Alcippe phayrii, _Bl., Hume, Cat._ no. 388 bis.
Major C.T. Bingham writes from Tenasserim:--"In the half-dry bed of
one of the many streams that one has to cross between Kaukarit and
Meeawuddy, I found on the 23rd February a nest of the above species. A
firm little cup, borne up some 2 feet above the ground on the fronds
of a strong-growing fern, to three of the leaf-stems of which it
was attached. It was made of vegetable fibres and roots, and lined
interiorly with fine black hair-like roots, on which rested three
fresh eggs, in colour pinky white, blotched and streaked with dull
reddish pink, and with faint clouds and spots of purple. The eggs
measure ·79 x ·58, ·78 x ·58, and ·76 x ·59."
Mr. J. Darling, junior, informs us that on the 9th April he "took
three fresh eggs of _Alcippe phayrii_, in heavy jungle, at a very low
elevation, at the foot of Nwalabo in Tenasserim. The nest was built
in a small bush 4 feet from the ground (hanging between two forked
twigs), of bamboo and other leaves, moss, and a few fine twigs, and
lined with moss and fern-roots, 2 inches in diameter, 1½ deep. It
was exactly like very many nests of _A. phaeocephala_, taken on the
Nilghiri Hills, though some of the latter are much more compact and
pretty."
Mr. W. Davison, also writing of Tenasserim, says:--"On the 1st
March, in a little bush about 2 feet above the ground, I found the
above-mentioned bird seated on a little moss-made nest, and utterly
refusing to move off until I almost touched her, when she hopped on to
a branch a few feet off, and disclosed three little naked fledglings
struggling or just struggled out of their shells. I retired a little
way off, and she immediately reseated herself. The eggs, to judge by
the fragments, were of a vinous claret tinge, spotted and streaked
with a darker shade of the same."
These eggs closely resemble those of _A. nepalensis_. They are neither
broad nor elongated ovals, often with a _slight_ pyriform tendency,
always apparently very blunt at both ends.
The ground-colour, of which but little is visible, in some eggs varies
from pinky white to pale reddish pink, and the egg is profusely
smeared and clouded with pinky or purplish red, varying much in
shade and tint. Here and there, in most eggs, are a few spots, or
occasionally short, crooked or curved lines, where the colour has
been laid on so thick that it is almost black, and such spots are
generally, though not always, more or less surrounded with a haze of a
rather deeper tint than the rest of the smear in which they occur. The
markings are often deepest coloured, or most conspicuous, about the
large end, where occasionally a recognizable cap is formed and there
a decided purplish tinge may be noticed in patches. The general
character of the eggs is very uniform; but the eggs vary to such a
degree _inter se_, that it is hopeless to attempt to describe all the
variations. They vary in length from 0·68 to 0·78 and in breadth from
0·53 to 0·59, but the average of nine eggs is 0·75 by 0·58.