Part 74

"I shot the female, which I sent to Mr. Brooks for identification.

"I forgot to add that this nest, the only one I ever found, was taken early in June."

The egg of this species closely resembles that of some of the species of Abrornis--a moderately broad oval, slightly pointed at the small end, pure white, and almost glossless. The only specimen I have seen measures 0·58 by 0·45.

410. Phylloscopus fuscatus (Blyth). The Dusky Willow-Warbler.

Phylloscopus fuscatus (Blyth), Jerd B.I. ii, p. 191. Horornis fulviventer, Hodgs., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 523.

Mr. Blyth long ago stated in 'The Ibis' that Horornis fulviventris was identical with P. fuscatus.

Subsequently I procured several specimens which were quite distinct from P. fuscatus, structurally as well as in plumage answering perfectly to Hodgson's description.

I wrote to Dr. Jerdon mentioning this fact, and he replied:--"I also am not satisfied of the identity of this species (H. fulviventris) with Phylloscopus fuscatus. I have recently got at Darjeeling what I take to be Horornis fulviventris, and it is somewhat smaller in all its dimensions, but I had not a typical P. fuscatus with which to compare it. Specimens measured 4¾ to 4-7/8 inches; expanse 6½ inches; wing 2 to 2-1/16 inches. I procured the nest and eggs in July; the nest, cup-shaped, on a bank, composed of grass chiefly, with a few fibres; and the eggs, three in number, pinky white, with a few reddish spots."

It is certainly not P. fuscatus (though possibly some specimens of P. fuscatus in the British Museum may bear a label formerly attached to a bird of this species), nor any other Horornis or Horeites included in Dr. Jerdon's work, all of which I have. Mr. Blyth possibly went by Mr. Hodgson's specimens in the British Museum, but some confusion has, it is known, somehow crept in amongst these; and I have no doubt myself that Horornis fulviventris is a good species, and that it was the nest and eggs of this species which Dr. Jerdon found.

415. Phylloscopus proregulus (Pall.). Pallas's Willow-Warbler.

Reguloides chloronotus (Hodgs.), Jerd. B.I. ii, p. 197. Reguloides proregulus (Pall.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 566.

Captain Cock has the honour of being the first to take, and, I believe, up to date the only oologist who has ever taken, the nest and eggs of Pallas's Willow-Warbler. Mr. Brooks tried hard for the prize, but he searched on the ground and so missed the nest. He wrote to me from Cashmere, just about the time (June 1871) that Captain Cock found the nest he obtained:--"I have been utterly unable to do anything with P. proregulus. I shot a female, with an egg nearly ready to lay, when I first went to Goolmerg, but though I often heard the males singing, I never could find any indication of the nesting female. The feeble song, like that of P. sibilatrix, alluded to by Blyth as being that of P. superciliosus, is not that of this latter bird, but of P. proregulus".

Later, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, he noted that "Captain Cock took the nest and eggs at Sonamerg. It builds, like the Golden-crested Regulus, up a fir-tree, at from 6 to 40 feet elevation, on the outer ends of the branches. The nest is of moss, wool and fibres, and profusely lined with feathers. Eggs, four or five, pure white, profusely spotted with red and a few spots of purple grey. Size, 0·53 by 0·43."

Later still he added in 'The Ibis:'--"Captain Cock writes from Sonamerg: 'The second day I found my first nest with eggs. It was the nest of P. proregulus. I shot the old bird. Three eggs. These nests are often placed on a bough high up in a pine-tree, and are domed or roofed, made of moss and lined with feathers. I took another one to day with five eggs, and shot the bird just as it was entering its nest. This was on a bough of a pine, but low down. I know of two more nests of P. proregulus, all on pine-trees, from which I hope to take eggs.'

"After describing the nest of P. humii, and saying that it was lined with the hair of the musk-deer, he adds: 'In this the nest differs from that of P. proregulus, which lines its nest with feathers and bits of thin birch-bark; and the nest of P. proregulus is only partly domed.'

"I measured four eggs of P. proregulus which Captain Cock kindly gave me, and the dimensions are as follows: ·55 by ·44, ·53 by ·43, ·53 by ·43, and ·54 by ·43. They are pure white, richly marked with dark brownish red, particularly at the larger end, forming there a fine zone on most of the eggs. Intermingled with these spots, and especially on the zone, are some spots and blotches of deep purple-grey. The egg is very handsome, and reminds one strongly of those of Parus cristatus on a smaller scale. The dates when the eggs were taken are 30th May and 2nd June, and the place Sonamerg, which is four marches up the valley of the Sindh River."

Captain Cock himself tells me that he "took several nests of this bird at Sonamerg in Cashmere in pine-forests. It breeds in May and June, making a partially domed nest, which is sometimes placed low down on the bough of a pine-tree, sometimes on a small sapling pine where the junction of the bough with the stem takes place, and at other times high up on the outer end of a bough. It lays five eggs, like those of P. humii only smaller. The nests I found were all lined with feathers and thin birch-bark strips. I never found a hair-lining in any of this bird's nests. The outer portions of the nest consisted of moss and lichen, arranged so as to harmonize with the bough on which it was placed. The nests are compact little structures."

Mr. Brooks, writing of the valley of the Bhagirati river, says:--"Common in the alpine parts of the valley. It breeds about Derali, Bairamghati, and Gangaotri, in the large moss-grown deodars."

The eggs of this species closely resemble those of P. humii, but are smaller, and, to judge from a few specimens taken by Captain Cock that I have seen, they are somewhat shorter and broader.

Texture smooth, without any perceptible gloss. Ground-colour pure white, spotted freely and principally towards the larger end with red: brick-dust red would perhaps scarcely be a correct term. The colour would be obtained by mixing a little brown and a good deal of purple with vermilion, or by mixing Indian red with a little Venetian red. At the larger end they have an irregular zone of small, more or less confluent, spots and specks of this red, mingled with reddish or brownish purple, and a few specks and spots of the red scattered over the rest of the surface of the egg.

This egg may also be well described, as regards colour and mode of marking, by saying that it resembles the illustration in Hewitson's work of the eggs of Parus cristatus, except that the egg of P. proregulus has a distinct zone of nearly confluent spots, and their colour is more of a brownish red than those shown in the plate above referred to, which by-the-by do not correctly represent the colour of the spots upon the eggs of P. cristatus which I have seen. These spots are coloured with too much of a tendency towards crimson instead of brownish red.

Three of the eggs taken by Captain Cock varied from 0·53 to 0·55 in length, and from 0·43 to 0·44 in breadth.

416. Phylloscopus subviridis (Brooks). Brooks's Willow-Warbler.

Reguloides subviridis, Brooks, Hume, cat. no. 566 bis.

Colonel Biddulph remarks that this species is common in Gilgit at 5000 feet in March, April, May, and beginning of June, and that it breeds in the Nulter valley in July at 10,000 feet. Young birds were shot in August fully fledged.

Major Wardlaw Ramsay observes on the label of a specimen procured by him at Bian Kheyl in Afghanistan in April, "evidently breeding"; and on that of another specimen shot in May at the same place, "contained eggs nearly ready to lay."

418. Phylloscopus humii (Brooks). Hume's Willow-Warbler.

Reguloides humii, Brooks, Hume, cat. no. 565 bis. Reguloides superciliosus (Gm), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 565.