Prinia socialis, _Sykes, Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p. 170: _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 534.
Prinia stewarti, _Blyth, Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 171; _Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E._ no. 535.
_Prinia socialis_.
The Ashy Wren-Warbler breeds throughout the southern portion of the
Peninsula and Ceylon, alike in the low country and in the hills, up to
all elevation of nearly 7000 feet.
The breeding-season extends from March to September, but I am
uncertain whether they have more than one brood.
Dr. Jerdon says:--"Colonel Sykes remarks that this species has the
same ingenious nest as _O. longicauda_. I have found the nest on
several occasions, and verified Colonel Sykes's observations; but it
is not so neatly sewn together as the nest of the true Tailor-bird,
and there is generally more grass and other vegetable fibres used in
the construction. The eggs are usually reddish white, with numerous
darker red dots at the large end often coalescing, and sometimes the
eggs are uniform brick-red throughout."
Now, first, as regards the eggs, it is clearly wrong to say that the
eggs are usually reddish white; that such eggs, as exceptions, may
have occurred I do not doubt, but I have seen more than fifty eggs
of this bird taken by Miss Cockburn, Messrs. Carter, Davison, Wait,
Theobald, and others, and all were without exception mahogany- or
brick-red, at times mottled, somewhat paler and darker here and there,
but making no approach, even the most distant, to what Dr. Jerdon says
is the _usual_ type. Moreover, I have taken _many hundreds_ of the
eggs of _stewarti_ (the northern, rather smaller form), which is not
only _most_ closely allied but really _very_ doubtfully distinct, and
yet I never met with one single egg of this type. At the same time
Mr. Swinhoe ('Ibis,' 1860, p. 50) tells us that _P. sonitans_ also at
times exhibits a reddish-white egg; so I do not for a moment question
that Dr. Jerdon had seen such eggs, only it must be understood that,
so far from constituting the _usual type_, it is in reality a most
abnormal and rare variety. Out of eight correspondents who have
collected for me in Southern India, I cannot learn that any one has
ever yet even seen an egg of this type.
As regards the nest, this species often constructs a Tailor-bird nest,
the true nest being filled in between two or more leaves carefully
stitched together to the nest; but it also, like that species, often
builds a very different structure.
A nest now before me, sent from Conoor, is a loosely-made cup--a very
slight fabric of grass-stems, matted with a quantity of the downy seed
of some flowering grass and with a lining of fine grass-roots. It is
an irregular cup about 2½ inches in diameter and 2 inches in depth.
Four seems to be the regular number of the eggs.
From Kotagherry Miss Cockburn writes that "the Ashy Wren-Warbler
builds a neat little hanging nest very much in the Tailor-bird style,
for it draws the leaves of the branch on which the nest is constructed
close together, and sews them so tightly as sometimes to make them
nearly touch each other, while a small quantity of fine grass, wool,
and the down of seed-pods is used as a lining and also placed between
the leaves. These nests are built very low, and contain three
_beautiful_ little bright red eggs, a shade darker at the thick end.
They are easily discovered; for the birds get so agitated if any one
approaches the bush on which they have built that they invariably
attract one to the very spot they most wish to conceal. They build in
the months of June and July."
Mr. Davison says:--"This bird breeds on the Nilghiris in March, April,
and May, and sometimes as late as the earlier part of June. The nest
is generally placed low down near the roots of a bush or tuft of
grass. It is made of grass beautifully and closely woven, domed, and
with the entrance near the top. The eggs, three or four in number,
are of a deep brick-red, darker at the larger end, where there is
generally a zone, and are very glossy. I once obtained a nest made
of grass and bits of cotton, but instead of being built as above
described it was placed between, and sewn to, two leaves of the
_Datura stramonium_. It contained three eggs of a deep brick-red; in
fact, precisely like those described above."
Mr. Wait tells us that "in September I found two nests, the one deeply
cup-shaped, the other domed, both constructed of similar materials.
