Part 39

Others are still more egg-shaped, with a similar aperture near the top, and others are more purse-like. The material used appears to be always much the same--fine grass-stems intermingled with blades of grass, and here and there dry leaves of some rush, a little seed-down, scraps of herbaceous plants, and the like; the interior, always of the finest grass-stems, neatly arranged and curved to the shape of the cavity. The nests are firmly attached to the drooping twigs, to and between which they are suspended, sometimes by line vegetable fibre, but more commonly by cobwebs and silk from cocoons, a good deal of both of which are generally to be seen wound about the surface of the nest near the points of suspension or attachment.

Four appears to be the full number of the eggs. Mr. Doig, writing from Sind, says:--"This bird is tolerably common all along the Narra, but as it keeps in very thick jungle it is not often seen unless looked for. I took my first nest on the 12th, and my second on the 17th of May. This evidently is the second brood, as I noticed on the same day a lot of young birds which must have been fully six weeks old. One nest was lined with horsehair and fine grasses. Four was the normal number of eggs."

Mr. Gates writes:--"The Yellow-bellied Wren-Warbler is very abundant throughout Lower Pegu in suitable localities. In the plains between the Sittang and Pegu rivers they are constant residents, breeding freely from May to August and September. In Rangoon also, all round the Timber Depot at Kemandine, and in the low-lying land between the town proper and Monkey Point, they are very numerous."

The eggs are of the well-known _Prinia_ type--broad regular ovals, of a nearly uniform mahogany-red, and very glossy. To judge from the few specimens I have seen, they average a good deal smaller, and are somewhat less deeply coloured, than those of _P. socialis_. They vary from 0·52 to 0·6 in length, and from 0·43 to 0·48 in breadth.

464. Prinia socialis, Sykes. _The Ashy Wren-Warbler_.

Prinia socialis, _Sykes, Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p. 170: _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 534. Prinia stewarti, _Blyth, Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 171; _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 535.

_Prinia socialis_.

The Ashy Wren-Warbler breeds throughout the southern portion of the Peninsula and Ceylon, alike in the low country and in the hills, up to all elevation of nearly 7000 feet.

The breeding-season extends from March to September, but I am uncertain whether they have more than one brood.

Dr. Jerdon says:--"Colonel Sykes remarks that this species has the same ingenious nest as _O. longicauda_. I have found the nest on several occasions, and verified Colonel Sykes's observations; but it is not so neatly sewn together as the nest of the true Tailor-bird, and there is generally more grass and other vegetable fibres used in the construction. The eggs are usually reddish white, with numerous darker red dots at the large end often coalescing, and sometimes the eggs are uniform brick-red throughout."

Now, first, as regards the eggs, it is clearly wrong to say that the eggs are usually reddish white; that such eggs, as exceptions, may have occurred I do not doubt, but I have seen more than fifty eggs of this bird taken by Miss Cockburn, Messrs. Carter, Davison, Wait, Theobald, and others, and all were without exception mahogany- or brick-red, at times mottled, somewhat paler and darker here and there, but making no approach, even the most distant, to what Dr. Jerdon says is the _usual_ type. Moreover, I have taken _many hundreds_ of the eggs of _stewarti_ (the northern, rather smaller form), which is not only _most_ closely allied but really _very_ doubtfully distinct, and yet I never met with one single egg of this type. At the same time Mr. Swinhoe ('Ibis,' 1860, p. 50) tells us that _P. sonitans_ also at times exhibits a reddish-white egg; so I do not for a moment question that Dr. Jerdon had seen such eggs, only it must be understood that, so far from constituting the _usual type_, it is in reality a most abnormal and rare variety. Out of eight correspondents who have collected for me in Southern India, I cannot learn that any one has ever yet even seen an egg of this type.

As regards the nest, this species often constructs a Tailor-bird nest, the true nest being filled in between two or more leaves carefully stitched together to the nest; but it also, like that species, often builds a very different structure.

A nest now before me, sent from Conoor, is a loosely-made cup--a very slight fabric of grass-stems, matted with a quantity of the downy seed of some flowering grass and with a lining of fine grass-roots. It is an irregular cup about 2½ inches in diameter and 2 inches in depth.

Four seems to be the regular number of the eggs.

From Kotagherry Miss Cockburn writes that "the Ashy Wren-Warbler builds a neat little hanging nest very much in the Tailor-bird style, for it draws the leaves of the branch on which the nest is constructed close together, and sews them so tightly as sometimes to make them nearly touch each other, while a small quantity of fine grass, wool, and the down of seed-pods is used as a lining and also placed between the leaves. These nests are built very low, and contain three _beautiful_ little bright red eggs, a shade darker at the thick end. They are easily discovered; for the birds get so agitated if any one approaches the bush on which they have built that they invariably attract one to the very spot they most wish to conceal. They build in the months of June and July."

