Prinia beavani, _Wald., Hume, cat._ no. 538 bis.
Mr. Oates, who found the nest of this Warbler in Pegu, says:--"June
29th. Found a nest sewn into a broad soft leaf of a weed in forest
about 2 feet from the ground. The edges of the leaf are drawn together
and fastened by white vegetable fibres. The nest is composed entirely
of fine grass, no other material entering into its composition. For
further security the nest is stitched to the leaves in a few places;
the depth of the nest is about 3 inches, and internal diameter all the
way down about 1½. Eggs three, very glossy, pale blue, with specks and
dashes of pale reddish brown, chiefly at the larger end, where they
form a cap. Size ·58, ·62, ·61, by ·47."
Mr. Mandelli sends me a regular Tailor-bird's nest as that of this
species. It was found below Yendong in Native Sikhim on the 1st May,
and contained three fresh eggs. The nest itself is a beautiful
little cup, composed of silky vegetable down and excessively fine
grass-stems, and a very little black hair firmly felted together, and
is placed between two living leaves of a sapling neatly sewn together
at the margins with bright yellow silk.
The eggs are rather elongated, very regular ovals. The shell stout for
the size of the egg, but very fine and compact, and with a moderate
gloss. The ground-colour is a very delicate pale greenish blue. At or
round the larger end there is very generally a mottled cap or zone
(more commonly the latter) of duller or brighter brownish red, while
irregular blotches, streaks, spots, and specks of the same colour, but
usually a slightly paler shade, are more or less sparsely scattered
over the rest of the surface of the egg, sometimes they are almost
wholly wanting. Occasionally the zone is at the small end.
The eggs measure from 0·60 to 0·62 in length, by 0·43 to 0·48 in
breadth; but the average of six eggs is 0·61 by 0·45.
384. Franklinia buchanani (Blyth). _The Rufous-fronted
Wren-Warbler_.
Franklinia buchanani (_Blyth), Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 186; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 551.
The Rufous-fronted Wren-Warbler breeds throughout Central India,
the Central Provinces, the North-western Provinces, the Punjab, and
Rajpootana. It affects chiefly the drier and warmer tracts, and,
though said to have been obtained in the Nepal Terai, has never been
met with by _me_ either there or in any very moist, swampy locality.
The breeding-season extends from the end of May until the beginning of
September.
The nests, according to my experience, are always placed at heights of
from a foot to 4 feet from the ground, in low scrub-jungle or bushes.
They vary greatly in size and shape, according to position. Some are
oblate spheroids with the aperture near the top, some are purse-like
and suspended, and some are regular cups. One of the former
description measured externally 5 inches in diameter one way by 3¼
inches the other. One of the suspended nests was 7 inches long by 3
wide, and one of the cup-shaped nests was nearly 4 inches in diameter
and stood, perhaps, at most 2½ inches high. The egg-cavity in the
different nests varies from 1¾ to 2¼ inches in diameter, and from less
than 2 to fully 3 inches in depth. Externally the nest is very loosely
and, generally, raggedly constructed of very fine grass-stems and
tow-like vegetable fibre used in different proportions in different
nests; those in which grass is chiefly used being most ragged and
straggling, and those in which most vegetable fibre has been made use
of being neatest and most compact. In all the nests that I have seen
the egg-cavity has been lined with something very soft. In many of the
nests the lining is composed of small felt-like pieces of some dull
salmon-coloured fungus, with which the whole interior is closely
plastered; in others there is a dense lining of soft silky vegetable
down; and in others the down and fungus are mingled. They lay from
four to five eggs, never more than this latter number according to my
experience.
"At the end of June 1867," writes Mr. Brooks, "I took two nests of
this bird at Chunar in low ber bushes about 2 feet from the ground.
They were little spheres of fine grass with a hole at the side. One
contained four eggs; these were of a greyish-white ground or nearly
pure white, finely speckled over with reddish brown, some of the eggs
exhibiting a tendency to form a zone round the large end, and others
with a complete zone."
"At Sambhur," Mr. Adam says, "this Wren-Warbler is always found
wherever there are low bushes. It breeds just before the rains, but I
have not recorded the date. I had a nest with the bird and five eggs
sent to me. The eggs are pale bluish white, with reddish-brown spots
and freckles all over them."
"During July, August, and the early part of September," remarks Mr. W.
Blewitt, "I found a great number of the nests and eggs of this bird in
the jungle-preserves of Hansie and its neighbourhood. The nests, of
which I have already sent you several, were mostly in ber (_Zizyphus
jujuba_) and hinse (_Capparis aphylla_) bushes, at heights of from 3
to 4 feet from the ground. Five was the largest number of eggs that I
found in any one nest."
