Part 42

219. Siva strigula, Hodgs. The Stripe-throated Siva.

Siva strigula. Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 252; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 616.

The nest of the Stripe-throated Siva is placed, according to Mr. Hodgson, in the slender fork of a tree at no great elevation from the ground. It is composed of moss and moss-roots, intermingled with dry bamboo-leaves, and woven into a broad compact cup-shaped nest. One such nest, taken on the 27th May, with three eggs in it, measured exteriorly 4·25 in diameter and 3 inches in height, with a cavity (thickly lined with cow's hair) about 2·5 in diameter and 2·25 in depth. The birds lay in May and June. The eggs are three or sometimes four in number; they are pale greenish blue or bluish green, and vary in length from 0·8 to 0·9, and in breadth from 0·6 to 0·65, and are, some thickly, some thinly, speckled and freckled, usually most densely towards the large end, with red or brownish red. His nests were taken both in Sikhim and Nepal.

221. Siva cyanuroptera, Hodgs. The Blue-winged Siva.

Siva cyanouroptera, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 253; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 617.

The Blue-winged Siva breeds, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, in the central regions of Nepal, and in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling, in May and June. The nest is placed in trees, at no great elevation above the ground, and is wedged in where three or four slender twigs make a convenient fork. A nest taken on the 2nd June was a large compact cup, measuring exteriorly 4·75 in diameter and 3·75 in height, and having a cavity 2·6 in diameter and 1·87 in depth. It was composed of fine stems of grass, dry leaves, moss, and moss-roots, bound together with pieces of creepers, roots, and vegetable fibres, and closely lined with fine grass-roots. They lay from three to four eggs, which are figured as moderately broad ovals, considerably pointed towards the small end, 0·85 in length by 0·6 in width, having a pale greenish ground pretty thickly speckled and spotted, especially on the broader half of the egg, with a kind of brownish brick-red.

Mr. Mandelli found a nest of this species at Lebong (elevation 5500 feet) on the 28th April. It contained four fresh eggs; it was placed in a fork of a horizontal branch of a small tree at a height of only 3 feet from the ground. The nest is, for the size of the bird, a large cup, externally entirely composed of green moss firmly felted together. This outer shell of moss is thickly lined with the dead leaves of a Polypodium, and this again is thinly lined with fine grass. The nest was about 4 inches in diameter, and 2·5 in height externally; the cavity was about 2·5 broad and 1·5 deep.

The nests of this species are very beautiful cups, very compact and firm, sometimes wedged into a fork, but more commonly suspended between two or three twigs, or sometimes attached by one side only to a single twig. They are placed at heights of from 4 to 10 feet from the ground in the branches of slender trees, and are usually carefully concealed, places completely encircled by creepers being very frequently chosen. The chief materials of the nest are dead leaves, sometimes those of the bamboo, but more generally those of trees; but little of this is seen, as the exterior is generally coated with moss, and the interior is lined first with excessively fine grass, and then more or less thinly with black buffalo- or horse-hairs. The cups are about 3 inches in diameter and 2 in height externally, the cavities barely 2 in diameter and perhaps 1·5 in depth: but they vary somewhat in size and shape according to the situation in which they are placed and the manner in which they are attached, some being considerably broader and shallower, and some rather deeper.

Eggs of this species sent me from Mr. Mandelli, which were obtained by him in the neighbourhood of Darjeeling, are decidedly elongated ovals, fairly glossy, and with a pale slightly greenish-blue ground. A number of minute red or brownish-red or yellowish-brown specks and spots occur about the large end, sometimes irregularly scattered, sometimes more or less gathered into an imperfect zone. The rest of the egg is either spotless or exhibits only a few tiny specks and spots. The eggs measure 0·75 and 0·76 by 0·51 and 0·52.

223. Yuhina gularis, Hodgs. The Stripe-throated Yuhina.

Yuhina gularis, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 261; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 626.

The Stripe-throated Yuhina breeds, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, from April to July, building a large massive nest of moss, lined with moss-roots, and wedged into a fork of a branch or between ledges of rocks, more or less globular in shape, and with a circular aperture near the top towards one side. A nest taken on the 19th June, near Darjeeling, was quite egg-shaped, the long diameter being perpendicular to the ground, and measured 6 inches in height and 4 inches in breadth, the aperture, 2 inches in diameter, being well above the middle of the nest; the cavity was lined with fine moss-roots. The eggs are figured as rather elongated ovals, 0·8 by 0·56, with a pale buffy or café au lait ground-colour, thickly spotted with red or brownish red, the markings forming a confluent zone about the large end.

225. Yuhina nigrimentum (Hodgs.). The Black-chinned Yuhina.

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.