Scotocerca inquieta (_Rüpp._), _Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 550
bis.
The Streaked Scrub-Warbler is a permanent resident of the bare stony
hills which, under many names and broken into multitudinous ranges,
run down from the Khyber Pass to the sea, dividing the Punjab and Sind
from Afghanistan and Khelat.
An account of its nidification is contained in the following note
furnished me by the late Captain Cock:--
"I first discovered this bird breeding in February in the Khuttuck
Hills. It is common throughout the range of stony hills between
Peshawur and Attock, and I have seen it on the hills between Jhelum
and Pindi, but never took their nest in this latter locality. At
Nowshera it is very common, and towards the end of February a
collector could take four or five nests in a day. It builds in a low
thorny shrub, about 1½ feet from the ground, makes a largish globular
nest of thin dry grass-stems, with an opening in the side, thickly
lined with seed-down, and containing four or five eggs. Their
nesting-operations are over by the end of March."
Lieut. H.E. Barnes, who observed the bird at Chaman in Afghanistan,
says:--"These birds are quite common about here on the plains, but I
have not observed them on the hills. They commence breeding towards
the end of March; the nest is globular in shape, not unlike that of
_Franklinia buchanani_, but somewhat larger, built invariably in
stunted bushes about two feet from the ground. It is well lined with
feathers and fine grass, the outer portion being composed of fibres
and coarse grass. The normal number of eggs is six. I have found less,
but never more, and whenever a lesser number has been taken they have
always proved to be fresh laid.
"The eggs are oval in shape, white, with a pinkish tinge when fresh,
very minutely spotted and speckled with light red, most densely at the
larger end. The average of twelve eggs is 0·62 by 0·43."
The eggs are moderately broad and regular ovals, usually somewhat
compressed towards one end, but occasionally exhibiting no trace of
this. The shell is very fine and delicate, but, as a rule, entirely
devoid of gloss. The ground-colour varies from pure to pinky white.
The markings are always minute, but in some they are comparatively
much bolder and larger than in others, and they vary in colour from
reddish pink to a comparatively bright red. In many eggs the markings
are much more dense towards the large end, where they form, or exhibit
a strong tendency to form, an irregular, more or less confluent zone;
and wherever the markings are dense there a certain number of tiny
pale purple or lilac spots or clouds will be found intermingled with
and underlying the red markings. Some eggs show none of these spots
and exhibit no tendency to form a zone, being pretty uniformly
speckled and spotted all over. Some are not very unlike eggs of
the Grasshopper and Dartford Warblers; others, again, are almost
counterparts of the eggs of _Franklinia buchanani_.
In length the eggs vary from 0·6 to 0·68, and in breadth from 0·46 to
0·51.