The latter of the two was placed at the bottom of a large bunch of
lemon-grass, and was constructed of root-fibre and grass, grass-bents,
and down of thistle and hawkweed, all intermixed. Exteriorly it
measured between 3 and 4 inches in diameter. The nests contained three
and five eggs, all highly glossy and of a deep brownish-red, deeper
than brick-red, mottled with a still deeper shade."
Colonel "W.Y. Legge, writing from Ceylon, tells us that "_P. socialis_
breeds with us in the commencement of the S.W. monsoon during the
months of May, June, and July. It nests in long grass on the Patnas in
the Central Province, in guinea-grass fields, and in sugarcane-brakes
where these exist, as in the Galle District for instance. I can
scarcely imagine that Jerdon is correct about this Warbler's nesting.
"Nothing can be more un-Tailor-bird-like than the nest which it builds
in _this_ country, and this led me to think that ours was a different
species until my specimens were identified by Lord Walden. In May 1870
a pair resorted to a large guinea-grass field attached to my bungalow
at Colombo, for the purpose of breeding. I soon found the nest, which
was the most peculiarly constructed one I have ever seen. It was, in
fact, an almost shapeless ball of guinea-grass roots, _thrown_ as it
were between the upright stalks of the plant at about 2 feet from
the ground: I say 'thrown,' because it was scarcely attached to the
supporting stalks at all. It was formed entirely of the roots of the
plant, which, when it is old, crop out of the ground and are easily
plucked up by the bird, the bottom or more solid part being interwoven
with cotton and such-like substances to impart additional strength.
The entrance was at the side in the upper half, and was tolerably
neatly made; it was about an inch in diameter, the whole structure
measuring about 6 inches in depth by 5 inches in breadth. I found the
nest in a partial state of completion on the 10th of May; by the 19th
it was finished and the first of a clutch of three eggs laid. The nest
and eggs were both taken on the evening of the 24th, and the following
day another was commenced close at hand. This was somewhat smaller,
but constructed in the same peculiar manner as the first. This was
completed, and the first of another clutch laid. The eggs are somewhat
pointed at the smaller end, and of an almost uniform dull mahogany
ground-colour, showing indications of a paler underground at the
point."
Birds like these, that build half-a-dozen different kinds of nests,
ought to be abolished; they lead to all kinds of mistakes and
differences of opinion, and are more trouble than they are worth.
Colonel E.A. Butler writes:--"Found numerous nests of this species at
Belgaum on the following dates:--
"July 13. A nest containing 4 fresh eggs.
" 22. " " " 3 "
" 25. " " " 4 "
" 26. " " " 3 "
" 26. " " " 3 "
" 28. " " " 2 slightly incubated eggs.
Aug. 5. " " " 4 fresh eggs.
" 6. " " " 4 "
"All of the above nests were built in sugarcane-fields or in
corn-fields; and most of them were stitched up in leaves of various
plants after the fashion of Tailor-birds' nests; but in some instances
they were of the other type, simply supported by the blades of
sugar-cane or corn they were built in. In addition to the above I
found numerous other nests all through August, many of which were
destroyed by something or other--what, I do not know! In fact, it has
always been a puzzle to me what it is that takes the eggs of these
small birds: three out of four nests, when visited a second time, are
either empty, gone altogether, or pulled down; and how the birds ever
manage to hatch off a brood at all with so many enemies I do not know.
"I found a nest of the Ashy Wren-Warbler at Deesa on the 21st July,
containing three fresh eggs, of a highly polished deep mahogany-red
colour, with an almost invisible cap of the same colour a shade darker
at the large end. The nest, which was placed in the centre of a low
bush and fixed to a few small twigs, was oval in shape, measuring 3¾
inches in length exteriorly and 2-5/8 in width, with a small round
entrance near the top about 1¼ inch in diameter. It was composed
of fine dry fibrous grass, with silky vegetable down (_Calotropis
giganten_) and cobwebs smeared over the exterior. The walls were very
thin, but the bottom of the nest somewhat solid. The whole well woven
and compactly built. Later on I got nests on the following dates:--
"Aug. 1. A nest containing 3 fresh eggs.
" 1. " " 2 "
" 5. " " 4 "
" 5. " " 4 "
" 8. " " 3 "
" 9. " " 4 "
" 26. " " 3 "
"In addition to the above, I found nests containing young birds on the
15th, 17th, and 23rd August.
