"_May 20th, Jaha Powah_.--Two nests on the skirts of the forest in
medium-sized trees, placed on the fork of a branch. They are made
of moss and dry fern and dry elastic twig-tops, and lined with long
elastic needles of _Pinus longifolia_. They are compact and rather
deep, half pensile, that is to say, partly slung between the branches
of the fork to which they are attached by bands of vegetable fibres.
Each contained four eggs, pinkish-white, thickly spotted with dark
sanguine." Another year he wrote:--
"_May 9th, in the Valley_.--A mature female with nest and eggs. Nest
saucer-shaped, the cavity 3·5 wide by 2·5 deep, made of slender twigs
and grass-fibres, with no lining. Eggs three, pale pink, blotched all
over with sanguine brown."
Writing from Almorah, Mr. Brooks tells us that "the nest and eggs were
found by Mr. Horne on the 27th May near Bheem Tal."
Colonel G.F.L. Marshall also found a nest in the same place. He
says:--"I have only myself found the nest once at Bheem Tal (4000
feet); it was situated in a thicket. The nest of this species is
similar in shape but much more substantial than those of the Common
Bulbul. The eggs are much larger and more elongated in shape, but the
colouring is similar to those of the Bulbul, and in many cases the
blotches have a tendency to form a zone near the thick end. The nest I
found was taken on the 10th June and contained fresh eggs.
"On the 30th May, 1875, I found a nest of this species at Naini Tal on
Ayarpata, over 7000 feet above the sea. I record the circumstance,
as their breeding at so great an elevation is exceptional. The nest
contained three fresh eggs; it was made of leaves and moss, lined with
bents of grass, between two branches but partially resting on a third,
in a bush at the outskirts of a forest on a steep bank and about eight
feet from the ground."
From Mussoorie, Captain Hutton recorded the following very full and
interesting note:--
"They breed during April, May, and June, making a rather neat
cup-shaped nest, which is usually placed in the bifurcation of a
horizontal branch of some tall tree; the bottom of it is composed of
thin dead leaves and dried grasses, and the sides of fine woody stalks
of plants, such as those used by the White-cheeked Bulbul, and they
are well plastered over externally with spiders' webs; the lining
is sometimes of very fine tendrils, at other times of dry grasses,
fibrous lichen, and thin shavings of the bark of trees left by the
wood-cutters. I have one nest, however, which is externally formed of
green moss with a few dry stalks, and the spiders' webs, instead of
being plastered all over the outside, are merely used to bind the
nest to the small branches among which it is placed. The lining is
of bark-shavings, dry grasses, black fibrous lichens, and a few fine
seed-stalks of grasses. The internal diameter of the nest is 2¾
inches, and it is 1½ inches deep. The eggs are usually three in
number, of a rosy or purplish white, sprinkled over rather numerously
with deep claret or rufescent purple specks and spots. In colours and
distribution of spots there is great variation, sometimes the rufous
and sometimes the purple spots prevailing; sometimes the spots are
mere specks and freckles, sometimes large and forming blotches;
in some the spots are wide apart, in others they are nearly, and
sometimes in places quite, confluent; while from one nest the
eggs were white, with widely dispersed dark purple spots and dull
indistinct ones appearing under the shell. In all the spots were more
crowded at the larger end."
Colonel C.H.T. Marshall remarks:--"Numerous nests of this species were
found at Murree, agreeing well with Hutton's description. They breed
in May and June, never above 6000 feet."
The eggs are rather long ovals. Typically a good deal pointed towards
the small end, and more or less pyriform, but at times nearly perfect
ovals. They have little or no gloss. The ground-colour varies from
white, very faintly tinged with pink, to a delicate pink, and they are
profusely speckled, spotted, blotched, or clouded with various shades
of red, brownish red, and purple. The markings vary much in character,
extent, and intensity of colour. There seem to be two leading types,
with, however, almost every possible intermediate variety of markings.
The one is thickly speckled over its whole surface with minute dots
of reddish purple, no dot much bigger than the point of a pin, and
no portion of the ground-colour exceeding 0·1 in diameter free from
spots. In these eggs the specklings are most dense, as a rule,
throughout a broad irregular zone surrounding the large end, and this
zone is thickly underlaid with irregular ill-defined streaky clouds
of dull inky purple. In some eggs of this type, the smaller end is
comparatively free from specks. In the other type, the surface of the
egg is somewhat sparingly, but boldly, blotched and splashed, first
with deep umber, chocolate, or purple-brown, and, secondly, with spots
and clouds of faint inky purple, recalling not a little the style of
markings of the eggs of _Rhynchops albicollis_. Then there are eggs
partly speckly and partly blotched, some in which the markings are all
rich red and where no secondary pale purple clouds are observable,
and others again in which all the markings are dull purplish brown.
Generally it may be said that the markings have a tendency to form a
cap or zone at the large end.
A nest of three eggs recently obtained from Mussoorie were more richly
coloured than any I have yet seen, and were decidedly glossy. The
ground-colour is a rich rosy pink, boldly, but sparingly, blotched
and spotted with deep maroon, underlaid by clouds and spots of pale
purple, which appear as if beneath the surface of the shell. In all
the eggs the markings are far more numerous at the large end, where in
one they form a huge confluent maroon-coloured patch, mottled lighter
and darker.
An egg recently obtained in Cashmere on the 20th June was a somewhat
elongated oval, more or less compressed towards one end; a delicate
glossy white ground with a faint pink tinge; a rich zone of
reddish-purple spots and specks round the large end; a few similar
markings scattered sparingly over the rest of the surface of the egg,
and a multitude of very faint streaks and clouds of very _pale_ inky
purple underlying the primary markings.
In length the eggs vary from 0·9 to 1·15, and in breadth from 0·7 to
0·78; but the average of twenty-five eggs measured is 1·03 by 0·75.