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
Writing from Wau, in the Pegu District, Mr. Oates remarks:--"I found
a nest on the 19th May containing four eggs recently laid. The female
flew off only at the last moment, when my pony was about to tread on
the tuft of grass she had selected for her home.
"The nest was placed in a small but very dense grass-tuft about a
foot above the ground. It was made entirely of coarse grasses, and
assimilated well with the dry and entangled stems among which it lay.
The nest was very deep and purse-shaped. It was about 8 inches in
total height at the back, and some 2 inches lower in front, the upper
part of the purse being as it were cut off slantingly, and thus
leaving an entrance which was more or less circular. The width is 6½
inches, and the breadth from front to back 4 inches. The interior is
smooth, lined with somewhat finer grass, and measures 4 inches in
depth by 3 inches from side to side, and by 2 inches from front to
back.
"_Megalurus palustris_ is very common throughout the large plains
lying between the Pegu and Sittang Rivers. At the end of May they were
all breeding. The nest is, however, difficult to find, owing to the
vast extent of favourable ground suited to its habits. Every yard of
the land produces a clump of grass likely enough to hold a nest, and
as the female sits still till the nest is actually touched, it becomes
a difficult and laborious task to find the nest."
He subsequently remarks:--"May seems to be the month in which these
birds lay here. The nest is very often placed on the ground under the
shelter of some grass-tuft."
Mr. Cockburn writes to me:--"I found a nest of this bird on the north
bank of the Bramaputra, near Sadija. One of the birds darted off the
nest a foot or two from me in an excited way, which led me to search.
The nest was almost a perfect oval, with a slice taken off at the top
on one side, built in a clump of grass, and only 9 or 10 inches from
the ground. It was made of sarpat-grass, and lined internally with
finer grasses. The grass had a bleached and washed-out appearance,
while the clump was quite green. This was on the 29th May. I noticed
at the same time that the nest was not interwoven with the living
grass. I removed it easily with the hand."
Mr. Cripps says:--"They breed in April and May in the Dibrugarh
district, placing their deep cup-shaped nests in tussocks of grass
wherever it is swampy, in some instances the bottoms of the nests
being wet. Four seems to be the greatest number of eggs in a nest."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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