"The nests are of two distinct types. One as above described; the
other, which is the commoner of the two, a regular Tailor-bird's nest
stitched between two leaves but without any lining. The eggs vary a
good deal in shade, some being paler than others. Some eggs I have
look almost like little balls of red carnelian. Creepers (convolvulus
&c.) growing up low thorny bushes in grass-beerhs are a favourite
place for the nest."
Lieut. H.E. Barnes informs us that in Rajputana this Warbler breeds
from July to September.
Messrs. Davidson and Wenden state that this bird is common in the
Deccan and breeds in August.
Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says:--"It builds
in March, constructing a very neat pendent nest, which is artfully
concealed, and supported by sewing one or two leaves round it. This
is very neatly done with the fine silk which surrounds the eggs of a
small brown spider. The nest is generally built of fine grass, and
contains three eggs of a bright brick-colour with a high polish. The
entrance to the nest is at the top and a little on one side. An egg
measured 0·7 inch in length by 0·48 in breadth."
As for the eggs, it is unnecessary to describe them; they are
precisely similar to those of _P. stewarti_, fully described below.
All that can be said is that as a body they are slightly larger, and
_possibly_, as a _whole_, the least shade less dark. In length they
vary from 0·52 to 0·72, and in breadth from 0·45 to 0·52; but the
average of twenty-one eggs measured is 0·64 by rather more than
0·47[A].
[Footnote A: As a matter of convenience I keep the notes on _P.
socialis_ and _P. stewarti_ separate, as is done in the 'Rough Draft';
but there is no doubt whatever now that the two birds are the same
species.--ED.]
_Prinia stewarti_.
Stewart's Wren-Warbler is one of those forms in regard to which at
present great difference of opinion prevails as to whether or no they
merit specific separation. _P. stewarti_ from the N.W. Provinces and
_P. socialis_ from the Nilghiris differ only in size; the latter is
somewhat more robust, and probably weighs one fifth more than the
former. But then in the Central Provinces you meet with intermediate
sizes, and I have plenty of birds which might be assigned
indifferently to either race as a rather small example of the one or
rather large one of the other. I myself consider all to belong to one
species, but as this is not the general view I have kept my notes on
their nidification separate.
This species or race breeds almost throughout the plains of Upper
India and in the Sub-Himalayan ranges to an elevation of 3000 or
4000 feet. In the plains the breeding-season extends from the first
downfall of rain in June (I have never found them earlier) to quite
the end of August. In the moist Sub-Himalayan region, the Terais,
Doons, Bhaburs, and the low hills, they commence laying nearly a month
earlier.
This species often constructs as neatly sewn a nest as does the
_Orthotomus_; in fact, many of the nests built by these two species so
closely resemble each other that it would be difficult to distinguish
them were there not very generally a difference in the lining. With
few exceptions all the innumerable nests of _O. sutorius_ that I have
seen were lined with some soft substance--cotton-wool, the silky down
of the cotton-tree(_Bomlax heptaphyllum_) grass-down, soft horsehair,
or even human hair, while the nests of _P. stewarti_ are almost
without exception _lined_ with fine grass-roots.
Our present bird does not, however, invariably construct a "tailored"
nest. When it does, like _O. sittorius_, it sews two, three, four,
or five leaves together, as may be most convenient, filling the
intervening space with down, fine grass, vegetable fibre, or wool,
held firmly into its place by cross-threads, sometimes composed of
cobwebs, sometimes made by the bird itself of cotton, and sometimes
apparently derived from unravelled rags. It also, however, often
makes a nest entirely composed of fine vegetable fibre, cotton, and
grass-down, and lined as usual with fine grass-roots. Sometimes these
nests are long and purse-like, and sometimes globular, either attached
to, or pendent from, two or more twigs. One nest before me, a sort of
deep watch-pocket, suspended from five twigs of the jhao (_Tamarix
dioica_), measures externally 2·75 inches in diameter, is a good deal
longer at what may be called the back than the front, and at the back
fully 5·5 long. Internally the diameter is about 1·5, and the cavity,
measuring from the lowest portion of the external rim, is 2·5. This
is a _very_ large nest. Another, built between three leaves, has an
external diameter of about 2½ inches, and is externally not above 3
inches long. It is unnecessary here to describe the beautiful manner
in which, when it makes use of leaves, this bird sews them together,
as this has already been well described by others where _O. sutorius_
is concerned, and _P. stewarti_ is, in some cases, when forming a nest
with leaves, fully as neat a workman.