Mr. Davison says:--"This bird breeds on the Nilghiris in March, April, and May, and sometimes as late as the earlier part of June. The nest is generally placed low down near the roots of a bush or tuft of grass. It is made of grass beautifully and closely woven, domed, and with the entrance near the top. The eggs, three or four in number, are of a deep brick-red, darker at the larger end, where there is generally a zone, and are very glossy. I once obtained a nest made of grass and bits of cotton, but instead of being built as above described it was placed between, and sewn to, two leaves of the _Datura stramonium_. It contained three eggs of a deep brick-red; in fact, precisely like those described above."

Mr. Wait tells us that "in September I found two nests, the one deeply cup-shaped, the other domed, both constructed of similar materials. The latter of the two was placed at the bottom of a large bunch of lemon-grass, and was constructed of root-fibre and grass, grass-bents, and down of thistle and hawkweed, all intermixed. Exteriorly it measured between 3 and 4 inches in diameter. The nests contained three and five eggs, all highly glossy and of a deep brownish-red, deeper than brick-red, mottled with a still deeper shade."

Colonel "W.Y. Legge, writing from Ceylon, tells us that "_P. socialis_ breeds with us in the commencement of the S.W. monsoon during the months of May, June, and July. It nests in long grass on the Patnas in the Central Province, in guinea-grass fields, and in sugarcane-brakes where these exist, as in the Galle District for instance. I can scarcely imagine that Jerdon is correct about this Warbler's nesting.

"Nothing can be more un-Tailor-bird-like than the nest which it builds in _this_ country, and this led me to think that ours was a different species until my specimens were identified by Lord Walden. In May 1870 a pair resorted to a large guinea-grass field attached to my bungalow at Colombo, for the purpose of breeding. I soon found the nest, which was the most peculiarly constructed one I have ever seen. It was, in fact, an almost shapeless ball of guinea-grass roots, _thrown_ as it were between the upright stalks of the plant at about 2 feet from the ground: I say 'thrown,' because it was scarcely attached to the supporting stalks at all. It was formed entirely of the roots of the plant, which, when it is old, crop out of the ground and are easily plucked up by the bird, the bottom or more solid part being interwoven with cotton and such-like substances to impart additional strength. The entrance was at the side in the upper half, and was tolerably neatly made; it was about an inch in diameter, the whole structure measuring about 6 inches in depth by 5 inches in breadth. I found the nest in a partial state of completion on the 10th of May; by the 19th it was finished and the first of a clutch of three eggs laid. The nest and eggs were both taken on the evening of the 24th, and the following day another was commenced close at hand. This was somewhat smaller, but constructed in the same peculiar manner as the first. This was completed, and the first of another clutch laid. The eggs are somewhat pointed at the smaller end, and of an almost uniform dull mahogany ground-colour, showing indications of a paler underground at the point."

Birds like these, that build half-a-dozen different kinds of nests, ought to be abolished; they lead to all kinds of mistakes and differences of opinion, and are more trouble than they are worth.

Colonel E.A. Butler writes:--"Found numerous nests of this species at Belgaum on the following dates:--

"July 13. A nest containing 4 fresh eggs. " 22. " " " 3 " " 25. " " " 4 " " 26. " " " 3 " " 26. " " " 3 " " 28. " " " 2 slightly incubated eggs. Aug. 5. " " " 4 fresh eggs. " 6. " " " 4 "

"All of the above nests were built in sugarcane-fields or in corn-fields; and most of them were stitched up in leaves of various plants after the fashion of Tailor-birds' nests; but in some instances they were of the other type, simply supported by the blades of sugar-cane or corn they were built in. In addition to the above I found numerous other nests all through August, many of which were destroyed by something or other--what, I do not know! In fact, it has always been a puzzle to me what it is that takes the eggs of these small birds: three out of four nests, when visited a second time, are either empty, gone altogether, or pulled down; and how the birds ever manage to hatch off a brood at all with so many enemies I do not know.

"I found a nest of the Ashy Wren-Warbler at Deesa on the 21st July, containing three fresh eggs, of a highly polished deep mahogany-red colour, with an almost invisible cap of the same colour a shade darker at the large end. The nest, which was placed in the centre of a low bush and fixed to a few small twigs, was oval in shape, measuring 3¾ inches in length exteriorly and 2-5/8 in width, with a small round entrance near the top about 1¼ inch in diameter. It was composed of fine dry fibrous grass, with silky vegetable down (_Calotropis giganten_) and cobwebs smeared over the exterior. The walls were very thin, but the bottom of the nest somewhat solid. The whole well woven and compactly built. Later on I got nests on the following dates:--

"Aug. 1. A nest containing 3 fresh eggs. " 1. " " 2 " " 5. " " 4 " " 5. " " 4 " " 8. " " 3 " " 9. " " 4 " " 26. " " 3 "

"In addition to the above, I found nests containing young birds on the 15th, 17th, and 23rd August.

