, the entrance being on one side above the middle. It is composed exteriorly sometimes of fine grass-roots, sometimes of the finest possible grass, loosely but sufficiently firmly interwoven, a little moss being often incorporated in the upper portion, and internally always, I think, exclusively of fine grass.

Four is perhaps the usual number of the eggs, but I have found five.

Mr. Gammie, writing from Sikhim, says:--"I have found four nests of this species this year in the Chinchona reserves, at elevations of from 4500 to 5500 feet, during the months of May and June. The nests were all in open grassy country, in grass by the sides of low banks, and not above a foot off the ground. They are globular, with a lateral entrance, composed of grass, and with a little moss about the dome. One I measured was 5·5 high, and 4·5 in diameter externally; internally the nest was 2·4 in diameter, and the cavity had a total height of 3·9, of which 2 inches was below the lower edge of the entrance. According to my experience four is the regular complement of eggs. I have repeatedly (three times this year) shot the female off the nest, and beyond question Jerdon is wrong about this bird's laying Indian-red eggs."

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes, this species breeds in groves and open forest in Sikhim and the central region of Nepal from April to June, building a large globular nest in clumps of grass, of dry grass, roots, and moss, lined with fine grass and moss-roots. The entrance, which is circular, is at one side; the nest is egg-shaped, the longer diameter being perpendicular, and is placed at a height of about 6 inches from the ground. A nest taken on the 30th. May measured 6·12 in height and 3·5 in diameter externally, and the circular aperture, which was just above the middle, was 1·75 in diameter. It contained four eggs, which are represented as ovals, a good deal pointed towards one end, measuring 0·69 by 0·55. The ground-colour is a pale green, and they are speckled and spotted with bright red, the markings being most numerous towards the large end, where they have a tendency to form a zone or cap.

Dr. Jerdon says that "it makes its nest of fine grass and withered stalks, large, very loosely put together, globular, with a hole near the top, and lays three or four eggs of an entirely dull Indian-red colour." This undoubtedly is a mistake; the eggs he refers to are, I think, those of _Neornis flavolivaceus_. He gave them to me, but was not certain of the species they belonged to.

The eggs of the present species are of much the same shape as those of the preceding, and there is a certain similarity in the colour of both; but in these eggs the ground-colour instead of being pink or pinky white, is a pale, delicate, sometimes greyish, green. Then though there is the same kind of zone round the large end, it is a purple or purplish, instead of a brick-red, and it is manifestly made up of innumerable minute specks, and has not the cloudy confluent character of the zone in _S. crinigera_. Outside the zone minute specks of the same purplish red are scattered, in some pretty thickly, in others sparsely, over the whole of the rest of the surface. As a body the eggs have a faint gloss, decidedly less, however, than those of _S. crinigera_, but some few are absolutely glossless.

In length the eggs vary from 0·63 to 0·79, and in breadth from 0·46 to 0·43; but the average of forty-five eggs is 0·68 by 0·5.

460. Suya khasiana, Godw.-Aust. _Austen's Hill-Warbler_.

Suya khasiana, _Godw.-Aust., Hume, cat._ no. 549 bis.

I found this bird high up in the eastern hills of Mauipur, frequenting dense herbaceous undergrowth of balsams and the like in forest. On the 11th of May I caught a female on her nest, containing four well-incubated eggs. The nest was placed in a wild ginger-plant, about two feet from the ground, in forest at the very summit of the Makhi hill.

462. Prinia lepida, Blyth. _The Streaked Wren-Warbler_

Burnesia lepida (_Blyth), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 185. Burnesia gracilis, _Rüpp., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 550.

I have never happened to meet with the nest of the Streaked Wren-Warbler, and all the information I possess in regard to its nidification I owe to others.

The late Mr. Anderson remarked:--"Although this species was far from uncommon, I found it very local and confined entirely to the tamarisk-covered islands and 'churs' along the Ganges.

"The first nest was taken on the 13th March last, and contained three well-incubated eggs; of these I saved only one specimen, which is now in the collection of Mr. Brooks. The second was found on the following day, and contained two callow young and one perfectly fresh egg.

