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 close observation I can certify that this and many other small
birds do not here sit during the daytime. I scarcely ever found a
_Cisticola_ on the nest between sunrise and sunset,"
Colonel E.A. Butler writing from Deesa says:--"The Rufous
Fantail-Warbler breeds in the plains during the monsoon, making a long
bottle-shaped nest of silky-white vegetable down, with an entrance at
the top, in a tuft of coarse grass a few inches from the ground. I
have taken nests on the following dates:--
"July 29, 1875. A nest containing 4 fresh eggs.
Aug. 1, 1876. " " 5 fresh eggs.
Aug. 5, 1876. " " 4 fresh eggs.
Aug. 5, 1876. " " 3 fresh eggs.
Aug. 5, 1876. " " 4 fresh eggs.
Aug. 5, 1876. " " 5 fresh eggs.
Aug. 7, 1876. " " 5 fresh eggs.
Aug. 8, 1876. " " 4 fresh eggs."
And he adds the following note:--"Belgaum, 22nd July, 1879. Four fresh
eggs. Same locality, numerous other nests in August and September."
Major C.T. Bingham notes:--"I have not yet observed this bird at
Delhi. At Allahabad I procured one nest in the beginning of March,
shooting the birds. The nest was made of very fine dry grass, and
contained four small white eggs, speckled thickly with minute points
of brick-red. The average of the four eggs is 0·60 by 0·41 inch."
Mr. Cripps informs us that in Eastern Bengal this bird is very common
and a permanent resident. Eggs are found from the beginning of May to
the end of June, in grass-jungle almost on the ground. The nest is a
deep cup, externally of fine grasses, internally of the downy tops of
the sun-grass.
In the Deccan, Messrs. Davidson and Wenden state that it is "common in
all grass-lands. It breeds in the rainy season."
Mr. Oates, writing on the breeding of this bird in Pegu, says:--"The
majority of birds begin laying at the commencement of June, and
probably nests may be found throughout the rains. I procured a nest
on the 2nd of November, a very late date I imagine. It contained four
eggs."
I have taken the eggs of this bird myself on many occasions. I have
had them sent me with the nest and bird by Mr. Brooks from Etawah, and
Mr. F.R. Blewitt from Jhansi. From first to last I have seen fully
fifty authentic eggs of this species. All were of one and the same
type, and that type widely different from any one of those that Dr.
Bree, following European ornithologists, figures. Dr. Bree's three
figures all represent a perfectly spotless egg--one pink, the other
bluish white, and the third a pretty dark bluish green. Our eggs, on
the contrary, are _spotted_; the ground is white with, when fresh and
unblown, a delicate pink hue, due not to the shell itself, but to its
contents, which partially show through it. Occasionally the white
ground has a _faint_ greenish tinge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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