"The nests are of two distinct types. One as above described; the other, which is the commoner of the two, a regular Tailor-bird's nest stitched between two leaves but without any lining. The eggs vary a good deal in shade, some being paler than others. Some eggs I have look almost like little balls of red carnelian. Creepers (convolvulus &c.) growing up low thorny bushes in grass-beerhs are a favourite place for the nest."

Lieut. H.E. Barnes informs us that in Rajputana this Warbler breeds from July to September.

Messrs. Davidson and Wenden state that this bird is common in the Deccan and breeds in August.

Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says:--"It builds in March, constructing a very neat pendent nest, which is artfully concealed, and supported by sewing one or two leaves round it. This is very neatly done with the fine silk which surrounds the eggs of a small brown spider. The nest is generally built of fine grass, and contains three eggs of a bright brick-colour with a high polish. The entrance to the nest is at the top and a little on one side. An egg measured 0·7 inch in length by 0·48 in breadth."

As for the eggs, it is unnecessary to describe them; they are precisely similar to those of _P. stewarti_, fully described below. All that can be said is that as a body they are slightly larger, and _possibly_, as a _whole_, the least shade less dark. In length they vary from 0·52 to 0·72, and in breadth from 0·45 to 0·52; but the average of twenty-one eggs measured is 0·64 by rather more than 0·47[A].

[Footnote A: As a matter of convenience I keep the notes on _P. socialis_ and _P. stewarti_ separate, as is done in the 'Rough Draft'; but there is no doubt whatever now that the two birds are the same species.--ED.]

_Prinia stewarti_.

Stewart's Wren-Warbler is one of those forms in regard to which at present great difference of opinion prevails as to whether or no they merit specific separation. _P. stewarti_ from the N.W. Provinces and _P. socialis_ from the Nilghiris differ only in size; the latter is somewhat more robust, and probably weighs one fifth more than the former. But then in the Central Provinces you meet with intermediate sizes, and I have plenty of birds which might be assigned indifferently to either race as a rather small example of the one or rather large one of the other. I myself consider all to belong to one species, but as this is not the general view I have kept my notes on their nidification separate.

This species or race breeds almost throughout the plains of Upper India and in the Sub-Himalayan ranges to an elevation of 3000 or 4000 feet. In the plains the breeding-season extends from the first downfall of rain in June (I have never found them earlier) to quite the end of August. In the moist Sub-Himalayan region, the Terais, Doons, Bhaburs, and the low hills, they commence laying nearly a month earlier.

This species often constructs as neatly sewn a nest as does the _Orthotomus_; in fact, many of the nests built by these two species so closely resemble each other that it would be difficult to distinguish them were there not very generally a difference in the lining. With few exceptions all the innumerable nests of _O. sutorius_ that I have seen were lined with some soft substance--cotton-wool, the silky down of the cotton-tree(_Bomlax heptaphyllum_) grass-down, soft horsehair, or even human hair, while the nests of _P. stewarti_ are almost without exception _lined_ with fine grass-roots.

Our present bird does not, however, invariably construct a "tailored" nest. When it does, like _O. sittorius_, it sews two, three, four, or five leaves together, as may be most convenient, filling the intervening space with down, fine grass, vegetable fibre, or wool, held firmly into its place by cross-threads, sometimes composed of cobwebs, sometimes made by the bird itself of cotton, and sometimes apparently derived from unravelled rags. It also, however, often makes a nest entirely composed of fine vegetable fibre, cotton, and grass-down, and lined as usual with fine grass-roots. Sometimes these nests are long and purse-like, and sometimes globular, either attached to, or pendent from, two or more twigs. One nest before me, a sort of deep watch-pocket, suspended from five twigs of the jhao (_Tamarix dioica_), measures externally 2·75 inches in diameter, is a good deal longer at what may be called the back than the front, and at the back fully 5·5 long. Internally the diameter is about 1·5, and the cavity, measuring from the lowest portion of the external rim, is 2·5. This is a _very_ large nest. Another, built between three leaves, has an external diameter of about 2½ inches, and is externally not above 3 inches long. It is unnecessary here to describe the beautiful manner in which, when it makes use of leaves, this bird sews them together, as this has already been well described by others where _O. sutorius_ is concerned, and _P. stewarti_ is, in some cases, when forming a nest with leaves, fully as neat a workman.

