Part 77

I have received its nests and eggs from several sources, and have taken them in the Sutlej and Beas Valleys myself. They lay in the last week of March, and throughout April and May, constructing a large globular nest of moss, more or less mingled exteriorly with dry grass and lined thinly with goat's hair, and then inside this thickly with the softest wool or, in one nest that I found, with the inner downy fur of hares. The entrance to the nest is sometimes on one side, sometimes almost at the top, and is rather large for the size of the bird. The nest is almost without exception placed on a grassy bank, at the foot of some small bush, and usually contains four eggs.

Talking of this species, and writing from Almorah on the 17th May, Mr. Brooks said:--"I have just taken a nest. It was placed on a sloping bank-side near the foot of a small bush. The bank was overgrown with grass. The nest, which was on the ground, was a large ball-shaped one, composed of very coarse grass, moss-roots, and wool, and lined with hair and wool. It contained four pure white glossy eggs, which were much pointed at the small end. I shot the bird off the nest. I had already frequently met with fully-grown young birds of this species."

Writing from Dhurmsala, Captain Cock remarked:--"On the 8th April I found a nest of this species containing four white eggs; it was placed on the ground, under a bush, on a steep bank. The nest was globular, with rather a large entrance-hole, and was made of moss, with dry grass outside, then black hair of goats, and thickly lined with the softest of wool: no feathers in the nest. I caught the bird on the nest; it is common here."

Colonel G.F.L. Marshall tells us:--"A nest found on the 22nd May at Naini Tal, about 7000 feet above the sea, contained three hard-set eggs. The eggs were pure white. The nest was a most beautiful little structure of moss, lined with wool; it was globular, with the entrance at one side, and placed on a bank among some ground-ivy, the outer part of the nest having a few broad grass-blades interwoven so as to assimilate the appearance of the nest to that of the bank against which it lay. It was at the side of a narrow glen with a northern aspect, and about four feet above the pathway, close to the spring from which my bhisti daily draws water, the bird sitting fearlessly while passed and repassed by people going down the glen within a foot or two of the nest."

The eggs are pure white, and generally fairly glossy. In texture the shells are very fine and compact. The eggs are moderately broad ovals, much pointed towards the small end, and vary from 0·6 to 0·65 in length, and from 0·48 to 0·52 in breadth; but the average of twenty eggs measured is 0·63 by 0·5 nearly.

435. Cryptolopha jerdoni (Brooks). Brooks's Grey-headed Flycatcher-Warbler.

Abrornis xanthoschistos (Hodgs.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 202; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 572.

This Warbler breeds, according to Mr. Hodgson's notes, both in Nepal and Sikhim up to an elevation of 6000 or 7000 feet. They lay in May three or four pure white eggs. They make their nest on the ground in thick bushes, or in holes in banks, or under roots of trees. The nest is a large mass of moss and dry leaves, somewhat egg-shaped, with the entrance at one end, some 6 inches in length, 4 inches in breadth, and 3·5 in height externally, and with an oval entrance about 1·5 high and 2·25 wide. Inside it is carefully lined with moss-roots. Both sexes assist in hatching and rearing the young, which are ready to fly in July.

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie says:--"I found one nest of this species at Rishap, at an elevation of 5000 feet, on the 20th May. The nest was in thin forest, near its outer edge, and placed on the ground beside a small stem. It was domed, and composed entirely of moss, with the exception of a few fibres in the hood or dome portion, and was lined with thistle-down. The exterior diameter was 3·3, the height 3·2: the cavity was 1·6 in diameter, and only an inch in depth below the lower margin of the entrance, which was the rim of the true cup, over which the hood was drawn. The nest contained four fresh eggs."

Several nests of this species that have been sent me from Sikhim were all of the same type--beautiful little cups, some placed on the ground, some amongst the twigs of brushwood a little above the ground, composed entirely of fine moss and a little fern-root, and with the interior of the cavity not indeed regularly lined but dotted about with tufts of silky seed-down.

The eggs are very similar to but smaller than those of the preceding species--very broad ovals, a good deal pointed towards one end, pure white, and faintly glossy. In length they vary from 0·53 to 0·58, and in breadth from 0·45 to 0·49.

