Cisticola schoenicola, _Bp., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 174; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 539.
The Rufous Fantail-Warbler breeds pretty well all over India and
Ceylon, confining itself, as far as my experience goes, to the low
country, and never ascending the mountains to any great elevation.
The breeding-season lasts, according to locality, from April to
October, but it never breeds with us in dry weather, always laying
during rainy months. Very likely at the Nicobars, where it rains
pretty well all the year round, March being the only fairly dry month,
it may breed at all seasons.
I have myself taken several, and have had a great many nests sent to
me. With rare exceptions all belonged to one type. The bird selects a
patch of dense fine-stemmed grass, from 18 inches to 2 feet in height,
and, as a rule, standing in a moist place; in this, at the height of
from 6 to 8 inches from the ground, the nest is constructed; the sides
are formed by the blades and stems of the grass, _in situ_, closely
tacked and caught together with cobwebs and very fine silky vegetable
fibre. This is done for a length of from 2 to nearly 3 inches, and,
as it were, a narrow tube, from 1 to 1·5 in diameter, formed in the
grass. To this a bottom, from 4 to 6 inches above the surface of the
ground, is added, a few of the blades of the grass being bent across,
tacked and woven together with cobwebs and fine vegetable fibre. The
whole interior is then closely felted with silky down, in Upper India
usually that of the mudar (_Calotropis hamiltoni_). The nest thus
constructed forms a deep and narrow purse, about 3 inches in depth,
an inch in diameter at top, and 1·5 at the broadest part below. The
tacking together of the stems of the grass is commonly continued a
good deal higher up on one side than on the other, and it is through
or between the untacked stems opposite to this that the tiny entrance
exists. Of course above the nest the stems and blades of the grass,
meeting together, completely hide it. The dimensions above given are
those of the interior of the nest; its exterior dimensions cannot be
given. The bird tacks together not merely the few stems absolutely
necessary to form a side to the nest, but most of the stems all
round, decreasing the extent of attachment as they recede from the
nest-cavity. It does this, too, very irregularly; on one side of the
nest perhaps no stem more than an inch distant from the interior
surface of the nest will be found in any way bound up in the fabric,
while on the opposite side perhaps stems fully 3 inches distant,
together with all the intermediate ones, will be found more or less
webbed together. Occasionally, but rarely, I have found a nest of a
different type. Of these one was built amongst the stems of a common
prickly labiate marsh-plant which has white and mauve flowers. There
was a straggling framework of fine grass, firmly netted together with
cobwebs, and a very scanty lining of down. The nest was egg-shaped,
and the aperture on one side near the top. Mr. Brooks, I believe, once
obtained a similar one; but the vast majority of the others that any
of us have ever got have been of the type first described, which
corresponds closely with Passler's account.
Five is the usual complement of eggs; at any rate I have notes of more
than a dozen nests that contained this number, and in more than half
the cases the eggs were partly incubated. I have no record of more
than five, and though I have any number of notes of nests containing
one, two, three, and four eggs, yet these latter in almost all these
cases were fresh.
Mr. Blyth says that this species is "remarkable for the beautiful
construction of its nest, _sewing_ together a number of growing stems
and leaves of grass, with a delicate pappus which forms also the
lining, and laying four or five translucent white eggs, with
reddish-brown spots, more numerous and forming a ring at the large
end, very like those of _Orthotomus sutorius_. It abounds in suitable
localities throughout the country."
I must here note that Mr. Blyth never paid special attention to eggs,
or he would have hardly said this, because the character of the
markings are essentially different. Those of the Tailor-bird are
typically _blotchy_, of the present species _speckly_.
Colonel W. Vincent Legge writes to me from Ceylon that "in the Western
Province it breeds from May until September, and constructs its nest
either in paddy-fields or in guinea-grass plots attached to bungalows."
The nest is so beautiful and so neatly constructed that perhaps a
short description of it will not be out of place. A framework of
cotton or other fibrous material is formed round two or three upright
stalks, about 2 feet from the ground, the material being sewn into the
grass and passed from one stalk to the other until a complete net
is made. This takes the bird from one to two days to construct[A].
Several blades, belonging to the stalks round which the cotton is
passed, are then bent down and interlaced across to form a bottom
on which, and inside the cotton network, a neat little nest of fine
strips of grass torn off from the blade is built; this is most
beautifully lined with cotton or other downy substance, which appears
to be plastered with the saliva of the bird, until it takes the
appearance and texture of soft felt.
[Footnote A: Numbers of these birds used to build in a guinea-grass
field attached to my bungalow at Colombo, and I had full opportunity
of watching the construction of the nest on many occasions.--W.V.L.]
"The average dimensions of the interior or cup are 2 inches in depth
by 1¼ in breadth. The whole structure is generally completed in about
five days, and the first egg laid on the fifth or sixth day from the
commencement. The number of eggs varies from two to four, most nests
containing three. The time of incubation is, as a rule, from nine to
eleven days.
"I have found but little variation in the eggs of this species either
as regards size or colour. They are white or pale greenish white,
spotted and blotched in a zone round the larger end with red and
reddish grey, a few spots extending towards the point: axis 0·63 inch;
diameter 0·51 inch.