The nests vary so much, and I have heard so much, discussion about
them, that having seen at least a hundred and having taken full notes
of some twenty of them, I shall reproduce a few of these notes:--
"_Agra, July 17th_.--Two nests--one nearly globular, composed entirely
of fibrous roots, hair, wool, and thread, and lined with fine grass,
suspended by a few fibres and hairs between the fork of a branchlet
in a little dense bush of Indian box; the other, suspended from the
tendril of an elephant creeper, was principally formed by one of the
leaves of this, to which, to form the remaining third of the exterior,
a second leaf of the same plant was carefully sewn. Interiorly there
was a little wool, and at the bottom fine grass.
"_July 20th_.--On a furash-tree (_Tamarix furas_), beautifully made
of fine soft wool, shreds of tow and string, very fine grass and
grass-roots, and the bottom neatly lined with very fine grass-roots.
In shape the nest is like one half of a long old-fashioned silk purse,
round-bottomed and very compact, with a long slit-like opening on one
side towards the top. It contained five eggs.
"_July 26th_.--Two nests, one formed almost entirely in a single
mango-leaf, the sides of which are curled round so as nearly to meet,
and then laced by a succession of cross-threads of cobweb, carefully
knotted at each place where the margin of the leaf is pierced. The
intervening space is closed by fine tow, wool, and the silky down of
the cotton-tree, with just the top of a small mango-leaf caught in
from above so as to form an arched roof. The other nest was rounder in
form, having less of a leafy structure. It had, however, the leaf of
the _Phalsa_ forming the back and sides (partly), whilst the whole of
the front was composed of soft wool, tow, dry grass-roots, thread, and
a few pieces of the soft tree-cotton. It had a neighbouring leaf just
caught in on one side. This contained four fresh eggs.
"_July 30th_.--A beautiful nest between three twigs, several of the
leaves of each of which had been tacked on to the outside of the nest.
The nest itself was firmly put together with fine grass-roots, and was
nearly globular in shape, with one side continued upwards into a sort
of hood overhanging the greater portion of the aperture. It contained
four eggs of the usual deep red colour.
"_August 8th_.--At Bichpoori found a number of nests, and some of them
of a strangely different type. One was inside a tiny hut on the line,
about 3 feet above the head of the chaprassie's bed. It had no leaves
about it, and was composed of thread, wool, and a few very fine
grass-stems, and lined thinly with fine grass-stems and a little black
horsehair. It was about two thirds of a sphere, the external diameter
of which was about 3¼ inches, and the internal 2½ inches. The bird was
on the nest, so that there could be no mistake, otherwise it would
have been impossible to believe that it belonged to _P. stewarti_,
of which we have taken so many sewn in leaves. A little further on
another nest of the same species, built in the ragged eaves of a
thatch, externally composed almost entirely of cotton-wool, with a
little tow-fibre binding the structure together, internally as usual
lined with very fine grass-roots with a few horsehairs. Another nest
of the _Prinia_ was in one respect even more remarkable. It was
built in the usual situation in a low herbaceous plant, sewn to and
suspended from two leaves, and two or three others worked into its
sides. It was constructed almost entirely of fine grass-roots and
fibres, with a few tiny tufts of cotton-wool, and the leaves as usual
firmly tacked on with threads and cobweb fibres. It would seem that,
after constructing the nest, but before laying, a large female spider
took possession of the bottom of the nest, and shut herself in by
constructing a diaphragm of web horizontally across the nest, thus
occupying the whole of the cavity of the nest. The little bird
accepted this change of circumstances, built the nest a little higher
at the sides, and over the spider's web placed a false bottom of
fine grass-roots, on which she laid her four eggs, and there she was
sitting when the nest was taken, the spider, alive and apparently
happy in the cell below, plainly visible through the interstices of
the grass, with a huge sac of eggs which she was incubating. Her
chamber is fully one half of the nest."
