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
From. Sikhim, Mr. Gammie writes:--"I have taken but one nest of this
Drongo. It was suspended between two small horizontal forking branches
of a tall tree, some 20 feet from ground. It is a neat, saucer-shaped
structure, somewhat triangular, to fit well up to the fork, built of
fibry roots, and firmly bound to the branches by spiders' webs. The
sides and bottom are strong, but so thin that they can everywhere be
seen through. Externally it measures 4.5 inches across by 1·9 in
height; internally 3·5 by 1·3. It was taken on the 15th May at 2500
feet, and contained three partially incubated eggs."
A nest of this species taken by Mr. Gammie at Rishap (elevation 4800)
in Sikhim, on the 20th May, is a very broad shallow saucer, composed
almost entirely of moderately fine dark brown roots, but with a few
slender herbaceous twigs intermingled. It is suspended in the fork
of two widely diverging twigs, to which either margin is attached,
chiefly by cobwebs, though on one side at one place part of the
substance of the nest is wound round the twig: the cavity, which is
not lined, is oval, and measures 3·5 inches by 2·75, by barely 0·75 in
depth. The female seated on the nest had long tail-feathers, so this
species does not drop these for convenience in incubating.
Several nests of this species obtained in Sikhim by Messrs. Gammie,
Mandelli, &c. are all precisely similar--broad saucers, suspended
Oriole-like between the fork of a small branch. Exteriorly composed of
moderately fine brown roots, more or less bound together, especially
those portions of them that are bound round the twigs of the fork with
cobwebs, and lined interiorly with fine black horsehair-like roots.
They seem to be always right up in the angle of the fork, whereas in
_Chaptia_ they are often some inches down the fork, and consequently
the cavity is triangular on the one side, and semicircular on the
other. The cavities measure from 3 to nearly 4 inches in their
greatest diameters, and vary from 1 to 1½ inch in depth; though strong
and firm, and fully ¼ of an inch thick at bottom, the materials are so
put together that, held up against the light, they look like a fine
network.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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