"The nest is domed over, having an entrance at the side; and the cavity is comfortably lined, or rather felted, with the down of the madar plant. It is fixed, somewhat after the fashion of that of the Reed-Warbler, in the centre of a dense clump of surpat grass, about 2 feet above the ground. On the whole the structure is rather large for so small a bird, and measures 6 inches in height by 4 inches in breadth.

"But while the _nest_ corresponds exactly with Canon Tristram's description[A] of those taken by him in Palestine, there are differences, oologically speaking, which induce me to hope that our Indian bird may yet be restored to specific distinction[B]. In the first place, my single eggs from each nest have a _green_ ground-colour, and are covered all over with reddish-brown spots. Now Mr. Tristram describes his Palestine specimens as 'richly coloured _pink_ eggs, with a zone of darker red near the larger end, and in shape and colour resembling some of the _Prinia_ group.' Is it possible for the same birds to lay such widely different eggs? If I had taken only one specimen, it might have been looked upon as a mere variety. Again, our Indian bird lays three eggs, and I have never seen the parent birds feeding more than this number of young ones, occasionally only two. Mr. Tristram, _per contra_, mentions having met with as many as five and six. The egg is certainly the prettiest, and one of the smallest, I have ever seen; indeed, I found it too small to risk measurement."

[Footnote A: Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine, P. 2. S. 1864, p. 437; Ibis, 865, pp. 82, 83.]

[Footnote B: The two birds are now considered distinct by all ornithologists.--ED.]

He adds:--"Since writing the above, which appeared in 'The Ibis,' I have discovered that this species breeds in September and October, as well as in February and March, so some of them probably have two broods in the year. I took a nest on the 9th October at Futtegurh, which contained two callow young and one (_fresh_) egg, which I send you, and which is exactly similar to all the others I have taken from time to time."

The egg sent me by Mr. Anderson is a very broad oval in shape, a good deal compressed however, and pointed towards the small end. The shell is very fine and has a decided gloss. In colouring the egg is exactly like those of some of the Blackbirds--a pale green ground, profusely freckled and streaked with a bright, only slightly brownish, red; the markings are densest round the large end, where they form a broad, nearly confluent, well-marked, but imperfect and irregular, zone. It measures 0·55 by 0·41.

Colonel C.H.T. Marshall says:--"The Streaked Wren-Warbler breeds in great numbers near Delhi in March; Mr. C.T. Bingham has found several of them in the clumps of surpat grass that had been cut within three feet of the ground on the alluvial land of the Jumna. It was when out with him in the end of March 1876 that I first saw the nest of this species. The locality of the nest is exactly that described by Mr. Anderson; it is oval in shape, with a large side entrance near the top; it is built of fine grass and seed-down, no cobweb being employed in the structure; it is loosely made, and there are always a few feathers in the egg-cavity. The whereabouts is generally pointed out by the cock bird, who, seated on the top of the highest blade of grass he can find near where his hen is sitting, pours out with untiring energy his feeble monotonous song, little knowing that by so doing he has betrayed the spot where he has fixed his nest to the marauder. The eggs, of which I have seen about fifteen or twenty, answer the description given in 'Stray Feathers' exactly."

Major C.T. Bingham tells us:--"Between the 12th and 31st March this year I found ten nests of this bird, which is very common in the grass-covered land of the Jumna. These nests were all alike, of fine dry grass mixed with the down of the surpat, which also thickly lined the inside. In shape the nests are blunt ovals, with a tiny hole for entrance a little above the centre. Seven out of the ten nests contained four eggs each, the rest three each. The eggs in colour are a pale yellowish white with a tinge of green, thickly speckled with dashes rather than spots of rusty red, tending in some to form a cap, in others a zone round the large end. The average of twenty eggs measured is 0·53 by 0·44 inch. The nests were all, with one exception, supported by stems of the grass being worked into the sides. The one exception was a nest I found in the fork of a tamarisk bush. It is not a difficult nest to find, for when you are in the vicinity of one, one of the birds will flit about the stems of the surrounding clumps of grass and above you freely, opening its tiny mouth absurdly wide, but giving forth the feeblest of feeble sounds."

