Part 46

From Raipoor, Mr. F.R. Blewitt remarks:--"The Iora breeds from July to September, and certainly not, as Dr. Jerdon supposes, twice a year. Both birds assist in the building of the nests, and there evidently appears to be no choice of any particular kind of tree on which to build. I have found them indiscriminately on the mango, mowah, neem, and other trees. The nest is invariably made either just above or between the fork of two outshooting slender horizontal branches. It is very neatly made, deeply cup-shaped, of grass and fibres, with spider's web on the exterior. The maximum number of eggs is three; they are of a pale whitish colour, marked generally, chiefly at the broad end, with brownish spots. The brown spots vary in size on different eggs. I secured the first eggs on the 12th July, and the last on the 2nd September. A pair of birds were on this last date just completing their nest, which unfortunately was destroyed by the heavy rains."

Captain Cock says:--"Iora tiphia is tolerably common at Seetapoor (Oudh), and I have several times taken their nests and eggs. I may here mention that I have taken eggs of Iora zeylonica at Etawah, and that knowing the birds well, I can say that it is quite a distinct bird; although in the marking of its eggs there is a slight resemblance, yet the nests of the two species are quite different. On the 13th May I observed a nest of I. tiphia on a young mango-tree, at the edge of a croquet-ground in our garden. I shot both male and female and took the eggs; the nest was placed on the upperside of a sloping bough, was covered outside with cobweb, and lined with thin dry grass. It contained two fresh eggs of a delicate pink colour, with broad irregularly-shaped dashes of light brown down the sides of the shell, not tending to coalesce in any way at either apex. Another pair also built their nest on the edge of the same ground in another tree; but unfortunately in a weak moment I pointed out the nest to a lady friend, and as thereafter no one ever played croquet on the ground without staring at the nest, the birds got disgusted and soon deserted it."

To this I need merely add that of course typical Ae. tiphia and typical Ae. zeylonica are very distinct, but that as every intermediate form occurs, they are not, according to my views of what constitutes a species, entitled to specific separation, and that as regards nest and eggs, according to my experience, every variety in the one is to be found in the other.

Dr. Jerdon, speaking of Southern India, remarks:--"I have seen the nest and eggs on several occasions. The nest is deep, cup-shaped, very neatly made with grass, various fibres, hairs, and spiders' webs; and the eggs, two or three in number, are reddish white, with numerous darker red spots, chiefly at the thicker end. It breeds in the south of India in August and September; perhaps, however, twice a year."

Writing from South Wynaad, Mr. J. Darling (Junior) says:--"I found the nest, which with the eggs and both parents I have now sent you, in the Teriat Hills on the 24th May, at an elevation of about 2300 feet. It was placed on, and near the extremity of, a bough, at a height of about 10 feet from the ground. It is round, about 2 inches in height and the same in diameter, and the cavity was about an inch or a trifle more in depth. It is built of grass and reed-bamboo-fibres, and is coated with spider's web. It only contained two eggs."

Both parents (sexes ascertained by dissection) are in the typical tiphia plumage, without one particle of black on either head, nape, or back.

Mr. Davidson writes:--"In the Satara and Sholapur districts the cock puts on his summer plumage in May and the whole back of head, neck, and back (not rump) is glossy and black.

"This bird lays from the end of June to beginning of August. It is very shy when building and is easily caused to forsake its nest; if a single egg is taken from the nest it does not forsake it, however, but lays on (three instances this year)."

Mr. W.E. Brooks has favoured me with the following very interesting note on the habits of this Iora:--

"Ioras are very numerous and have such a variety of notes that I thought at first there were several sorts; but as far as I can see there is but one species. Iora spreads its tail in a wonderful manner, and comes spinning round and round towards the ground looking more like a round ball than a bird. All the time it descends it utters a strange note, something like that of a frog or cricket, a protracted sibilant sound. This bird is close to Liothrix and Stachyrhis, although it belongs to the plains."

Colonel Butler writes:--"A nest on the 17th August, 1880, on the outside branch of a silk-cotton tree in Belgaum about 12 feet from the ground, containing three fresh eggs.

"I found many other nests building all through the hot weather and rains; but in every single instance except the present one they were deserted before they were completed."

Major Bingham writes from Tenasserim:--"This species is common throughout the country. As a rule its nest is well hid, but one I saw in the compound of a house in Maulmain was placed in the exposed leafless fork of a tree, not above six feet from the ground. It contained no eggs when I examined it, and was deserted a day or two after. This was in the beginning of May."

