Sibia capistrata (_Vig.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 54; _Hume, Rough Draft
N. & E._ no. 429.
The Black-headed Sibia lays throughout the Himalayas from Afghanistan
to Bhootan, at elevations of from 5000 to 7000 feet.
It lays during May and June, and perhaps part of July, for I find that
on the 11th of July I found a nest of this species a little below the
lake at Nynee Tal, on the Jewli Road, containing two young chicks
apparently not a day old.
They build on the outskirts of forests, constructing their nests
towards the ends of branches, at heights of from 10 to 50 feet from
the ground. The nest is a neat cup, some 4 or 5 inches in diameter and
perhaps 3 inches in height, composed chiefly of moss and lined
with black moss-roots and fibres. In some of the nests that I have
preserved a good deal of grass-leaves and scraps of lichen are
incorporated in the moss. The cavity is deep, from 2½ to 3 inches in
diameter and not much less than 2 inches in depth.
They lay two or three eggs; not more, so far as I yet know.
From Murree, Colonel C.H.T. Marshall tells us that "the egg of this
bird was, we believe, previously unknown, and it was a mere chance
that we found the whereabouts of their nests, as they breed high up in
the spruce firs at the outer end of a bough. The nest is neatly made
of moss, lined with stalks of the maiden-hair fern. The eggs are pale
blue, spotted and blotched with pale and reddish brown. They are ·95
in length and ·7 in breadth. This species breeds in June, about 7000
feet up."
Nearly twenty years prior to this, however, Captain Hutton had
remarked:--"At Mussoorie this bird remains at an elevation of 7000
feet throughout the year, but I never saw it under 6500 feet. Its loud
ringing note of _titteree-titteree tweëyo_, quickly repeated, may
constantly be heard on wooded banks during summer. It breeds in May,
making a neat nest of coarse dry grasses as a foundation, covered
laterally with green moss and wool and lined with fine roots. The
number of eggs I did not ascertain, as the nest was destroyed when
only one egg had been deposited, but the colour is pale bluish white,
freckled with rufous. The nest was placed on a branch of a plum-tree
in the Botanical Garden, Mussoorie."
Captain Cock says that he "found this species breeding at Murree, at
6000 feet elevation.
"I took my first nest on the 5th June.
"It builds near the tops of the highest pines, and unless seen
building its nest with the glasses, it is impossible to find the nest
with the unaided eye.
"The nest is placed on the outer extremity of an upper bough in a
pine-tree; is constructed of moss lined with stalks of the maiden-hair
fern. Three eggs is the largest number I ever found. The eggs are
light greenish white, with rusty spots and blotches principally at the
larger end."
From Nynee Tal Colonel G.F.L. Marshall writes:--"This species builds
in trees and bushes. The only nest I examined personally was a very
compact and thick cup-shaped structure of moss, grass, and roots,
lined with grass, and placed amongst the outer twigs of a blackberry
bush overhanging a cliff. It was ready for the eggs on the 23rd May.
It was found at Nynee Tal on Agar Pata, about 7000 feet above the
sea."
From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"I have only myself taken two nests of
this common species. I found both of them the same day (the 21st May),
in the Chinchona reserves, at an elevation of about 5000 feet. Both
nests were in the forest, built on the outer branches of trees, at
heights the one of 15, the other of 40 feet from the ground. The nests
were cup-shaped, and very neatly made of moss, leaves and fibres, and
lined with black fibres. One measured externally 4·6 in diameter by
2·75 in height, and internally 2·4 in diameter and 1·7 in depth. One
nest contained two fresh, the other two hard-set eggs; so perhaps two
is the normal number, though the natives say that they lay three. As
might be expected from the bird's habit of feeding on the insects on
moss-covered trees in moist forests, the nests were in forest by the
sides of streams."
The eggs are rather broad, slightly pyriform ovals, often a good deal
pulled out as it were at the small end. The shell is fine, but almost
entirely devoid of gloss. The ground-colour is a pale greenish white
or very pale bluish green. The markings are various and complicated:
first there are usually a few large, irregular, moderately dark
brownish-red spots and splashes; then there are a very few, very dark,
reddish-brown hair-lines, such as one finds on Buntings' eggs; then
there is a good deal of clouding and smudging here and there of pale,
dingy purplish or brownish red (all these markings are most numerous
towards the large end); and then besides these, and almost entirely
confined to the large end, are a few pale purple specks and spots.
Sometimes the markings are almost wholly confined to the thicker end
of the egg. Of course the eggs vary somewhat, and in some specimens
the characteristic Bunting-like hair-lines are almost wholly wanting.
The eggs vary in length from 0·95 to 1·0, and in breadth from 0·66 to
0·72.