The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1Hume, Allan Octavian
Philosophy
The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1
Hume, Allan Octavian
Birds -- India; Birds -- Nests
Colonel Legge writes:--"In April 1873 I received from a friend in
Ceylon three eggs of this bird; but I was unable to identify them
until lately, when I had an opportunity of comparing them with a
clutch taken last year in the Western Province, and about which there
was no doubt. In the latter case the nest was fixed on the top of a
small stump, and was a loose structure of grass and bents; in
shape rather a deep cup; and contained two eggs of a reddish-white
ground-colour, profusely speckled with reddish brown (in one example
confluent round the obtuse end, in the other distributed over the
whole surface) over freckles of bluish grey. Dimensions: 0·79 by 0·58,
0·78 by 0·57. The other nest was made of grass on a foundation of
dry leaves and herbaceous stalks, loosely lined with fine hair-like
tendrils of creepers. The eggs were of a reddish-white ground, thickly
covered throughout with brownish-red and dusky red spots, becoming
somewhat confluent round the obtuse end. In form they are regular
ovals, and measure 0·78 by 0·6, 0·79 by 0·58."
305. Pycnonotus luteolus (Less.). _The White-browed Bulbul_.
Ixos luteolus (_Less.) Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 84; _Hume, Rough Draft N.
& E._ no. 452.
Common as is the White-browed Bulbul in Midnapoor, throughout the
Tributary Mehals, along the Eastern Ghâts, and again, it appears, in
Bombay, only two of my correspondents appear as yet to have procured
the nest or eggs.
Mr. Benjamin Aitken, writing from Bombay under date the 11th June,
says:--"I now send you a nest of _Pycnonotus luteolus_ with two eggs.
I took it this morning from, a thickly foliaged tree in a garden. It
was placed on the top of the main stem of the tree, which had been
abruptly cut off about 5 feet from the ground, where the stem was
about 3 inches thick. The nest was begun this day week, Thursday, and
the first egg was laid the day before yesterday (Tuesday). The bird is
a very common one in gardens in Bombay, though I never saw it in Berar
nor even in Poona. They build in situations similar to, but perhaps
rather more sheltered than, those chosen by the Common Bulbul; but I
remember finding one nest placed at a height of only 2 feet from the
ground.
"This present nest was begun, as already mentioned, last Thursday,
just two days after the first severe thunder-shower preliminary to the
monsoon, now fairly on us.
"I draw your attention to the manner in which the nest has been tied
at _one_ place to a twig to prevent its being blown off its very
(apparently) insecure site. I was obliged to take the nest, as I was
leaving at once, otherwise one or perhaps two more eggs would have
been laid."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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