"I have shot this bird on the Zammee choung, where I got a nest with
eggs; and I have more than once seen it in the Thoungyeen forests.
"The following is an account of the nest I found, recorded in my
note-book:--
"Khasat village--Khasat choung, Zammee river, 9th March, 1878.--My
camp to-day was pitched in the midst of a dense bamboo-break, close to
a path leading to the village.
"About ten feet from my tent on this path, passers-by had cut one
of the bamboos in a clump and left it leaning up against the clump;
between two knots of this a rough hack had broken an irregular hole
into a joint.
"Sitting outside my tent and looking carelessly about, my attention
was attracted by what I took to be a leaf flutter down close to the
above-mentioned bamboo, and to my surprise disappear before it reached
the ground. Wondering at this, I got up and approached the place, when
from the aforementioned hole in the bamboo out darted a little bird;
and looking in I saw a neat little nest of fibres placed on the lower
knot with three eggs, white densely speckled, chiefly in a ring at the
larger end, with pinkish claret spots.
"I went back to my tent, watched the bird return, and shot her as on
being frightened off she flew out a second time. It proved to be the
above species.
"I took the nest and eggs. The latter, I regret to say, were lost
subsequently through the carelessness of a servant, but I had luckily
measured and taken a description of them.
"Their dimensions were respectively 0·57 x 0·42, 0·59 x 0·42, and 0·59
x 0·44."
From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"I took a nest of this Warbler on the
15th June at 1800 feet elevation. It was inside a bamboo-stem near the
banks of the Ryeng stream. Just under a node some one had cut out a
notch, which the birds made their entrance. The nest rested on the
node below and fitted the hollow of the bamboo. It was made of dry
bamboo-leaves, and lined with soft, fibrous material. It measured
5 inches deep and 3 inches wide, with an egg cavity of 2 inches in
depth, by 1¾ inch in width. The eggs, which were hard-set, were but
three in number."
The eggs are rather long ovals, the shell fine but with very little
gloss; the ground-colour is a dull white or pinky white, and it is
thickly freckled and mottled about the large end and thinly elsewhere
with red, in some cases slightly browner, in others purple. The
markings have a tendency to form a cap or zone about the large end,
and here, where the markings are densest, some little lilac or
purplish-grey spots and clouds are intermingled.
An egg measures 0·61 by 0·43.
441. Abrornis schisticeps (Hodgs.). _The Black-faced
Flycatcher-Warbler_.
Abrornis schisticeps, _Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 201; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 571.
Captain Hutton tells us that the Black-faced Flycatcher-Warbler is "a
common species in the neighbourhood of Mussoorie, at 5000 feet, and
commences building in March. A pair of these birds selected a thick
China rose-bush trained against the side of the house, and had
completed the nest and laid one egg when a rat destroyed it. I
subsequently took two other nests in May, both placed on the ground
in holes in the side of a bank by the roadside. In form the nest is
a ball, with a round lateral entrance, and is composed externally
of dried grasses and green moss, lined with bits of wool, cotton,
feathers, thread, and hair. The eggs are three in number."
Two eggs of this species, sent to me by Captain Hutton, are very
perfect ovals, pure white[A], and rather glossy.
[Footnote A: There can be little doubt that Capt. Hutton's eggs were
wrongly identified.--ED.]
They both measure 0·62 by 0·48.
From Sikhim Mr. Gammie writes:--"The only nest I ever found of this
Warbler was in a natural hole in a small tree in an open part of a
large forest, at 5500 feet above the sea. In a cleft, five feet from
ground, where a limb had been lopped off, there was a small hole,
barely large enough, at entrance to admit the bird, but gradually
widening out for the seven or eight inches of its depth. In the bottom
of this cavity was a loose lining of dry bamboo-leaves, on which lay
five eggs. They do not agree with those taken by Captain Hutton, which
were 'pure white,' but I am absolutely certain of the authenticity of
the eggs taken by me. They were well-set, so five is probably the full
complement. They were taken on the 26th May."
The eggs sent by Mr. Gammie, for the authenticity of which he vouches,
are moderately broad ovals, somewhat compressed and pyriform towards
the small end. They have but little gloss, and are of the same type as
_A. superciliaris_ and _A. albigularis_. The ground is a dull pinkish
white, and they are profusely mottled and streaked with red, which in
some eggs is brownish, in some purplish. The markings are densest at
the large end, where they have a tendency to form an irregular zone,
which in some specimens is very conspicuous.
These eggs vary from 0·56 to 0·57 in length, and from 0·41 to 0·42 in
breadth.
442. Abrornis albigularis, Hodgs. _The White-throated
Flycatcher-Warbler_.
Abrornis albigularis, _Hodgs._, _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 204.
A nest of this species found in Native Sikhim, below Namtchu, on
the 28th July, is a regular Tailor-bird's nest, absolutely
undistinguishable from the one also sent me by Mr. Mandelli as
belonging to _Orthotomus atrigularis_, so that for the moment I have
some doubts as to the authenticity of this nest. Two leaves, precisely
of the same species as those made use of by the Tailor-bird in
question, have been sewn together with the same bright yellow silk,
and the little deep cup-shaped nest within is composed exactly of the
same excessively fine grass. Another nest, also said to belong to this
species, but of a very different character, has been sent me by Mr.
Mandelli. This was found at Yendong, in Native Sikhim, on the 6th
July, and contained four fresh eggs precisely of the type of those of
_A. schisticeps_. The nest was placed in the cavity of a truncated
bamboo about 4 feet from the ground, and was a loose cup, the basal
portion composed of dry bamboo-leaves, and the rest of the nest being
made of excessively fine grass, flower-stems, similar to those used
in the Tailor-bird-like nest above described, but with a quantity of
feathers mingled with this in the lining of the nest.
The eggs of this species are of precisely the same type as those of
_A. schisticeps_ and _A. superciliaris_, but they are the smallest
of all. They are little regular oval eggs, with a white, greyish, or
pinky white ground, with deep red freckled and mottled markings, which
are densely set about the large end, where they generally form a cap
or zone, and usually much less dense elsewhere.
The eggs sent me measured 0·55 and 0·57 by 0·43.