Major C.T. Bingham remarks:--"I found several nests of this bird in
the beginning of October at Delhi in the jherberry bushes so plentiful
on the Ridge. Both nests and eggs are very like those of _Cisticola
cursitans_ before described; the only difference I could find was that
the entrance in the nest of _C. cursitans_ that I found was at the
top, and in all the nests of _F. buchanani_ at the side rather low
down; the nests of the latter are also firmer and more globular in
shape. The eggs are, to my eye, identical in colour and form."
Mr. G. Reid informs us that at Lucknow it is fairly common and a
permanent resident. It makes an oblong, loosely constructed nest with
the aperture near the top, and lays three or four white eggs minutely
spotted with dingy red.
Mr. J. Davidson writes that in Western Khandeish this Warbler is the
commonest bird, breeding about Dhulia in July, August, and September.
Colonel E.A. Butler writes:--"I found a nest of the Rufous-fronted
Wren-Warbler at Deesa on the 27th July, 1875. It was in a grass beerh,
and placed in a heap of dead thorns overgrown with grass and about a
foot from the ground. It was composed externally of dry grass-stems,
with lumps of silky white vegetable down (_Calotropis_) scattered
sparingly over the whole nest. The lining consisted of very fine
dry grass neatly put together and felted with silky down, and a
considerable amount of the dull salmon-coloured fungus or lichen
referred to in the 'Rough Draft of Nests and Eggs,' p. 359. In shape
the nest is nearly spherical, being slightly oval however, with a
small aperture near the top. The entrance was 1½ inches in diameter,
and the nest itself roughly measured from the outside 4½ inches in
length and 4 in width. The eggs, usually four in number, are white,
closely speckled over with pale rusty red, intermingled with a few
pale washed-out inky markings, in some cases at the large end, which
is surrounded by a zone clear and well-marked in some instances, less
distinct in others. I found other nests in the same neighbourhood as
below:--
"Aug. 24, 1875. A nest containing 4 fresh eggs.
July 20, 1876. " " 4 " "
July 28, " " " 4 young birds.
Aug. 4, " " " 4 fresh eggs.
Aug. 5, " " " 4 " "
Aug. 5, " " " 4 " "
Aug. 5, " " " 5 " "
Aug. 8, " " " 5 " "
Aug. 14, " " " 5 " "
"In every one of the above instances the nest was exactly similar to
the one I have described, and built in the same kind of situation,
i.e. in heaps of dead thorns overgrown with long grass. The eggs are
all much the same, the spots being larger in some than in others and
more numerous in some cases than in others. In one set I have the
ground is very pale bluish white (skimmed milk) instead of being pure
white. As a rule the eggs are almost exactly like the eggs of _C.
cursitans_, and if mixed I doubt very much if any person could
separate them. On examining the salmon-coloured fungus-lining it
appears to me to be nothing more nor less than small pieces of dried
ber leaves, and I have never examined a nest without finding some of
this material at the bottom of it."
"The Rufous-fronted Wren-Warbler," writes Lieut. Barnes, "breeds in
Rajpootana during July, August, and the early part of September. The
nest, composed of grass, is loosely constructed, and placed in low
bushes or scrub."
The eggs vary somewhat in size and shape; a moderately broad oval,
slightly compressed towards the larger end, being, however, the
commonest type. Examining a large series, it appears that variations
from this type are more commonly of an elongated than a spherical
form. The eggs are of the same character as those of _Cisticola
cursitans_ (p. 236), but yet differ somewhat. The eggs are many
of them fairly glossy, the shells very delicate and fragile; the
ground-colour white, usually slightly greyish, but in some specimens
faintly tinged with very pale green or pink. Typically they are very
thickly and very finely speckled all over with somewhat dingy red or
purplish red. In three out of four eggs the markings are densest and
largest towards the large end; and, to judge from the large series
before me, at least one in four exhibits a more or less well-defined
mottled zone or cap at this end, formed by the partial confluence of
multitudinous specks.
In some specimens the markings are pale inky purple, and in some
slightly purplish brown, but these are abnormal varieties. In one or
two eggs fairly-sized spots and blotches are intermingled with the
minute specklings, but this also is rare. Of course in different
specimens the density of the speckling varies greatly: in some eggs
not a fifth of the surface is covered with the markings, while in some
it appears as if there were more of these than of the ground-colour.
In length the eggs vary from 0·55 to 0·66, and in breadth from 0·43 to
0·52; but the average of eighty-seven eggs is 0·62 by 0·48.