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
"April 29, 1876. A nest containing 3 fresh eggs.
"May 16, 1876. " " 3 fresh eggs.
"May 21, 1876. " " 2 fresh eggs.
"Nov. 15, 1876. " " 4 young birds.
"I found numerous nests from the middle of July to the beginning of
September. On the 26th July, 1876, I saw upwards of a dozen nests,
some containing fresh eggs, and others incubated. In many instances
they contained eggs of _Coccystes jacobinus_. The nest is usually
placed 3 or 4 feet from the ground in low thorny bashes (_Zizyphus
jujuba_ preferred) or in a tussock of sarpat grass. It is built of
twigs, roots, grass, &c., loosely put together exteriorly but closely
woven interiorly, the lining being composed of fine roots and
grass-stems. The eggs vary in number from three to five."
Lieut. H.E. Barnes, writing of Rajputana, says:--"The Striated
Bush-Babbler breeds from March to July. The nest is usually placed in
a low thorny bush, and is composed of grass-roots and stems; it is
deep cup-shaped, neatly and compactly built."
The eggs are typically of a moderately elongated oval shape, slightly
compressed towards one end, but more or less spherical and pyriform
varieties occur; and I have one specimen, a very long pointed egg,
which, so far as size and shape go, might pass for an egg of _Cypselus
affinis_; and though this is a peculiarly abnormal shape, I have
others which somewhat approach it in form. The eggs are glossy, often
brilliantly so, and of a delicate, pure, spotless, somewhat pale blue.
The shade of colour in this egg varies very little, and I have never
met with either the very pale or very dark varieties common amongst
the eggs of _C. canorus_ and occasionally found amongst those of _A.
malcolmi_. In colour, size, and shape they are not very unlike those
of our English Hedge-Sparrow, whose early eggs formed the prize of our
first boyish nesting-expeditions, but they are slightly larger and
typically somewhat more elongated.
In length they vary from 0·75 to 0·92, and in breadth from 0·6 to 0·7;
but the average of one hundred and fifteen eggs measured was 0·82 by
0·64.
107. Argya malcolmi (Sykes). _The Large Grey Babbler_.
Malacocercus malcolmi (_Sykes_), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 64.
Argya malcolmi (_Sykes_), _Hume_, _Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 436.
The Large Grey Babbler breeds throughout the central portions of both
the Peninsula and Continent of India from the Nilghiris to the Dhoon.
It does not extend westwards to Sindh or the North-West Punjab, or
eastwards far into Bengal Proper. In the Central and North-West
Provinces it lays from early in March well into September, having at
least two and, as I believe, often three broods.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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