The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 — David Hume — John Shaqi
The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1
David Hume · en
They build, so far as I know, always in holes, in trees, rocks, and
walls, preferentially in the latter. Their nests involve generally two
different kinds of work--the working up of the true nests on which the
eggs repose, and the preliminary closing in and making comfortable the
cavity in which the former is placed. For this latter work they use
almost exclusively moss. Sometimes very little filling-in is
required; sometimes the mass of moss used to level and close in an
awkward-shaped recess is surprisingly great. A pair breed every year
in a terrace-wall of my garden at Simla; elevation about 7800 feet.
One year they selected an opening a foot high and 6 inches wide, and
they closed up the whole of this, leaving an entrance not 2 inches in
diameter. Some years ago I disturbed them there, and found nearly half
a cubic foot of dry green moss. Now they build in a cavity behind one
of the stones, the entrance to which is barely an inch wide, and in
this, as far as I can see, they have no moss at all.
The nests are nothing but larger or smaller pads of closely felted
wool and fur; sometimes a little moss, and sometimes a little
vegetable down, is mingled in the moss, but the great body of the
material is always wool and fur. They vary very much in size: you
may meet with them fully 5 inches in diameter and 2 inches thick,
comparatively loosely and coarsely massed together; and you may meet
with them shallow saucers 3 inches in diameter and barely half an inch
in thickness anywhere, as closely felted as if manufactured by human
agency.
Six to eight is considered the full complement of eggs, but the
number is very variable, and I have taken three, four, and five
well-incubated eggs.
Captain Beavan, to judge from his description, seems to have found
a regular cup-shaped nest such, as I have never seen. He says:--"At
Simla, April 20th, 1866, I found a nest of this species with young
ones in it in an old wall in the garden. I secured the old bird for
identification, and then released her. The nest contained seven young
ones, and was large in proportion. The outside and bottom consists of
the softest moss, the nest being carefully built between two stones,
about a foot inside the wall; the rest of it is composed of the finest
grey wool or fur. Diameter inside 2·5; outside about 5 inches. Depth
inside nearly 3 inches; outside 3·6."
Captain Cock told me that he "found several nests in May and June in
Cashmere. The first nest I found was in a natural cavity high up in a
tree, containing three eggs, which I unfortunately broke while taking
them out of the nest. The interior of the cavity was thickly lined
with fur from some small animal, such as a hare or rat. I found my
second nest close to my tent in a cleft of a pine, quite low down,
only 3 feet from the ground. I cut it out and it contained five
eggs of the usual type--broad, blunt little eggs, white, with rusty
blotches."