436. Cryptolopha poliogenys (Blyth). The Grey-cheeked Flycatcher-Warbler.

Abrornis poliogenys (Blyth), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 203.

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"A nest of the Grey-cheeked Flycatcher-Warbler, taken on the 8th May in large forest at 6000 feet, contained three hard-set eggs. It was suspended to a snag among the moss growing on the stem of a small tree at five feet up. The moss supported it more than did the snag. It is a solid cup-shaped structure, made of green moss and lined with very fine roots. Externally it measures 3½ inches across and 2¼ deep; internally 2 inches wide and 1¾ deep."

The eggs of this species, like those of C. xanthoschista and C. jerdoni, are pure white. They are not, I think, separable from the eggs of these two species. Those sent me by Mr. Gammie measure 0·66 and 0·67 in length by 0·5 in breadth.

437. Cryptolopha castaneiceps (Hodgs.). The Chestnut-headed Flycatcher-Warbler.

Abrornis castaneiceps, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 205; Hume. Rough Draft N. & E. no. 578.

According to Mr. Hodgson's notes and figures, the Chestnut-headed Flycatcher-Warbler breeds in the central hill-region of Nepal from April to June, laying three or four eggs, which are neither figured nor described. The nest itself is a beautiful structure of mosses, lichens, moss- and fern-roots, and fine stems worked into the shape of a large egg, measuring 6 and 4 inches along the longer and shorter diameters; it is placed on the ground in the midst of a clump of ferns or thick grass, with the longer diameter perpendicular to the ground. The aperture, which is about halfway between the middle and the top of the nest, and on one side, is oval, about 2 inches in width and 1·75 in height. Both sexes are said to assist in hatching and rearing the young.

438. Cryptolopha cantator (Tick.). Tickell's Flycatcher-Warbler.

Culicipeta cantator (Tick.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 200. Abrornis cantator (Tick.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 570.

A nest containing a single egg has been sent me as that of Tickell's Flycatcher-Warbler. It was found in May in Native Sikhim, at an elevation, it is said, of 12,000 feet. It was suspended to the tip of a branch of a tree at a height of about 8 feet from the ground. The nest is a most lovely one; but I confess that I have doubts as to its really belonging to this species.

The nest is, for the size of the bird, a large watch-pocket, some 6 inches in total length and 3·5 in breadth, composed entirely of white, satiny seed-down, densely felted together to the thickness of half an inch. The lower part, sides, and back very thinly, and the upper portion and the margin of the mouth of the pocket thickly, coated with excessively fine green moss and very fine soft vegetable fibre.

My sole reason for doubting the authenticity of the nest is that another precisely similar one was sent me by another collector, a European, as belonging to an Aethopyga, together with the female which he shot off the nest.

The present nest contained a pure white egg; the other spotted eggs. Both collectors I have no doubt were fully assured of the correctness of their identification, and it may be that both species of birds construct similar nests; but I entertain considerable doubts on this subject, and think it right to note the fact.

The egg is a very broad oval, pure white, and very glossy, and measures 0·6 by 0·49.

Mr. Mandelli sends me a lovely nest, which he says belongs to this species. It was found in May in Native Sikhim, at about 12,000 feet elevation. It was suspended from the tiny branch of a tree at a height of about 8 feet from the ground. The nest is a perfect watch-pocket, composed entirely of white silky down belonging to one of the bombaxes, thinly coated here and there with strings of moss to keep it together, and more thickly so with this and vegetable fibre at and about the point of suspension and round the rim of the mouth of the pocket. The nest is altogether about. 6 inches long and about 3 inches in diameter at its broadest; the lower edge of the aperture into the pocket is 2 inches from the bottom of the nest, and the aperture is about 2 inches wide. It is altogether one of the loveliest nests I have ever seen: but I cannot feel certain that the nest really belongs to this species; for I have had a precisely similar nest, also found in Sikhim, on the 20th May, similarly suspended at a height of about 5 feet from the ground, sent me as belonging to another species of Abrornis; and though Mr. Mandelli is usually right, I think the matter requires further confirmation.

440. Abrornis superciliaris, Tick. The Yellow-bellied Flycatcher-Warbler.

Abrornis flaviventris, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 203.