Writing on the Avifauna of Mt. Abu and N. Guzerat, Colonel E.A. Butler says:--"I found a nest in a tussock of coarse grass in the sandy bed of a river, amongst a number of tamarisk-bushes, on the 8th July, 1875, in the neighbourhood of Deesa. It was composed of fine dry fibrous roots and grass-stems exteriorly, and lined with silky vegetable down. It was a long bottled-shaped structure with a small entrance on one side. The nest, eggs, situation, locality, &c. all agree so exactly with the descriptions quoted by Dr. Jerdon and with Mr. Anderson's note in 'Nests and Eggs,' _Rough Draft_, that I should have found it difficult to avoid copying these two gentlemen in describing my own nest.

"The nest contained three hard-set eggs and one young one just hatched."

Referring to its occurrence in the Eastern Narra District, Mr. Doig tells us:--"This little Warbler is very common. I took the first nest in March and again in May; they build in stunted tamarisk-bushes; the nest is circular dome-shaped, with the entrance on one side the top, the inside being very beautifully and softly lined with the pappus of grass-seeds. Four is the usual number of eggs in one nest."

The Blackbird type of egg above described is by no means the commonest one; the great mass of the eggs have the ground greyish, greenish, or pinkish white, and they are very thickly and finely freckled and speckled all over, but most densely about the large end, with a slightly brownish, rarely a slightly purplish grey. Occasionally when the markings are very dense in a cap at the large end there is a distinct purplish-grey tinge there, and on the rest of the surface of the egg the markings are somewhat less thickly set, leaving small portions of the ground-colour clearly visible. Typically the eggs are moderately broad ovals, a little compressed towards the small end, and though none are very glossy, the great majority have a fair amount of gloss.

463. Prinia flaviventris (Deless.). _The Yellow-bellied Wren-Warbler_.

Prinia flaviventris (_Deless.) Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 169: _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 532.

Of the Yellow-bellied Wren-Warbler's nidification I know personally nothing.

Tickell describes the nest as pensile but quite open, being a hemisphere with one side prolonged, by which it is suspended from a twig. The eggs, he says, are bright brick-red without a spot.

Mr. H.C. Parker tells me that "this bird breeds in the Salt-Water Lake, or rather on the swampy banks of the principal canals that intersect it. The nest is nearly always placed on an ash-leaved shrub-like plant growing on the banks of the canal and overhanging the water. One taken on the 26th July, 1873, containing four nearly fresh eggs, was almost touching the water at high tide. The male has the habit, when the female is sitting, of hopping to the extreme point of a tall species of cane-like grass which grows abundantly in these swamps, whence he gives forth a rather pleasing song, erecting his tail at the same time, after which he drops into the jungle and is seen no more. It is almost impossible to make him show himself again."

The nest, which I owe to Mr. Parker, and which was found in the neighbourhood of the Salt-Water Lake, Calcutta, on the 26th July, is of an oval shape, very obtuse at both ends, measuring externally 4 inches in length and about 2¾ inches in diameter. The aperture, which is near the top of the nest, is oval, and measures about 1 inch by 1½ inch. The nest is fixed against the side of two or three tiny leafy twigs, to which it is bound lightly in one or two places with grass and vegetable fibre; and two or three leafy lateral twiglets are incorporated into the sides of the nest, so that when fresh it must have been entirely hidden by leaves. The nest was in an upright position, the major axis perpendicular to the horizon. It is a very thin, firm, close basket-work of fine grass, flower-stalks, and vegetable fibre, and has no lining, though the interior surface of the nest is more closely woven and of still finer materials than the outside. The cavity is nearly 2½ inches deep, measuring from the lower edge of the entrance, and is about 2 inches in diameter.

During this present year (1874) Mr. Parker obtained several more nests of this species, all built in the low jungle that fringes the mud-banks of the congeries of channels and creeks that are known in Calcutta by the name of the "Salt Lake."

This jungle consists chiefly of the blue-flowered holly-leaved _Acanthus ilicifolia_ and of the trailing semi-creeper-like _Derris scandens_. It is in amongst the drooping twigs of the latter that the nest is invariably made.

The nests vary a good deal in shape; some are regular cylinders rounded off at both ends, with the aperture on one side above the centre--a small oval entrance neatly worked. Such a nest is about 4.5 inches in length externally from top to bottom, and 2·75 in diameter; the aperture 1·3 in height, and barely 1·0 in width.