Part 23

Messrs. Davidson and Wenden state that in the Deccan it is "very common and breeds."

Major C.T. Bingham says:--"This bird, uncommon at Allahabad, is plentiful here at Delhi. I found several nests between March and June, all of the Babbler type, deep cups, rather more firmly built than those of the preceding bird, but constructed like them of coarse roots of grass, with finer ones for the inside. They are never placed at any great height from the ground, and generally in some thorny bush. I have found mostly three, rarely four eggs in any one nest."

Mr. Benjamin Aitken writes:--"I never saw the Common Babbler in Poona, and it certainly does not occur in Bombay. But it is very abundant on the arid plains of Berar, breeding in the low babool-bushes, where large numbers of its eggs are destroyed by lizards. I have found four eggs in a nest oftener than three."

Colonel Butler writes:--"The Common Babbler breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa principally during the monsoon; but I have found nests occasionally at other seasons of the year, as the following table of dates will show:--

"April 29, 1876. A nest containing 3 fresh eggs. "May 16, 1876. " " 3 fresh eggs. "May 21, 1876. " " 2 fresh eggs. "Nov. 15, 1876. " " 4 young birds.

"I found numerous nests from the middle of July to the beginning of September. On the 26th July, 1876, I saw upwards of a dozen nests, some containing fresh eggs, and others incubated. In many instances they contained eggs of Coccystes jacobinus. The nest is usually placed 3 or 4 feet from the ground in low thorny bashes (Zizyphus jujuba preferred) or in a tussock of sarpat grass. It is built of twigs, roots, grass, &c., loosely put together exteriorly but closely woven interiorly, the lining being composed of fine roots and grass-stems. The eggs vary in number from three to five."

Lieut. H.E. Barnes, writing of Rajputana, says:--"The Striated Bush-Babbler breeds from March to July. The nest is usually placed in a low thorny bush, and is composed of grass-roots and stems; it is deep cup-shaped, neatly and compactly built."

The eggs are typically of a moderately elongated oval shape, slightly compressed towards one end, but more or less spherical and pyriform varieties occur; and I have one specimen, a very long pointed egg, which, so far as size and shape go, might pass for an egg of Cypselus affinis; and though this is a peculiarly abnormal shape, I have others which somewhat approach it in form. The eggs are glossy, often brilliantly so, and of a delicate, pure, spotless, somewhat pale blue. The shade of colour in this egg varies very little, and I have never met with either the very pale or very dark varieties common amongst the eggs of C. canorus and occasionally found amongst those of A. malcolmi. In colour, size, and shape they are not very unlike those of our English Hedge-Sparrow, whose early eggs formed the prize of our first boyish nesting-expeditions, but they are slightly larger and typically somewhat more elongated.

In length they vary from 0·75 to 0·92, and in breadth from 0·6 to 0·7; but the average of one hundred and fifteen eggs measured was 0·82 by 0·64.

107. Argya malcolmi (Sykes). The Large Grey Babbler.

Malacocercus malcolmi (Sykes), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 64. Argya malcolmi (Sykes), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 436.

The Large Grey Babbler breeds throughout the central portions of both the Peninsula and Continent of India from the Nilghiris to the Dhoon. It does not extend westwards to Sindh or the North-West Punjab, or eastwards far into Bengal Proper. In the Central and North-West Provinces it lays from early in March well into September, having at least two and, as I believe, often three broods.

It builds on low branches of small trees or in thick shrubs, at no great elevation from the ground, say at heights of from 4 to 10 feet, a somewhat loosely woven, but yet generally neat, cup-shaped nest, composed, as a rule, chiefly of grass-roots, but often with an admixture of thin sticks and grass. Generally there is no lining, but I have found nests scantily lined with very fine grass and even horse-hair. Even when, as is the rule, entirely unlined, the inside is finished off very nicely and smoothly. I have often seen ragged and untidy nests, but these are the exception. Externally the nest is some 5 or 6 inches in diameter and 3 or 4 inches in height; the cavity is from 3 to 4 inches across and from 2 to nearly 3 inches in depth.

Four is the normal number of the eggs laid, but I have several notes of finding five.

