Dumeticola affinis (_Hodgs.), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 158.
Dumeticola brunneipectus, _Bl., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._
no. 519 bis.
Mr. Hodgson gives a very careful figure of a female bird of this
species, together with its nest and egg, but he labels it underneath
_affinis_. As we know, he described _affinis_ as having spots on the
breast; but he further notes that at the same place at which he obtained
the female, nest, and eggs, he also got a male bird with spots on the
breast; in fact, in other words, he seems to have come to the conclusion
that _Dumeticola affinis_ was the male and that _Dumeticola
brunneipectus_, which he did not separately name, though he has
beautifully figured it, was the female. I have specimens of both, but
the sexes were not ascertained; still I doubt whether the two birds can
possibly be merely different sexes of the same species. Anyhow, the
female bird which he figures (No. 826) is really _brunneipectus_, and
under that name I notice the nest and eggs on which the female figured
was captured. Mr. Hodgson notes:--"_Gosainthan_. In the snows; female
and nest.
"_August 2nd_.--Nest in a bunch of reeds placed slantingly: ovate
in shape; aperture at one side; placed about half a foot above
the ground, made of grasses and moss, 4 or 5 inches in diameter
exteriorly, interiorly between 2 and 3 inches." The eggs are figured
as moderately broad ovals, measuring 0·65 by 0·48, of a uniform deep
cinnabar-red, reminding one of the eggs of _Prinia socialis_, but much
deeper in colour[A].
[Footnote A: There can be no doubt, I think, that _T. affinis_ and _T.
brunneipectus_ are the same species as _T. thoracica_. I reproduce Mr.
Hodgson's note on the nesting of this species together with Mr. Hume's
remarks, but I feel sure that the nest described by Mr. Hodgson and
the egg figured by him cannot belong to the present species.--ED.]
Mr. Mandelli sends me three nests of this species, all found near
Yendong, in Native Sikhim, at an elevation of about 9000 feet, on the
15th, 17th, and 21st July. The nests contained two, two, and three
fresh eggs respectively, and were placed, two of them in small
brushwood, and one in a clump of rush or grass, from 9 to 18 inches
above the ground. They seem to have all been rather massive little
cups, composed exteriorly of broad grass-blades rather clumsily wound
together, and lined with rather finer, but by no means fine grass.
In two of them some dead leaves have been incorporated in the basal
portion.
They are rather dirty, shabby-looking nests, obviously made of dead
materials, old withered and partially-decayed grass, and not with
fresh grass; they seem to have measured 3 inches in diameter, and 2·5
in height externally; the cavity was perhaps 1·5 to 1·75 in diameter,
and 1 inch more or less in depth.
From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"Nest among scrub in small bush, 2
feet from ground, at 5000 feet above the sea. Found on the 3rd June,
when it contained two eggs; taken on the 5th, with four eggs. I
dissected the bird killed off the nest, and found it to be a female;
in her stomach were the remains of a few insects. The nest is
cup-shaped, loosely made of dry leaves and grass, lined with, for the
size of the bird, coarse grass-stalks. Externally it measures 3·5
inches in breadth by 2·5 deep; internally 2 broad by 1·5 deep."
This nest taken by Mr. Gammie near Rungbee on the 5th June, 1875, at
an elevation of about 5000 feet, contained four eggs. It was a massive
little cup about 3 inches in diameter externally, and with an internal
cavity about 2 inches in diameter and 1¾ inch deep; was rather loosely
put together, externally composed of dead leaves and broad flags of
grass, internally lined with grass-stems.
The eggs of this species are very regular broad ovals, the shells fine
but glossless, the ground-colour a dead white, thickly speckled and
spotted about the large end, thinly elsewhere, with somewhat brownish
and again purplish red. The markings are all very fine and small, but
where they are closely set at the large end there a few little pale
purplish-grey specks and spots are intermingled.
The eggs measure 0·68 by 0·55.
The eggs of this species obtained by Mr. Mandelli in the neighbourhood
of Darjeeling in July are so similar to those obtained by Mr. Gammie,
and of which he sent me the parent bird, that no second description is
necessary. They are a shade smaller, but the difference is not more
than is always observable in even the same species. They measure 0·67
in length, and 0·53 to 0·55 in breadth.