Chatarrhaea caudata (_Dum.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 67; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E_ no. 438.
The Common Babbler breeds throughout India, not, however, ascending
any of our many mountain-ranges to any great elevation.
They lay pretty well all the year round; at any rate from early in
March, to early in September their eggs are common. Mr. W. Blewitt
took a nest at Hansie on the 3rd January, and single nests are
recorded by others as found in October, December, and February. They
certainly have two broods a year, and perhaps more, the first being
hatched from March to May, the second from June to August.
They build in low thorny bushes, and occasionally in clumps of high
grass, the nest being rarely more than 3 feet from the ground. The
nest itself is cup-shaped, and composed of grass and roots, often
unlined, at times lined with very fine grass-stems or horse-hair. As a
rule, it is neatly and compactly built, with a deep cavity some 2 to
3 inches in diameter, and 1·75 to 2·25 in depth, but I have seen
straggling, ragged, and comparatively shallow nests of this species,
having an external diameter of fully 7 inches. Three is the normal
number of the eggs, but four are occasionally met with.
Mr. Brooks says:--"This species builds in much the same sort of places
as _A. malcolmi_, but it chooses a low thick bush, the nest not being
more than 3 feet from the ground. Nest neatly built of grass, roots,
hair, &c., and the eggs bright bluish green, very glossy, and much
resembling those of _Accentor modularis_."
Mr. R.M. Adam remarks:--"I took a nest of this bird in Oudh on the
22nd April. It contained a young bird and one unhatched egg. The nest
was made of grass not well worked together, and had a lining of finer
grass. The ground-work was composed of twigs and stems of creepers
interlaced. The exterior diameter of the nest measured 5 inches, and
the egg-cavity was 2 inches deep. In one case this bird did not lay
till the fifth day after the nest was finished. About Agra this bird
breeds during July and August.
"This Bush-Babbler is very common about the Sambhur lake. I have noted
it breeding from the beginning of March till the beginning of July.
Although this species generally prefers building in the hedges of
prickly-pear, I have taken the nests in orange-trees, the karounda,
the babool, &c."
Messrs. Davidson and Wenden state that in the Deccan it is "very
common and breeds."
Major C.T. Bingham says:--"This bird, uncommon at Allahabad, is
plentiful here at Delhi. I found several nests between March and June,
all of the Babbler type, deep cups, rather more firmly built than
those of the preceding bird, but constructed like them of coarse roots
of grass, with finer ones for the inside. They are never placed at any
great height from the ground, and generally in some thorny bush. I
have found mostly three, rarely four eggs in any one nest."
Mr. Benjamin Aitken writes:--"I never saw the Common Babbler in Poona,
and it certainly does not occur in Bombay. But it is very abundant on
the arid plains of Berar, breeding in the low babool-bushes, where
large numbers of its eggs are destroyed by lizards. I have found four
eggs in a nest oftener than three."
Colonel Butler writes:--"The Common Babbler breeds in the
neighbourhood of Deesa principally during the monsoon; but I have
found nests occasionally at other seasons of the year, as the
following table of dates will show:--
"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.