Malacocercus griseus (_Gm._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 60; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 433.
I should say that the White-headed Babbler breeds all over the plain
country of Southern India, not ascending the hills to any great
elevation. At the same time, many people would very likely separate
the Madras, Mangalore, and Anjango birds, and insist on their being
different species; but for my part, seeing how the birds vary in each
locality and what a perfect and unbroken chain of intermediate forms
connects the most different-looking examples, and that all the several
races are separable from the other species of this group by their more
or less conspicuously pale heads, I prefer to keep them all as _C.
griseus_.
This species, thus considered, breeds apparently twice a year from
April to June, and again in October and even later.
About Madras the nest is commonly placed in thick thorny hedges of a
shrub locally known as "Kurka-puli," said by Balfour to be _Garcinia
cambogia_, but which does not look like a _Garcinia_ at all. The nest
is a loosely-made cup, composed of grass-stems and roots, and the eggs
vary from three to five in number.
Dr. Jerdon says:--"I have often found the nest of this bird, which
is composed of small twigs and roots, carelessly and loosely put
together, in general at no great height from the ground. It lays three
or four blue eggs."
Colonel Butler writes:--"A nest containing four fresh eggs apparently
of this species (it being the common Babbler in this district) was
brought to me by some wood-cutters on the 18th March, 1880. It was
taken in the jungles about six miles from Belgaum, and measured about
2¾ inches in diameter and about 2 inches deep interiorly, and was of
the usual Babbler type, consisting of dry stems loosely but neatly
constructed. The eggs were highly glossed and deep bluish green, some
people might say greenish blue."
Mr. Iver Macpherson writes of this bird from Mysore:--"I have found
their nests in every month between March and August, and they possibly
breed both earlier and later. The nests are generally fixed in thorny
bushes and at no great height off the ground. Four is the usual number
of eggs laid, but very often five are found, and I feel much inclined
to think that the fifth egg is often that of _H. varius_."
The eggs of this species that I possess were taken by Mr. Davison in
May, in the immediate neighbourhood of Madras. They are all pretty
regular, somewhat cylindrical ovals, excessively glossy, spotless, and
of a deep greenish blue, much deeper than the eggs of any of the other
_Crateropi_ are as a rule; in fact, they approach in colouring to the
eggs of _Garrulax albigularis_.
They vary in length from 0·9 to 1·0, and in breadth from 0·62 to
0·74; but I have seen too few eggs to be able to strike any reliable
average.