Zosterops palpebrosus (_Temm.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 265; _Hume,
Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 631.
The Indian White-eye, or White-eyed Tit as Jerdon terms it, breeds
almost throughout the Indian Empire, sparingly in the hotter and more
arid plains, abundantly in the Nilghiris and other ranges of the
Peninsula to their very summits, and in the Himalayas to an elevation
of 5000 or 6000 feet.
The breeding-season extends in different localities from January to
September, but I think that everywhere April is the month in which
most eggs are to be met with.
Sometimes they have two broods; whether this is always the case I do
not know.
The nest is placed almost indifferently at any elevation. I have taken
one from amongst the topmost twigs of a huge mohwa tree (_Bassia
latifolia_) fully 60 feet high, and I have found them in a tiny bush
not a foot off the soil. Still I think that perhaps the majority build
at low elevations, say between 2 and 6 feet from the ground.
The nest is always a soft, delicate little cup, sometimes very
shallow, sometimes very deep, as a rule suspended between two twigs
like a miniature Oriole's nest, but on rare occasions propped in a
fork. The nest varies much in size and in the materials with which it
is composed.
Pine grass and roots, tow, and a variety of vegetable fibres, thread,
floss silk, and cobwebs are all made use of to bind the little nest
together and attach it to the twigs whence it depends. Grass again,
moss, vegetable fibre, seed-down, silk, cotton, lichen, roots and the
like are used in the body of the nest, which is lined with silky down,
hair, moss, and fern-roots, or even silk, while at times tiny silvery
cocoons or scraps of rich-coloured lichen are affixed as ornaments to
the exterior.
One nest before me is a very perfect and deep cup, hung between two
twigs of a mohwa tree and almost entirely hidden by the surrounding
leaves. The exterior diameter of the nest is 2½ inches, and the depth
2 inches. The egg-cavity measures scarcely more than 1½ inch across
and very nearly as much in depth. It is composed of very fine
grass-stems and is thinly coated exteriorly with cobwebs, by which
also it is firmly secured to the suspending twigs, and externally
numerous small cocoons and sundry pieces of vegetable down are
plastered on to the nest. Another nest, hung between two slender twigs
of a mango tree, is a shallow cup some 2½ inches in diameter, and not
above an inch in depth externally. The egg-cavity measures at most 1½
inch across by three-fourths of an inch in depth. The nest is composed
of fine tow-like vegetable fibres and thread, by which it is attached
to the twigs, a little grass-down being blended in the mass, and
the cavity being very sparsely lined with very fine grass-stems. In
another nest, somewhat larger than, the last described, the nest is
made of moss slightly tacked together with cobwebs and lined with
fine grass-fibres. Another nest, a very regular shallow cup, with an
egg-cavity 2 inches in diameter and an inch in depth, is composed
almost entirely of the soft silky down of the _Calatropis gigantea_,
rather thickly lined with very fine hair-like grass, and very
thinly-coated exteriorly with a little of this same grass, moss, and
thread. Another, with a similar-sized cavity, but nearly three-fourths
of an inch thick everywhere, is externally a mass of moss, moss-roots,
and very fine lichen, and is lined entirely with very soft and
brilliantly white satin-like vegetable down. Another, with about the
same-sized cavity, but the walls of which are scarcely one-fourth of
an inch in thickness, is composed _entirely_ of this satiny down,
thinly coated exteriorly and interiorly with excessively fine
moss-roots (roots so fine that most of them are much thinner than
human hair); a few black horsehairs, which look coarse and thick
beside the other materials of the nest, are twisted round and round in
the interior of the egg-cavity. Other nests might be made entirely of
tow, so far as their appearance goes; and in fact with a very
large series before me, no two seem, to be constructed of the same
materials.
I have nests before me now, taken in September, March, June, and
August, all of which when found contained eggs.
Two is certainly the normal number of the eggs; about one fifth of the
nests I have seen contained three, and once only I found four.
From Murree Colonel C.H.T. Marshall informs us that he took the eggs
in June at an elevation of about 6000 feet.
Colonel G.F.L. Marshall says:--"I have taken eggs of this species at
Cawnpore in the middle of June. I found six nests, five of which were
in neem-trees. I also found the nest in Naini Tal at 7000 feet above
the sea, with young in the middle of June; one only of all the nests I
have seen was lined, and that was lined with feathers: they were, as a
rule, about eight feet from the ground, but one was nearly forty feet
up."