"From close observation I can certify that this and many other small
birds do not here sit during the daytime. I scarcely ever found a
_Cisticola_ on the nest between sunrise and sunset,"
Colonel E.A. Butler writing from Deesa says:--"The Rufous
Fantail-Warbler breeds in the plains during the monsoon, making a long
bottle-shaped nest of silky-white vegetable down, with an entrance at
the top, in a tuft of coarse grass a few inches from the ground. I
have taken nests on the following dates:--
"July 29, 1875. A nest containing 4 fresh eggs.
Aug. 1, 1876. " " 5 fresh eggs.
Aug. 5, 1876. " " 4 fresh eggs.
Aug. 5, 1876. " " 3 fresh eggs.
Aug. 5, 1876. " " 4 fresh eggs.
Aug. 5, 1876. " " 5 fresh eggs.
Aug. 7, 1876. " " 5 fresh eggs.
Aug. 8, 1876. " " 4 fresh eggs."
And he adds the following note:--"Belgaum, 22nd July, 1879. Four fresh
eggs. Same locality, numerous other nests in August and September."
Major C.T. Bingham notes:--"I have not yet observed this bird at
Delhi. At Allahabad I procured one nest in the beginning of March,
shooting the birds. The nest was made of very fine dry grass, and
contained four small white eggs, speckled thickly with minute points
of brick-red. The average of the four eggs is 0·60 by 0·41 inch."
Mr. Cripps informs us that in Eastern Bengal this bird is very common
and a permanent resident. Eggs are found from the beginning of May to
the end of June, in grass-jungle almost on the ground. The nest is a
deep cup, externally of fine grasses, internally of the downy tops of
the sun-grass.
In the Deccan, Messrs. Davidson and Wenden state that it is "common in
all grass-lands. It breeds in the rainy season."
Mr. Oates, writing on the breeding of this bird in Pegu, says:--"The
majority of birds begin laying at the commencement of June, and
probably nests may be found throughout the rains. I procured a nest
on the 2nd of November, a very late date I imagine. It contained four
eggs."
I have taken the eggs of this bird myself on many occasions. I have
had them sent me with the nest and bird by Mr. Brooks from Etawah, and
Mr. F.R. Blewitt from Jhansi. From first to last I have seen fully
fifty authentic eggs of this species. All were of one and the same
type, and that type widely different from any one of those that Dr.
Bree, following European ornithologists, figures. Dr. Bree's three
figures all represent a perfectly spotless egg--one pink, the other
bluish white, and the third a pretty dark bluish green. Our eggs, on
the contrary, are _spotted_; the ground is white with, when fresh and
unblown, a delicate pink hue, due not to the shell itself, but to its
contents, which partially show through it. Occasionally the white
ground has a _faint_ greenish tinge.
_Every_ egg is spotted, and most densely so towards the large end,
with, as a rule, excessively minute red, reddish-purple, and pale
purple specks, thus resembling, though smaller, more glossy, and far
less densely speckled, the eggs of _Franklinia buchanani_. These are
beyond all question the eggs of our Indian species, and the only type
of them that I have yet observed; but the question remains--Is our
Indian _Prinia cursitans_, Franklin, really identical with the
European _C. schoenicola_, Bonaparte? [A]--and this can only be
settled by careful comparison of an enormous series of good specimens
of each bird. For my part I personally have little doubts as to the
identity of the two. At the same time differences in the eggs may
indicate difference of species. Thus of the closely allied _C.
volitans_, Swinhoe, the latter gentleman informs us that "the eggs of
our bird vary from three to five, are thin and fragile, and of a pale
clear greenish blue"[B]. He called it _C. schoenicola_ when he wrote,
but he really referred to the Formosan bird, which he has since
separated.
[Footnote A: The Indian and European birds are now generally allowed
to be perfectly identical, notwithstanding the alleged difference
in the colour of the eggs; and Mr. Hume is now, I think, of this
opinion.--ED.]
[Footnote B: But _C. volitans_, or the closely allied race which
occurs in Pegu, assuredly lays spotted eggs. I found two nests of this
bird, both with spotted eggs _vide_ (p. 236).--ED.]
The eggs of course vary somewhat. Of one nest I wrote at the time I
found it--"The eggs are a rather short oval, slightly pointed at one
end, with a white ground, thickly sprinkled with numerous specks and
tiny spots of pale brownish red. They measured ·58 by ·46." Of
another I say--"The ground had a faint pearly tinge, and there was a
well-marked, though, irregular and ill-defined, zone towards the large
end, formed by the agglomeration there of multitudinous specks, which
in places were almost confluent." Of another set--"The eggs were much
glossier and had a china-white ground; but instead of a multitude
of small specks over the whole surface, they had nearly the whole
colouring-matter gathered together at the large end in a cap of bold,
almost maroon-red spots, only a very few spots of the same colour
being scattered over the rest of the egg."
The eggs measure from ·53 to ·62 in length, and from ·43 to ·48 in
breadth; but the average dimensions of a large number measured were
·59 by ·46.