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
The eggs are typically somewhat elongated ovals, a good deal pointed
towards the small end. They vary extraordinarily in colour and
character, as well as extent of markings, but, as remarked when
speaking of the Raven, all the eggs out of the same nest closely
resemble each other, while the eggs of different nests are almost
invariably markedly distinct. There are, however, two leading
types--the one in which the markings are bright red, brownish red, or
pale pinkish purple; and the other in which they are olive-brown and
pale purplish brown. In the first type the ground-colour is either
pale salmon, or else very pale greenish white, and the markings are
either bold blotches, more or less confluent at the large end, where
they are far most numerous, and only a few specks and spots towards
the smaller end, or they are spots and small blotches thickly
distributed over the whole surface, or they are streaky smudges
forming a mottled ill-defined cap at the large end, and running down
thence in streaks and spots longitudinally; in the other type the
ground-colour is greenish white or pale yellowish stone-colour, and
the character of the markings varies as in the preceding type. Besides
these there are a few eggs with a dingy greyish-white ground, with
very faint, cloudy, ill-defined spots of pale yellowish brown pretty
uniformly distributed over the whole surface. In nine eggs out of
ten, the markings are most dense at the large end, where they form
irregular, more or less imperfect caps or zones. A few of the eggs are
slightly glossy.
Of the salmon-pink type some specimens in their coloration resemble
eggs of _Dicrurus longicaudatus_ and some of our Goatsuckers, while of
those with the greenish-white ground-colour some strongly recall the
eggs of _Lanius lahtora_.
In length the eggs vary from 1·0 to 1·3, and in breadth from 0·78 to
0·95; but the average of forty-four eggs is 1·17 by 0·87.
17. Dendrocitta leucogastra, Gould. _The Southern Tree-pie_.
Dendrocitta leucogastra, _Gould, Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 317; _Hume,
Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 678.
From Travancore Mr. Bourdillon has kindly sent me an egg and the
following note on the nidification of the Southern Tree-pie:--
"Three eggs, very hard-set, of an ashy-white colour, marked with ashy
and greenish-brown blotches, 1·12 long and 0·87 broad, were taken on
9th March, 1873, from a nest in a bush 8 or 10 feet from the ground.
The nest of twigs was built after the style of the English Magpie's
nest, minus the dome. It consisted of a large platform 6 inches deep
and 8 or 10 inches broad, supporting a nest 1½ inch deep and 3½ inches
broad. The bird is not at all uncommon on the Assamboo Hills between
the elevations of 1500 and 3000 feet above the sea, seeming to prefer
the smaller jungle and more open parts of the heavy forest."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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