Part 85

In length the eggs vary from 0·6 to 0·68, and in breadth from 0·45 to 0·5; but the average of seventy eggs measured is 0·62 by 0·46.

465. Prinia sylvatica, Jerd. The Jungle Wren-Warbler.

Drymoipus sylvaticus, Jerd. B. Ind ii, p. 181; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 545. Drymoipus neglectus, Jerd. R. Ind. ii, p. 182; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 546.

Dr. Jerdon says:--"I found the nest in low jungle near Nellore, made chiefly of grass, with a few roots and fibres, globular, large, with a hole at one side near the top, and the eggs white, spotted very thickly with rusty red, especially at the thick end."

Mr. Blewitt appears to have taken many eggs of this species in the Raipoor District, and he has sent me the following notes, together with numerous eggs. He says:--

"The Jungle Wren-Warbler breeds in the Raipoor District from about the middle of June to the middle of August. Low thorn-bushes on rocky ground are chiefly selected for the nest, and both parent birds assist in building it and in hatching and rearing the young. A new nest is made each year, and four is the maximum number of eggs.

"On the 1st July this year I found a nest of this species in the centre of a low thorny bush, growing in rocky ground, about two miles north of Doongurgurh in the Raipoor District.

"The nest was about 4 feet from the ground, firmly attached to and supported by the branches. It was of a deep cup shape, 3·6 in diameter and 4·9 in height, composed of coarser and finer grasses firmly interwoven, and contained four fresh eggs. In the same locality we secured a second similarly situated nest, about 2½ feet from the ground, and it contained a single fresh egg. It was rather more neatly and massively made than the former. It was about 4 inches in diameter and 5 inches in height, and the egg-cavity was nearly 3 inches deep. The lining is of fine grass-stalks well interwoven. The exterior is composed of coarse grass mixed with a little greyish-white fibre.

"Subsequently several other similar and similarly situated nests were found."

Colonel E.A. Butler writes:--"The Jungle Wren-Warbler breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa in the months of July, August, and September. The following are the dates upon which I found nests this year (1876):--

"July 28. A nest containing 4 young birds. " 29. " 5 fresh eggs. Aug. 1. " 4 " " 5. " 5 " Aug. 13. " 5 " " 16. " 4 young birds fledged. " 17. " 5 " " " " 3 " " 19. " 4 " " " " 5 " " 30. " 5 " Sept. 3. " 5 "

"In addition to the above, I found nests in the same neighbourhood in 1875. One on the 14th August containing four young birds almost ready to leave the nest. It was placed in the middle of a tussock of coarse grass on the side of a nullah on a bank overgrown with grass and bushes, and my attention was attracted first of all to the spot by the incessant chattering and uneasiness of the two old birds, one of which had a large grasshopper in its mouth. After hiding behind a bush for a few minutes, I saw the hen bird fly to the nest, which led to its discovery. The nest was dome-shaped, with an entrance upon one side, composed exteriorly of blades of rather coarse dry grass (green, however, as a rule when the nest is first built), and interiorly of similar, but finer, material. It is an easy nest to find when once the locality in which the birds breed is discovered, as it is a conspicuous ball of grass, smeared over, often more or less, exteriorly with a silky white vegetable-down or cobweb, and many of the blades of the tussock in which it is placed are often drawn down and woven into the nest, which at once attracts attention. Then, again, the cock bird is almost always to be found on the top of some low tree near the nest, uttering his peculiar ventriloquistic note 'tissip, tissip, tissip,' etc. All the above nests were exactly alike and in similar situations, viz. fixed in the centre of a tussock of coarse grass on the banks of some deep nullahs running through a large grass 'Beerh.' The eggs remind me more of the English Robin's eggs than those of any other species I know. The ground-colour is dull white, sometimes tinted with pale green, and the markings reddish fawn. In some cases the eggs are peppered all over with a conspicuous zone at the large end, sometimes a dense cap instead of a zone. In other cases the markings, though always present, are almost invisible, as also the zone or cap. They are about the size of the eggs of the Spotted Flycatcher. I found a few other nests besides those I have mentioned during July and August 1875."

Captain Cock informed me that this species is "common in the jungles around Seetapore. Nest is largish, dome-shaped, and placed low down in a thorny bush. The bird lays in August five eggs, the fac-simile of the eggs of Pratincola ferrea, perhaps of a more elongated type than the eggs of that bird."

Mr. H. Parker, writing on the birds of North-west Ceylon, refers to this bird under the titles D. jerdoni and D. valida, and informs us that it breeds from January to May.

The eggs of this species are somewhat elongated ovals. The ground-colour is a greenish or greyish stone-colour, and they are finely and often rather sparsely freckled all over with very faint reddish brown, or brownish pink in most eggs; these frecklings are gathered together into a more or less dense zone round the large end, forming a conspicuous ring there much darker-coloured than the frecklings over the rest of the surface. The eggs have a faint gloss.

In length they vary from 0·68 to 0·75, and in breadth from 0·49 to 0·52, but the average appears to be 0·7 by 0·5.

