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
Mr. Brooks tells us that _P. humii_ "is very abundant in Cashmere, and
I believe in all hills immediately below the snows. It would be
vain to look for this bird at elevations below 8000 feet, or at any
distance from the snows. It was common even in the birch woods above
the upper line of pines. I found many nests. It builds a globular nest
of coarse grass on a bank side, always on the ground, and never up a
tree. The nest is lined with hair in greater or lesser quantities.
The eggs, four or five in number, average ·56 by ·44, are pure white,
profusely spotted with red, and sometimes have also a few spots of
purplish grey. On the 15th June I found a nest with four young ones on
the south side of the Pir-Pinjal Pass. This bird has no song, only a
double chirp in addition to its callnote. The double chirp, which
is very loud, is intended for a song, for the male bird incessantly
repeats it as he feeds from tree to tree near where the female is
sitting upon her nest."
Nests of this species obtained in Cashmere towards the end of May
and during June near Goolmerg, and brought me by Mr. Brooks, were
certainly by no means worthy of this pretty little Warbler. They are
very loosely made, more or less straggling cups of somewhat coarse
grass, only slightly lined interiorly with fine moss-roots. The
egg-cavity is very small compared with the size of the nest, some of
which, look like balls of grass with a small hole in the centre. They
average from 4 to 5 inches in external diameter, and from 2 to 3
inches in height. The egg cavity does not exceed 2 inches in diameter,
and seems often to be less, and is from an inch to half an inch in
depth.
From Cashmere, when in the thick of the nests of this species, Mr.
Brooks wrote to me as follows:--
"From Goolmerg, which is at the foot of a snowy range, I went up to
the foot of the snows through pine-forests. The pines ceased near the
snow and were replaced by birch wood on tremendously rocky ground,
which bothered me greatly to get over. I had missed _P. humii_ after
leaving the foot of the hill, where water was plentiful, but here
again the bird became abundant. I could not, however, find a nest
here, though I watched several pairs. I think in the cooler country
they breed later. Flowers which had gone out of bloom below I again
met with up here in full flower.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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