Actinodura egertoni, _Gould, Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 52; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 427.
There is no figure of the Rufous Bar-wing's nest or eggs amongst the
original drawings of Mr. Hodgson now in my custody, but in the British
Museum series there appears to be, since Mr. Blyth remarks:--"Mr.
Hodgson figures the nest of this bird like that of an English
Redbreast, with pinkish-white eggs."
From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"On the 27th April I took a nest of
this Bar-wing in a large forest at an elevation of about 5000 feet.
It was placed about 20 feet from the ground, in a leafy tree, between
several upright shoots, to which it was firmly attached. It is
cup-shaped, mainly composed of dry leaves held together by slender
climber-stems, and lined with dark-coloured fibrous roots. A few
strings of green moss were twined round the outside to assist in
concealment. Externally it measures 4·2 inches wide by 4 deep;
internally 2·8 wide and 2·4 deep. It contained but two slightly-set
eggs.
"I killed the female off the nest."
Several nests have been obtained and sent me by Messrs. Gammie and
Mandelli. One was taken on the 4th May by Mr. Mandelli, at Lebong, at
an elevation of 5500 feet, which contained three fresh eggs; this
was placed on the branches of a small tree, in the midst of dense
brushwood, at a height of about 4 feet from the ground.
Another, taken in a similar situation at the same place on the 22nd
May, contained two fresh eggs, and was at a height of about 12 feet
from the ground.
These nests vary just in the same way as do those of _Trochalopterum
nigrimentum_; some show only a sprig or two of moss about them, while
others have a complete coating of green moss. They are cup-shaped,
some deeper, some shallower; the chief material of the nest seems to
be usually dry leaves. One before me is composed entirely of some
_Polypodium_, on which the seed-spores are all fully developed; in
another, bamboo-leaves have been chiefly used; these are all held
together in their places by black fibrous roots; occasionally towards
the upper margin a few creeper-tendrils are intermingled. The whole
cavity is lined more or less thickly, and the lip of the cup all round
is usually finished of with these same black fibrous roots; and then
outside all moss and selaginella are applied according to the taste
of the bird and, probably, the situation--a few sprigs or a complete
coating, as the case may be.
Two eggs of this species sent me by Mr. Gammie are regular, slightly
elongated ovals, with very thin and fragile shells, and fairly but not
highly glossy. The ground is a delicate pale sea-green, and they are
profusely blotched, spotted, and marked with curious hieroglyphic-like
figures of a sort of umber-brown; while about the larger end numerous
spots and streaks of pale lilac occur.
These eggs measure 0·98 in length, by 0·65 and 0·68 in breadth.
Other eggs obtained by Mr. Mandelli early in June are quite of the
same type, but somewhat shorter, measuring 0·85 and 0·93 in length by
0·68 and 0·7 in breadth. But the markings are rather more smudgy
and rather paler, and there are fewer of the hair-like streaks and
hieroglyphics.