Capt. Hutton gives a very full account of the nidification of this
species. He says:--"These beautiful little birds are exceedingly
common at Mussoorie, at an elevation of about 5000 feet, during
summer, but I never saw them much higher. They arrive from the plains
about the middle of April, on the 17th of which month I saw a pair
commence building in a thick bush of _Hibiscus_, and on the 27th
of the same month the nest contained three small eggs hard-set. I
subsequently took a second from a similar bush, and several from
the drooping branches of oak-trees, to the twigs of which they were
fastened. It is not placed on a branch, but is suspended between
two thin twigs, to which it is fastened by floss silk torn from the
cocoons of _Bombyx Huttoni_, Westw., and by a few slender fibres of
the bark of trees or hair according to circumstances.
"So slight and so fragile is the little oval cup that it is
astonishing the mere weight of the parent bird does not bring it to
the ground, and yet within it three young ones will often safely
outride a gale that will bring the weightier nests of Jays and
Thrushes to the ground.
"Of seven nests now before me four are composed externally of little
bits of green moss, cotton, and seed-down, and the silk of the wild
mulberry-moth torn from the cocoons, with which last material,
however, the others appear to be bound together within. The lining of
two is of the long hairs of the yak's tail, two of which died on the
estate where these nests were found, and a third is lined with
black human hair. The other three are formed of somewhat different
materials, two being externally composed of fine grass-stalks,
seed-down, and shreds of bark so fine as to resemble tow; one is lined
with seed-down and black fibrous lichens resembling hair, a second is
lined with fine grass, and a third with a thick coating of pure white
silky seed-down. In all the seven, the materials of the two sides are
wound round the twigs, between which they are suspended like a cradle,
and the shape is an ovate cup, about the size of half a hen's egg
split longitudinally. The diameter and depth are respectively 2 inches
and 1½ inch by three-fourths of an inch. The eggs are usually three in
number."
Mr. Brooks, writing from Almorah, says:--"This morning, 28th April,
I found a nest of _Zosterops palpebrosa_ containing two fresh eggs.
Yesterday I found one of the same bird containing three half-fledged
young ones. Near the Tonse River, in the Allahabad District, I found
these birds in July nesting high in a mango-tree, the nest suspended
like an Oriole's to several leaves; now I find it in low bushes, at
heights of from 3 to 5 feet from the ground. The eggs, as before,
skim-milk blue, without markings of any kind."
From Gurhwal Mr. R. Thompson says:--"A small cup-shaped elegant nest
is built by this bird suspended by fastenings from the fork of a low
branch. The nest is about 2½ inches in diameter and three-fourths of
an inch in depth, composed of cobwebs, fine roots, hairs, &c., neatly
interwoven and lined internally with vegetable down. The eggs, two,
three, or four in number, are of a pale whitish-blue, oval, and
somewhat larger than those of _Arachnechthra asiatica_. The birds
select all kinds of trees, but the nest is always suspended. The
breeding-season is about March and April, and the brood is quickly
hatched and fledged.
"A nest found by me on the 22nd April, and containing four eggs, was
built most ingeniously in a creeper that hung from a small tree. The
birds had arranged it so that the long down-bearing tendril of the
creeper blended with the nest, which in the main was composed of the
material surrounding it.
"Another nest found on the 26th contained three young ones. It was
built in a low branch of a large mango-tree, and might have been 12
feet from the ground. It was a neat compact structure, deeply hollow,
and made up of cobwebs, fine straw, and hair, and lined with vegetable
down, closely and neatly interwoven.
"The parent birds were evidently feeding the young on the ripe fruit
of the _Khoda_ or _Chumroor_ (_Ehretia laevis_). I got one fruit from
the old birds, being anxious to know what the young ones were getting
for their dinner.
"The pairing-season commences about the end of March, when the males
may be heard uttering a feeble kind of rambling song, which in reality
is merely modified repetitions of a single note."
Mr. A. Anderson remarked that "the White-eye breeds throughout the
North-Western Provinces and Oudh during the months of June, July, and
August. The nest is a beautiful little model of the Oriole's; and
according to my experience it is invariably _suspended_, and _not
fixed in the fork of small branches_ as stated by Jerdon. I have on
several occasions watched a pair in the act of building their nest.
They set to work with cobwebs, and having first tied together two or
three leafy twigs to which they intend to attach their nest, they then
use fine fibre of the _sun_ (_Crotalaria juncea_), with which material
they complete the outer fabric of their very beautiful and compact
nest. As the work progresses more cobwebs and fibre of a silky kind
are applied externally, and at times the nest, when tossed about by
the wind (sometimes at a considerable elevation), would be mistaken by
a casual observer for an accidental collection of cobwebs. The inside
of the nest is well felted with the down of the madar plant, and then
it is finally lined with fine hair and grass-stems of the softest
kind. Sometimes the nest is suspended from only two twigs, exactly
after the fashion of the Mango-birds (_Oriolus kundoo_); and in this
case it is attached by means of silk-like fibres and fine fibre of
_sun_ for about 1½ inch on each side; at others it is suspended from
several twigs; and occasionally I have seen the leaves fixed on to the
sides of the nest, thus making it extremely difficult of detection.
