The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 — John Shaqi
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 were broad ovals, somewhat compressed towards one end, and
of the regular Corvine type--a pretty pale green ground, blotched,
smeared, streaked, spotted, and clouded, nowhere very profusely but
most densely about the large end, with a greenish or olive-brown and
pale sepia. The brown is a brighter and greener, or duller and more
olive, lighter or darker, in different eggs, and even in different
parts of the same egg. The shell is fine and close, but has only a
faint gloss.
The eggs only varied from 1·67 to 1·68 in length, and from 1·14 to
1·18 in breadth.
Whether this bird breeds regularly or only as a straggler in Cashmere
we do not know; it is always overlooked and passed by as a "Common
Crow." Future visitors to Cashmere should try and clear up both the
identity of the bird and all particulars about its nidification.
4. Corvus macrorhynchus, Wagler. _The Jungle-Crow_.
Corvus culminatus, _Sykes, Jerd. B, Ind._ ii, p. 295,
Corvus levaillantii; _Less., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 660.
The Jungle-Crow (under which head I include[A] _C. culminatus,_
Sykes, _C. intermedius_, Adams, _C. andamanensis_, Tytler, and each
and all of the races that occur within our limits) breeds almost
everywhere in India, alike in the low country and in the hills both of
Southern and Northern India, to an elevation of fully 8000 feet.
[Footnote A: See 'Stray Feathers,' vol. ii. 1874, p. 243, and 'Lahore
to Yarkand,' p. 85.]
March to May is, I consider, the normal breeding-season; in the plains
the majority lay in April, rarely later, and in the hills in May; but
in the plains a few birds lay also in February.
The nest is placed as a rule on good-sized trees and pretty near their
summits. In the plains mangos and tamarinds seem to be preferred, but
I have found the nests on many different kinds of trees. The nest is
large, circular, and composed of moderate-sized twigs; sometimes it is
thick, massive, and compact; sometimes loose and straggling; always
with a considerable depression in the centre, which is smoothly lined
with large quantities of horsehair, or other stiff hair, grass,
grass-roots, cocoanut-fibre, &c. In the hills they use _any_ animal's
hair or fur, if the latter is pretty stiff. They do not, according to
my experience, affect luxuries in the way of soft down; it is always
something moderately stiff, of the coir or horsehair type; nothing
soft and fluffy. Coarse human hair, such as some of our native
fellow-subjects can boast of, is often taken, when it can be got, in
lieu of horsehair.
They lay four or five eggs. I have quite as often found the latter as
the former number. I have never myself seen six eggs in one nest, but
I have heard, on good authority, of six eggs being found.
Captain Unwin writes: "I found a nest of the Bow-billed Corby in the
Agrore Valley, containing four eggs, on the 30th April. It was placed
in a Cheer tree about 40 feet from the ground, and was made of sticks
and lined with dry grass and hair."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account