466. Prinia inornata, Sykes. The Indian Wren-Warbler.

Drymoipus inornatus (Sykes), Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 178; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 543. Drymoipus longicaudatus (Tick.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 180. Drymoipus terricolor, Hume; Hume, Rough Draft N, & E. no. 543 bis.

The breeding-season of this Wren-Warbler commences with the first fall of rain, and lasts through July and August to quite the middle of September.

The birds construct a very elegant nest, always closely and compactly woven, of very fine blades, or strips of blades, of grass, in no nests exceeding one-twentieth of an inch in width, and in many of not above half this breadth. The grass is always used when fresh and green, so as to be easily woven in and out. Both parents work at the nest, clinging at first to the neighbouring stems of grass or twigs, and later to the nest itself, while they push the ends of the grass backwards and forwards in and out; in fact, they work very much like the Baya (P. baya), and the nest, though much smaller, is in texture very like that of this latter species, the great difference being that the Baya, with us, more often uses stems, and Prinia strips of blades of grass. The nest varies in shape and in size, according to its situation: a very favourite locality is in amongst clumps of the sarpatta, or serpent-grass, in which case the bird builds a long and purse-like nest, attached above and all round to the surrounding grass-stems, with a small entrance near the top. Such nests are often 8 or 9 inches in length, and 3 inches or even more in external diameter, and with an internal cavity measuring 1½ inch in diameter, and having a depth of nearly 4 inches below the lower margin of the entrance-hole. At other times they are hung between bare twigs, often of some thorny bush, or are even placed in low herbaceous plants; in these cases they are usually nearly globular, with the entrance-hole near the top; they are then probably 3½ inches in external diameter in every direction. In other cases they are hung to or between two or more leaves to which the birds attach the nest, much as a Tailor-bird would do, using, however, fine grass instead of cobwebs or cotton-wool for ligaments. I have never found more than five eggs in any nest, and four is certainly the normal number.

Mr. R.M. Adam remarks:--"I had a nest brought me in Oudh on the 17th April, containing four eggs. About Agra and Muttra, where as you know the birds are very common, I have always obtained the greatest number of eggs during August; four is the regular number; in one taken on the 16th August I found five eggs."

Mr. W. Blewitt writes:--"During July, August, and the early part of September I found multitudes of nests of this species in the neighbourhood of Hausie, almost exclusively in the Dhasapoor, Dhana, and Secundapoor Beerhs or jungle-preserves.

"The nests, of which numerous specimens were sent to you, were of the usual type, and were nearly all found in ber (Z. jujuba) and hinse (Capparis aphylla) bushes, at heights of from 3 to 4 feet from the ground. I did not meet with more than four eggs in any one nest."

Colonel E.A. Butler says:--"The Indian Wren-Warbler is very common in the plains, frequenting low scrub-jungle and long grass studied with low bushes (Calotropis, Zizyphus, &c.). It breeds during the monsoon, commencing to build in July, during which month and August in the neighbourhood of Deesa I must have examined some three or four dozen nests. There are two distinct types of nests, and there may be two species of this genus in this part of the country; but I must confess that after shooting a large number of specimens of both sexes, and after examining an immense series of the eggs, I have failed to make out more than one species, and that Mr. Hume informs me is his Drymoipus terricolor. The nests alluded to vary as follows:--One type is very closely and compactly woven, as described of D. terricolor ('Nests and Eggs, Rough Draft,' p. 349), with the entrance almost at the top. The other type is built of the same material, with the exception that the grass is rather coarser, but is more in shape like a Wren's nest, and the grass is somewhat loosely put together instead of being woven, and it has the entrance with a slight canopy over it upon one side. The eggs four, and not uncommonly five, in number, were exactly alike in both types, as also were the specimens of the birds themselves that I obtained.

"Nearly all the nests I have seen have been built on the outside of ber bushes (Z. jujuba), at heights varying from 2½ to 5 feet from the ground."

Mr. B. Aitken says:--"I found this nest at Bombay on the 13th October, 1873, at the edge of a tank some 2 feet above the ground. I have found four or five precisely similar ones before, generally in similar situations. The nest was strongly attached to the stems and leaves of four herbaceous plants growing close together. In many cases the strips of grass had been passed through and pierced the leaves. The nest is deep and purse-shaped; the sides were prolonged upwards, except in front where the entrance was, and joined above so as to form a canopy. The nest has no lining, and none of the nests of this species that I ever saw have ever had any lining. The whole nest inside and out is composed of fine strips of blades of grass interwoven. The eggs, five in number, varied much in size. In colour they were bright blue, most irregularly blotched with various shades of purplish brown: some of the blotches very large, some mere specks. Each egg had also washed-out stains or blotches. The smaller eggs were by far the brighter.

"By reason of the roof and walls the entrance to the nest was at one side, but there was nothing that could be called a hole. The roof projected over the entrance, forming a porch.

"Six or eight nests which I have seen of this species were all over water. But the birds are by no means confined to marshy localities.