I may add that this latter nest, with the _now_ dead spider, _in
situ_, is still in our museum.
In number the eggs are sometimes four, sometimes five, and I have
_heard_ of six being found.
They rear usually two broods; if their eggs are taken they will lay
three or four sets; sometimes they use the same nest twice; sometimes,
directly the first brood is at all able to shift for themselves, the
parents leave them in the old nest, and commence building a new one at
no great distance.
The late Mr. A. Anderson remarked:--"Owing to the inclemency of the
weather (August) the geranium-pots in the garden were placed in the
verandah of the house I am at present living in, and, strange to say,
a pair of these Warblers commenced building in the leaves of one of
the plants immediately under my window.
"When the nest was about half-finished the birds' forsook it without
apparently any reason, as they were never molested in any way. On
examining the nest, however, the cause was evident, and afforded a
remarkable instance of instinct on the part of the little architects.
The leaves that had been pierced and sewn together had actually
commenced to _wither_, and in the course of a few days later the whole
structure came down bodily.
"This is the only _Prinia_ to be found at Futtehgurh, and they are one
of our most common garden-birds. Their beautiful brick-red eggs and
neatly-sewn nests are too well known to require description.
"Four generally, and five frequently, is the number of eggs they lay.
I have _one_ record of _six_ on the 17th August, 1873; in this case
one egg was laid daily, the first having been laid on the 12th, and
the sixth on the 17th."
Captain Hutton remarks:--"This is a true Tailor-bird in respect to
the construction of the nest, which is composed of one leaf as a
supporting base stitched to two others meeting it perpendicularly, the
apices of all three being neatly sewn together with threads roughly
spun from the cottony down of seeds. Between or within these leaves is
placed the nest, very slightly and loosely constructed of fine roots,
grass-stalks, and seed-down, the latter material being interwoven to
hold the coarser fibres of the nest together. There is no finer lining
within, and the edges of the exterior leaves are drawn together round
the nest and held there partly by roughly-spun threads of down, and
partly by the ends of the stiff fibres being thrust through them. The
whole forms a very light and graceful fabric. Within this nest were
four beautiful and highly polished eggs of a deep brick-red colour,
darkest at the larger end, faint specks and blotches of a deeper
colour being indistinctly discernible beneath the surface of the
shell, which shines as if it had been varnished. The nest is not
closed above, but is open and deeply cup-shaped. This was taken in the
Dhoon on the 30th May."
Major C.T. Bingham says:--"Breeds at Allahabad in June, July, and
August. At Delhi I have not yet found its nest. I once found in July
three nests all attached together in a sort of triangle, but whether
built by separate pairs of birds I cannot say. Only one nest contained
eggs."
Colonel G.F.L. Marshall writes:--"A nest found in July in the Cawnpoor
district was built of grass, a deep oblong domed nest with the
entrance at the side near the top. It was placed close to the ground
in a tuft of surkerry grass sloping rather backwards. The position is,
I believe, unusual. The old birds were still putting finishing touches
to the building when I found it."
The eggs are ovals, as a rule, neither very broad nor much elongated.
Pyriform examples occur, but a somewhat perfect oval is the usual
type, and the examination of a large series shows that the tendency
is to vary to a globular and not to an elongated shape. The eggs
are brilliantly glossy, and, though considerably smaller, strongly
resemble, as is well known, those of the little short-tailed Cetti's
Warbler.
In colour they are brick-red, some, however, being paler and yellower,
others deeper and more mahogany-coloured. There is a strong tendency
to exhibit all ill-defined cloudy cap or zone, of far greater
intensity than the colour of the rest of the egg, at or towards the
large end.
In length the eggs vary from 0·6 to 0·68, and in breadth from 0·45 to
0·5; but the average of seventy eggs measured is 0·62 by 0·46.