Mr. Brooks says:--"This species breeds in waste lands overgrown with scanty jungle. The nest is made of sticks, roots, grass, &c., is rather bulky, and is placed in some moderate-sized bush about 7 or 8 feet from the ground. The eggs are greenish blue, bluer and not so brightly coloured as those of C. terricolor."

Mr. R.M. Adam remarks:--"Near Muttra, on the 31st October, I found a pair of birds busy lining the interior of a nest which they had built in a plum-tree. At the Sambhur lake it is very common, and commences to breed about the end of March."

Writing from Kotagherry (Nilghiris), Miss Cockburn remarks:--"Their nests are built of a few twigs and roots, very loosely put together (on some low branch of a tree), and so few of even these as hardly to keep the eggs from falling through. These Babblers lay four oval eggs of a greenish-blue colour, but I once saw a nest with eight, and as there were several of these birds close to it, I have no doubt two or three shared it together, perhaps to avoid the necessity of each pair building for itself. Their nests are found in the months of March and April.

"It is in the nests of this species and our Common Laughing-Thrush (T. cachinnans) that I have chiefly found the eggs of the Pied Crested Cuckoo."

Of this species Colonel G.F.L. Marshall remarks:--"I have taken eggs on the 20th June in Cawnpoor, the 31st July in Bolundshuhur, and the 25th August in Allyghur. The nest is almost always in a keekur tree in a fork about halfway up, and near the end of a branch. It is composed of keekur-twigs and lined with roots. It is thinner in structure than that of M. terricolor, but has an outer casing of thorns which the latter wants. They lay four blue eggs, larger and paler than those of M. canorus"

Lieut. H.E. Barnes writes that in Rajputana the Large Grey Babbler is "very common. I have found nests in each month from January to December. They have, I believe, several broods in the year; and even when nesting associate in small parties of seven or eight."

Messrs. Davidson and Wenden say:--"Common, and breeds in the Deccan."

Major C.T. Bingham says:--"Breeds both at Allahabad and at Delhi from March to quite the end of August, placing its loosely constructed (rarely firmly built) nest of twigs and fine grass-roots generally at no great height in babool-trees. Twice only I have found them in dense mango-trees at about thirty feet from the ground. The nests are not, I think, as a rule, so deep as those of Crateropus terricolor; once or twice I have found the soft down of the Madar (Catatropes hamiltonii) incorporated into the lining of grass-roots. The eggs are generally three or four in number."

Mr. Benjamin Aitken writes:--"All the nests which I have seen of the Large Grey Babbler have been on babool-trees. At Akola (Berar) in 1870, a great many had their nests during the month of July. I have recorded two instances of nests placed at a height above the ground of 15 feet and 20 feet. These were at Poona, one on the 21st April, and the other on the 10th May. I could not go up to the nests, but the birds in both cases were sitting closely. I have twice found nests with only three newly-hatched young ones."

Colonel Butler informs us that "the Large Grey Babbler breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa during the rains. Both the nest and eggs closely resemble those of C. terricolor, but the latter differ slightly in being less elongated, not so pointed at the small end, rounder at the large end, and somewhat paler in colour. I have taken nests on the following dates:--

"July 19, 1875. A nest containing 4 fresh eggs. "June 30, 1876. " " 4 fresh eggs. "July 15, 1876. " " 4 fresh eggs. "July 20, 1876. " " 3 fresh eggs.

"The nest in every instance was similar to that described by Jerdon, viz.:--a loose structure of dead roots, twigs, and grass, the interior being neatly lined with closely-woven roots of 'khus-khus.' The old birds generally select some thorny tree (Mimosa &c.) to build on, and the nest is usually from 8 feet to 20 feet from the ground.

"Even in the nesting-season these birds are gregarious, joining a flock generally as soon as they leave the nest."

The eggs of this species do not appear to me to differ perceptibly from, those of Crateropus canorus. When one first takes a nest or two of each of them, one is apt to draw distinctions and fancy that the eggs of the two species can be discriminated; but after taking forty or fifty nests of each species, it becomes obvious that there is no variety of the one in either colour, shape, or size that cannot be paralleled in the other. All I have said of the eggs of C. canorus is applicable to the eggs of this species, and the only difference that, with a huge series of each before me, I can discover is that, as a body, there is less variation in the colour of the eggs of Argya malcolmi than in those of C. canorus.