Part 78

Writing from Tenasserim, Major T.C. Bingham says:--

"I have shot this bird on the Zammee choung, where I got a nest with eggs; and I have more than once seen it in the Thoungyeen forests.

"The following is an account of the nest I found, recorded in my note-book:--

"Khasat village--Khasat choung, Zammee river, 9th March, 1878.--My camp to-day was pitched in the midst of a dense bamboo-break, close to a path leading to the village.

"About ten feet from my tent on this path, passers-by had cut one of the bamboos in a clump and left it leaning up against the clump; between two knots of this a rough hack had broken an irregular hole into a joint.

"Sitting outside my tent and looking carelessly about, my attention was attracted by what I took to be a leaf flutter down close to the above-mentioned bamboo, and to my surprise disappear before it reached the ground. Wondering at this, I got up and approached the place, when from the aforementioned hole in the bamboo out darted a little bird; and looking in I saw a neat little nest of fibres placed on the lower knot with three eggs, white densely speckled, chiefly in a ring at the larger end, with pinkish claret spots.

"I went back to my tent, watched the bird return, and shot her as on being frightened off she flew out a second time. It proved to be the above species.

"I took the nest and eggs. The latter, I regret to say, were lost subsequently through the carelessness of a servant, but I had luckily measured and taken a description of them.

"Their dimensions were respectively 0·57 x 0·42, 0·59 x 0·42, and 0·59 x 0·44."

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"I took a nest of this Warbler on the 15th June at 1800 feet elevation. It was inside a bamboo-stem near the banks of the Ryeng stream. Just under a node some one had cut out a notch, which the birds made their entrance. The nest rested on the node below and fitted the hollow of the bamboo. It was made of dry bamboo-leaves, and lined with soft, fibrous material. It measured 5 inches deep and 3 inches wide, with an egg cavity of 2 inches in depth, by 1¾ inch in width. The eggs, which were hard-set, were but three in number."

The eggs are rather long ovals, the shell fine but with very little gloss; the ground-colour is a dull white or pinky white, and it is thickly freckled and mottled about the large end and thinly elsewhere with red, in some cases slightly browner, in others purple. The markings have a tendency to form a cap or zone about the large end, and here, where the markings are densest, some little lilac or purplish-grey spots and clouds are intermingled.

An egg measures 0·61 by 0·43.

441. Abrornis schisticeps (Hodgs.). The Black-faced Flycatcher-Warbler.

Abrornis schisticeps, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 201; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 571.

Captain Hutton tells us that the Black-faced Flycatcher-Warbler is "a common species in the neighbourhood of Mussoorie, at 5000 feet, and commences building in March. A pair of these birds selected a thick China rose-bush trained against the side of the house, and had completed the nest and laid one egg when a rat destroyed it. I subsequently took two other nests in May, both placed on the ground in holes in the side of a bank by the roadside. In form the nest is a ball, with a round lateral entrance, and is composed externally of dried grasses and green moss, lined with bits of wool, cotton, feathers, thread, and hair. The eggs are three in number."

Two eggs of this species, sent to me by Captain Hutton, are very perfect ovals, pure white, and rather glossy.

They both measure 0·62 by 0·48.

From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"The only nest I ever found of this Warbler was in a natural hole in a small tree in an open part of a large forest, at 5500 feet above the sea. In a cleft, five feet from ground, where a limb had been lopped off, there was a small hole, barely large enough, at entrance to admit the bird, but gradually widening out for the seven or eight inches of its depth. In the bottom of this cavity was a loose lining of dry bamboo-leaves, on which lay five eggs. They do not agree with those taken by Captain Hutton, which were 'pure white,' but I am absolutely certain of the authenticity of the eggs taken by me. They were well-set, so five is probably the full complement. They were taken on the 26th May."

The eggs sent by Mr. Gammie, for the authenticity of which he vouches, are moderately broad ovals, somewhat compressed and pyriform towards the small end. They have but little gloss, and are of the same type as A. superciliaris and A. albigularis. The ground is a dull pinkish white, and they are profusely mottled and streaked with red, which in some eggs is brownish, in some purplish. The markings are densest at the large end, where they have a tendency to form an irregular zone, which in some specimens is very conspicuous.

These eggs vary from 0·56 to 0·57 in length, and from 0·41 to 0·42 in breadth.

442. Abrornis albigularis, Hodgs. The White-throated Flycatcher-Warbler.

Abrornis albigularis, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 204.

A nest of this species found in Native Sikhim, below Namtchu, on the 28th July, is a regular Tailor-bird's nest, absolutely undistinguishable from the one also sent me by Mr. Mandelli as belonging to Orthotomus atrigularis, so that for the moment I have some doubts as to the authenticity of this nest. Two leaves, precisely of the same species as those made use of by the Tailor-bird in question, have been sewn together with the same bright yellow silk, and the little deep cup-shaped nest within is composed exactly of the same excessively fine grass. Another nest, also said to belong to this species, but of a very different character, has been sent me by Mr. Mandelli. This was found at Yendong, in Native Sikhim, on the 6th July, and contained four fresh eggs precisely of the type of those of A. schisticeps. The nest was placed in the cavity of a truncated bamboo about 4 feet from the ground, and was a loose cup, the basal portion composed of dry bamboo-leaves, and the rest of the nest being made of excessively fine grass, flower-stems, similar to those used in the Tailor-bird-like nest above described, but with a quantity of feathers mingled with this in the lining of the nest.

The eggs of this species are of precisely the same type as those of A. schisticeps and A. superciliaris, but they are the smallest of all. They are little regular oval eggs, with a white, greyish, or pinky white ground, with deep red freckled and mottled markings, which are densely set about the large end, where they generally form a cap or zone, and usually much less dense elsewhere.

The eggs sent me measured 0·55 and 0·57 by 0·43.

445. Scotocerca inquieta (Cretzschm.). The Streaked Scrub-Warbler.

Scotocerca inquieta (Rüpp.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 550 bis.

The Streaked Scrub-Warbler is a permanent resident of the bare stony hills which, under many names and broken into multitudinous ranges, run down from the Khyber Pass to the sea, dividing the Punjab and Sind from Afghanistan and Khelat.