Mr. Oates remarks on the breeding of this bird in Pegu:--"Nests are found chiefly in June and July, but the birds probably lay also in May."

In shape the eggs are moderately broad ovals, slightly pointed towards one end. They vary, however, a good deal, some being much more elongated than others. They are almost entirely devoid of gloss. The ground-colour is generally greyish white, but some have creamy and some a salmon tinge; typically they have numerous long streaky pale brown or reddish-brown blotches, chiefly confined to the large end, where they often seem to spring from an irregular imperfect zone of the same colour. The colour of the blotches varies a good deal. In some it is a pale greyish or purplish brown; in others decidedly reddish, or even well-marked and somewhat yellowish brown. Some pale, purplish streaks and clouds generally underlie the brown blotches where they are thickest, and there form a kind of nimbus. In some eggs the markings are confined to a narrow imperfect zone of pale purplish specks or very tiny blotches round the large end, and some of the eggs remind one of those of Leucocerca albifrontata. The peculiar streaky longitudinal character of the markings, almost wholly confined to the large end, best distinguishes the eggs of the Ioras from those of any other Indian bird with which they are likely to be confounded.

In length they vary from 0·63 to 0·76, and in breadth from 0·51 to 0·57: but the average of forty-seven eggs measured is 0·69, nearly, by a trifle more than 0·54.

246. Myzornis pyrrhura, Hodgs. The Fire-tailed Myzornis.

Myzornis pyrrboura, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 263; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 629.

I have received a single egg said to belong to the Fire-tailed Myzornis from Native Sikhim, where it was found in May in a small nest (unfortunately mislaid) which was placed on a branch of a large tree at no great height from the ground. The place where it was found had an elevation of about 10,000 feet. Although the parent bird was sent with the egg, I cannot say that I have any great confidence in its authenticity, and only record the matter quantum valeat.

The egg is a very regular, rather elongated oval. The egg was never properly blown and has been consequently somewhat discoloured. It may have been pure white, and it may have been fairly glossy when fresh, but it is now a dull ivory-white with scarcely any gloss. It measured 0·68 in length by 0·5 in breadth.

252. Chloropsis jerdoni (Bl.). Jerdon's Chloropsis.

Phyllornis jerdoni, Bl., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 97; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 463.

I have never myself found the nest of Jerdon's Chloropsis, but my friend Mr. F.R. Blewitt has sent me numerous specimens of both nests and eggs from Raipoor and its neighbourhood.

In that part of the country July and August appear to be the months in which it lays; but elsewhere its eggs have been taken in April, May, and June, so that its breeding-season is much the same as that of many of the Bulbuls. The nest is a small, rather shallow cup, at most 3½ inches in diameter and 1½ in depth; is composed externally entirely of soft tow-like vegetable fibre, which appears to be worked over a light framework of fine roots and slender tamarisk-stems, amongst which, some little pieces of lichen are intermingled. There is no attempt at a lining, the eggs being laid on the fine grass and slender twigs (about the thickness of an ordinary-sized pin) which compose the framework of the nest.

The eggs as a rule appear to be two in number.

Mr. Blewitt remarks:--"The Green Bulbul breeds in July and August. The bird does not preferentially select any one description of tree for its nest, though the greater number secured were taken from mowah trees (Bassia latifolia). The nest is generally firmly affixed at the fork of the end twigs of an upper branch from 15 to 25 feet from the ground. Sometimes, however, eschewing twigs, the bird constructs its nest on the top of the main branch itself, cunningly securing it with the material to the rough exterior surface of the branch. Three is certainly the maximum number of eggs. During the period of nidification the parent birds are very watchful and noisy, and their alarm and over-anxiety on the near approach of a stranger often betray the nest."

The late Captain Beavan recorded the following interesting note in regard to this species:--

"This handsome bird is very abundant in Manbhoom, where it is called 'Hurrooa' by the natives. Its note is so much like that of Dicrurus ater that I have frequently been deceived by the resemblance. It breeds in the district. A nest with two eggs was brought to me at Beerachalee on April 4th, 1865. It is built at the fork of a bough and neatly suspended from it, like a hammock, by silky fibres, which are firmly fixed to the two sprigs of the fork, and also form part of the bottom and outside of the nest. The inside is lined with dry bents and hairs. The eggs (creamy white with a few light pinky-brown spots) are rather elongated, measuring 0·85 by 0·62. Interior diameter of nest 2·25, depth 1·5. The cry of alarm of this species is like that of Parus major"