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. Davison writes:--"I found a nest of this bird on the morning of
the 21st January, 1875, at Pakchan, Tenasserim Province, Burma. It was
placed on the ground at the foot of a small screw pine, growing in
thick bamboo-jungle; it was a large globular structure, composed
externally of dry bamboo-leaves, and well secreted by the mass of dry
bamboo-leaves that surrounded it; it was in fact buried in these, and
if I had not seen the bird leave it, it would most undoubtedly have
remained undiscovered. Externally it was about a foot in length by
9 inches in height, but it was impossible to take any accurate
measurement, as the nest really had no marked external definition.
Internally was a lining about half an inch thick, composed of thin
strips of dry bark, fibres, &c. The entrance was to one side,
circular, and measuring 2·5 inches in diameter; the egg-cavity
measured 4 inches deep by about 3 in height.
"In the nest were three pure white ovato-pyriform eggs, but so far
incubated that they would probably have hatched off before the day was
out.
"The measurements of two were 1·1 and 1·09 in length by 0·75 in
breadth."
Major C.T. Bingham says:--"This is the _Pomatorhinus_ of the
Thoungyeen valley, being found from the sources to the mouth of that
river. A note recorded two years ago of a nest that I found is given
below:--_4th March_.--Having to go over the ground along the southern
boundary of the proposed Meplay reserve I had to cut my way through
dense bamboo, to go through a long belt of which is hard work. To make
it worse in this case several clumps had been burnt by fire and blown
down. As I was slowly progressing along, bent almost double, out of
a little hollow at my feet a bird flew with a suddenness that nearly
knocked me down. I looked into the hollow, and there under the ledge
of the sheltering bank was a nest of dry bamboo-leaves lined with
strips of the same, shredded fine. It was cup-shaped, loosely made,
about 1½ inches in diameter, and the same in depth, containing three
pure white eggs, perfectly fresh (measured afterwards two proved
respectively, 0·98 x 0·71, 0·99 x 0·73 inch); and gun in hand I
watched, hiding myself behind a clump of bamboos about thirty yards
off. For an hour I watched, but the bird did not return, so I marked
the spot and went on. Returning back the same way just before dusk, I
managed to start her again, and to get a hurried shot; she fell and I
secured and recognized her as _P. olivaceus_."
The eggs, which seem small for the size of the bird, are rather broad
ovals, some fairly regular, some a good deal compressed just towards
the small end, which is, however, always obtuse, never pointed; the
shell is fine, compact, and thin, smooth and satiny to the touch,
but with scarcely any perceptible gloss. The colour is pure spotless
white.
119. Pomatorhinus melanurus, Blyth. _The Ceylonese Scimitar
Babbler_.
Pomatorhinus melanurus, _Blyth, Hume, Cat._ no. 404 bis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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