The nests vary so much, and I have heard so much, discussion about them, that having seen at least a hundred and having taken full notes of some twenty of them, I shall reproduce a few of these notes:--

"_Agra, July 17th_.--Two nests--one nearly globular, composed entirely of fibrous roots, hair, wool, and thread, and lined with fine grass, suspended by a few fibres and hairs between the fork of a branchlet in a little dense bush of Indian box; the other, suspended from the tendril of an elephant creeper, was principally formed by one of the leaves of this, to which, to form the remaining third of the exterior, a second leaf of the same plant was carefully sewn. Interiorly there was a little wool, and at the bottom fine grass.

"_July 20th_.--On a furash-tree (_Tamarix furas_), beautifully made of fine soft wool, shreds of tow and string, very fine grass and grass-roots, and the bottom neatly lined with very fine grass-roots. In shape the nest is like one half of a long old-fashioned silk purse, round-bottomed and very compact, with a long slit-like opening on one side towards the top. It contained five eggs.

"_July 26th_.--Two nests, one formed almost entirely in a single mango-leaf, the sides of which are curled round so as nearly to meet, and then laced by a succession of cross-threads of cobweb, carefully knotted at each place where the margin of the leaf is pierced. The intervening space is closed by fine tow, wool, and the silky down of the cotton-tree, with just the top of a small mango-leaf caught in from above so as to form an arched roof. The other nest was rounder in form, having less of a leafy structure. It had, however, the leaf of the _Phalsa_ forming the back and sides (partly), whilst the whole of the front was composed of soft wool, tow, dry grass-roots, thread, and a few pieces of the soft tree-cotton. It had a neighbouring leaf just caught in on one side. This contained four fresh eggs.

"_July 30th_.--A beautiful nest between three twigs, several of the leaves of each of which had been tacked on to the outside of the nest. The nest itself was firmly put together with fine grass-roots, and was nearly globular in shape, with one side continued upwards into a sort of hood overhanging the greater portion of the aperture. It contained four eggs of the usual deep red colour.

"_August 8th_.--At Bichpoori found a number of nests, and some of them of a strangely different type. One was inside a tiny hut on the line, about 3 feet above the head of the chaprassie's bed. It had no leaves about it, and was composed of thread, wool, and a few very fine grass-stems, and lined thinly with fine grass-stems and a little black horsehair. It was about two thirds of a sphere, the external diameter of which was about 3¼ inches, and the internal 2½ inches. The bird was on the nest, so that there could be no mistake, otherwise it would have been impossible to believe that it belonged to _P. stewarti_, of which we have taken so many sewn in leaves. A little further on another nest of the same species, built in the ragged eaves of a thatch, externally composed almost entirely of cotton-wool, with a little tow-fibre binding the structure together, internally as usual lined with very fine grass-roots with a few horsehairs. Another nest of the _Prinia_ was in one respect even more remarkable. It was built in the usual situation in a low herbaceous plant, sewn to and suspended from two leaves, and two or three others worked into its sides. It was constructed almost entirely of fine grass-roots and fibres, with a few tiny tufts of cotton-wool, and the leaves as usual firmly tacked on with threads and cobweb fibres. It would seem that, after constructing the nest, but before laying, a large female spider took possession of the bottom of the nest, and shut herself in by constructing a diaphragm of web horizontally across the nest, thus occupying the whole of the cavity of the nest. The little bird accepted this change of circumstances, built the nest a little higher at the sides, and over the spider's web placed a false bottom of fine grass-roots, on which she laid her four eggs, and there she was sitting when the nest was taken, the spider, alive and apparently happy in the cell below, plainly visible through the interstices of the grass, with a huge sac of eggs which she was incubating. Her chamber is fully one half of the nest."

I may add that this latter nest, with the _now_ dead spider, _in situ_, is still in our museum.

In number the eggs are sometimes four, sometimes five, and I have _heard_ of six being found.

They rear usually two broods; if their eggs are taken they will lay three or four sets; sometimes they use the same nest twice; sometimes, directly the first brood is at all able to shift for themselves, the parents leave them in the old nest, and commence building a new one at no great distance.

The late Mr. A. Anderson remarked:--"Owing to the inclemency of the weather (August) the geranium-pots in the garden were placed in the verandah of the house I am at present living in, and, strange to say, a pair of these Warblers commenced building in the leaves of one of the plants immediately under my window.

"When the nest was about half-finished the birds' forsook it without apparently any reason, as they were never molested in any way. On examining the nest, however, the cause was evident, and afforded a remarkable instance of instinct on the part of the little architects. The leaves that had been pierced and sewn together had actually commenced to _wither_, and in the course of a few days later the whole structure came down bodily.

"This is the only _Prinia_ to be found at Futtehgurh, and they are one of our most common garden-birds. Their beautiful brick-red eggs and neatly-sewn nests are too well known to require description.

"Four generally, and five frequently, is the number of eggs they lay. I have _one_ record of _six_ on the 17th August, 1873; in this case one egg was laid daily, the first having been laid on the 12th, and the sixth on the 17th."