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
"17th May, 1879. Nest with three fresh eggs, attached to a fork in one
of the outer brandies of an otinga (_Dillenia pentagyna_) tree, and
about 15 feet off the ground.
"15th May, 1880. Three fresh eggs in a nest 20 feet off the ground,
and a few yards from my bungalow, in an oorian (_Bischoffia javanica_,
Bl.).
"5th June, 1880. Nest with three partly-incubated eggs, in one of the
outer branches of a jack (_Artocarpus integrifolia_) tree, and about
15 feet off the ground.
"27th May, 1881. Three fresh eggs in a nest on a soom (_Machilus
odoratissima_) tree at the edge of the forest bordering the tea. The
nests are deep saucers, 3½ inches in diameter, internally 1½ deep,
with the sides about ¼ thick; but the bottom is so flimsy that the
eggs are easily seen from below, the materials being grass, roots, and
fine tendrils of creepers, especially if these are thorny, when they
are used as a lining. The nest is always situated in the fork of a
branch."
The nests are large, shallow, King-Crow-like structures, often
suspended between forks, sometimes placed between four or five upright
shoots, at times resting on a horizontal bough against and attached to
some more or less upright shoots. They are composed mainly of roots
thinly but firmly twisted together, have sometimes a good deal of
cobweb twisted round their outer surface, often a good deal of
vegetable fibre used for the same purpose and, though they have no
lining, are always composed interiorly of finer material than that
used for the outer portion of the structure. Exteriorly the diameter
varies from 6 to nearly 7 inches, the height from nearly 2 to 2½; the
cavity is usually about 4 inches in diameter and 1·5 to 1·75 in depth.
I have taken the nests in May and June alike in small and large trees,
at elevations of from 10 to 30 feet from the ground.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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