"In shape the nest is a perfect hollow hemisphere; one now before me
measures (inside) 1·5 in diameter. The wall is about 0·3 in thickness.
"Almost all my nests have been built on the neem tree, the long
slender _petioles_ of which are admirably adapted for its suspension.
"As a rule the nest is built at a considerable height, and owing
to its situation there is not a more difficult nest to take. Great
numbers get washed down in a half-finished state in a heavy fall of
rain.
"The eggs are, exactly as Jerdon describes them, of a pale blue,
'almost like skimmed milk,' and the usual number is three, though four
are frequently laid."
"On the 7th September," writes Mr. E.M. Adam, "in my garden in
Lucknow, I discovered a nest of this bird in course of construction,
but when it was nearly finished the birds left it. The nest was a
beautiful little cup made of fine grass and cobwebs. It was situated
in a slender fork of a mango-tree about 15 feet from the ground."
Major C.T. Bingham says:--"Common both at Allahabad and at Delhi;
breeds in both places in May, June, and July. All nests I have seen
have been finely made little cups of fibres, bits of thread and
cobwebs, lined interiorly with horsehair, generally suspended between
two slender twigs at no great height from the ground."
Mr. E. Aitken writes:--"I have only actually taken one nest of the
White-eye. That was in Poona (2000 feet above the sea) on the 21st
July. The bird, however, builds abundantly in Poona about gardens,
trees on the roadside, &c.
"This particular nest was fixed to a thin branch of a tamarind-tree on
the side of a lane among gardens. It was within reach of my hand, and
was attached both to the thin branch itself and to two twigs. It was
well sheltered among leaves.
"The nest was a cup rather narrower at the mouth than in the middle.
Its external diameter at the top was 2½ inches; internal diameter 1½
inch; depth 1½ inch internally. It was composed of a variety of fibres
closely interwoven with some kind of vegetable silk, and was lined
principally with horsehair and very fine fibres. It contained three
eggs."
Mr. Davison tells us that "the White-eye breeds on the Nilghiris in
February, March, April, and the earlier part of May.
"The nest is a small neat cup-shaped structure suspended between a
fork in some small low bush, generally only 2 or 3 feet from the
ground, but sometimes high up, about 20 or 30 feet from the ground. It
is composed externally of moss and small roots and the down from the
thistle; the egg-cavity is invariably sparingly lined with hair. The
eggs, two in number, are of a pale blue, like skimmed milk."
From Kotagherry Miss Cockburn remarks:--"Their nests are, I think,
more elegantly finished than those of any of the small birds I have
seen up here. They generally select a thick bush, where, when they
have chosen a horizontal forked branch, they construct a neat round
nest which is left quite open at the top. The materials they commence
with are green moss, lichen, and fine grass intertwined. I have even
found occasionally a coarse thread, which they had picked up near some
Badagar's village and used in order to fasten the little building
to the branches. The inside is carefully lined with the down of
seed-pods. White-eyes' nests are very numerous here in the months of
January, February, and March. They are extremely partial to the wild
gooseberry bush as a site to build on. One year I found ten out of
eleven nests on these bushes, the fruit of which is largely used by
the aborigines of the hills. A pair once built on a thick orange-tree
in our garden. We often stood quite close to one of them while sitting
on the eggs, and it never showed the slightest degree of fear. They
lay two eggs of a light blue colour."
Mr. Wait, writing from Conoor, says that "_Z. palpebrosa_ breeds in
April and May, building in bushes and shrubs, and making a deep round
cup-shaped nest very neatly woven in the style of the Chaffinch,
composed of moss, grass, and silk cotton, and sparsely lined with very
fine grass and hair. The eggs are two in number, of a roundish oval
shape, and a pale greenish-blue colour."
Finally Colonel Legge informs us that this species breeds in Ceylon in
June, July, and August.
The eggs are somewhat lengthened ovals (occasionally rather broader),
and a good deal pointed towards the small end. The shell is very fine
but almost glossless; here and there a somewhat more glossy egg is met
with. They are normally of a uniform very pale blue or greenish blue,
without any markings whatsoever, but once in a way an egg is seen
characterized by a cap or zone of a somewhat purer and deeper blue.
Abnormally large and small specimens are common. They vary in length
from 0·53 to 0·7, and in breadth from 0·42 to 0·58; but the average of
thirty-eight eggs is 0·62 by 0·47, and the great majority of the eggs
are really about this size.