Drymoipus inornatus (_Sykes_), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii. p. 178;
_Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 543.
Drymoipus longicaudatus (_Tick._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 180.
Drymoipus terricolor, _Hume_; _Hume, Rough Draft N, & E._ no. 543 bis.
The breeding-season of this Wren-Warbler commences with the first fall
of rain, and lasts through July and August to quite the middle of
September.
The birds construct a very elegant nest, always closely and compactly
woven, of very fine blades, or strips of blades, of grass, in no nests
exceeding one-twentieth of an inch in width, and in many of not above
half this breadth. The grass is always used when fresh and green,
so as to be easily woven in and out. Both parents work at the nest,
clinging at first to the neighbouring stems of grass or twigs, and
later to the nest itself, while they push the ends of the grass
backwards and forwards in and out; in fact, they work very much like
the Baya (_P. baya_), and the nest, though much smaller, is in texture
very like that of this latter species, the great difference being that
the Baya, with us, more often uses _stems_, and _Prinia_ strips of
_blades_ of grass. The nest varies in shape and in size, according to
its situation: a very favourite locality is in amongst clumps of the
_sarpatta_, or serpent-grass, in which case the bird builds a long
and purse-like nest, attached above and all round to the surrounding
grass-stems, with a small entrance near the top. Such nests are
often 8 or 9 inches in length, and 3 inches or even more in external
diameter, and with an internal cavity measuring 1½ inch in diameter,
and having a depth of nearly 4 inches below the lower margin of the
entrance-hole. At other times they are hung between bare twigs, often
of some thorny bush, or are even placed in low herbaceous plants; in
these cases they are usually nearly globular, with the entrance-hole
near the top; they are then probably 3½ inches in external diameter
in every direction. In other cases they are hung to or between two or
more leaves to which the birds attach the nest, much as a Tailor-bird
would do, using, however, fine grass instead of cobwebs or cotton-wool
for ligaments. I have never found more than five eggs in any nest, and
four is certainly the normal number.
Mr. R.M. Adam remarks:--"I had a nest brought me in Oudh on the 17th
April, containing four eggs. About Agra and Muttra, where as you know
the birds are _very_ common, I have always obtained the greatest
number of eggs during August; four is the regular number; in one taken
on the 16th August I found five eggs."
Mr. W. Blewitt writes:--"During July, August, and the early part
of September I found multitudes of nests of this species in the
neighbourhood of Hausie, almost exclusively in the Dhasapoor, Dhana,
and Secundapoor _Beerhs_ or jungle-preserves.
"The nests, of which numerous specimens were sent to you, were of the
usual type, and were nearly all found in ber (_Z. jujuba_) and hinse
(_Capparis aphylla_) bushes, at heights of from 3 to 4 feet from the
ground. I did not meet with more than four eggs in any one nest."
Colonel E.A. Butler says:--"The Indian Wren-Warbler is very common in
the plains, frequenting low scrub-jungle and long grass studied
with low bushes (_Calotropis, Zizyphus_, &c.). It breeds during the
monsoon, commencing to build in July, during which month and August
in the neighbourhood of Deesa I must have examined some three or four
dozen nests. There are two distinct types of nests, and there may be
two species of this genus in this part of the country; but I must
confess that after shooting a large number of specimens of both sexes,
and after examining an immense series of the eggs, I have failed to
make out more than one species, and that Mr. Hume informs me is his
_Drymoipus terricolor_. The nests alluded to vary as follows:--One
type is very closely and compactly woven, as described of _D.
terricolor_ ('Nests and Eggs, Rough Draft,' p. 349), with the entrance
almost at the top. The other type is built of the same material, with
the exception that the grass is rather coarser, but is more in shape
like a Wren's nest, and the grass is somewhat loosely put together
instead of being woven, and it has the entrance with a slight canopy
over it upon one side. The eggs four, and not uncommonly five, in
number, were exactly alike in both types, as also were the specimens
of the birds themselves that I obtained.
"Nearly all the nests I have seen have been built on the outside of
ber bushes (_Z. jujuba_), at heights varying from 2½ to 5 feet from
the ground."
Mr. B. Aitken says:--"I found this nest at Bombay on the 13th October,
1873, at the edge of a tank some 2 feet above the ground. I have found
four or five precisely similar ones before, generally in similar
situations. The nest was strongly attached to the stems and leaves
of four herbaceous plants growing close together. In many cases the
strips of grass had been passed through and pierced the leaves. The
nest is deep and purse-shaped; the sides were prolonged upwards,
except in front where the entrance was, and joined above so as to
form a canopy. The nest has no lining, and none of the nests of this
species that I ever saw have ever had any lining. The whole nest
inside and out is composed of fine strips of blades of grass
interwoven. The eggs, five in number, varied much in size. In colour
they were bright blue, most irregularly blotched with various shades
of purplish brown: some of the blotches very large, some mere specks.
Each egg had also washed-out stains or blotches. The smaller eggs were
by far the brighter.
"By reason of the roof and walls the entrance to the nest was at one
side, but there was nothing that could be called a hole. The roof
projected over the entrance, forming a porch.
"Six or eight nests which I have seen of this species were all over
water. But the birds are by no means confined to marshy localities.
"Even in the middle of the rains the nests are invariably made of dry
yellow grass.
"One nest found in Berar was in a babool bush, where of course there
could have been no leaves pierced."
Mr. E. Aitken writes:--"I have found a good many nests in Bombay, and
it breeds in Poona too. My notes only mention two nests with eggs, on
the 22nd and 25th August, but I found some much later; and I am
almost certain it begins to lay much earlier, if not actually at the
beginning of the monsoon, like _Orthotomus_ and _Prinia_.
"It builds in gardens and cultivated fields, especially in the
vicinity of water, and often among plants growing in water.
"The nest is very firmly attached to the twigs of some plant where
long grass or other plants completely surround and conceal it. It
is usually about 3 foot from the ground. It varies much in size and
shape, some being much deeper than others, and some having the top
open; others an entrance somewhat to one side.
"I have always found three or four eggs--bright blue, with large
irregular purplish-brown blotches and no hair-lines. I should have
said that the nest is a bag, very uniformly woven, of fine grass, and
_never with any lining_--at any rate in none that I have ever found.
They never use the same nest twice, always building a fresh one even
if you only rob without injuring the first. I think they have only one
brood in the year, but, like _Orthotomus_ and _Prinia_, one or two
nests are generally deserted or destroyed by some accident before they
succeed in rearing a brood."
Major C.T. Bingham informs us that this Wren-Warbler is a common
breeder both at Allahabad and at Delhi from March to September. Builds
a neat bottle-shaped nest in clumps of surpat grass, of fine strips of
the grass itself, which I have repeatedly watched the birds tearing
off. The eggs are lovely little oval fragile shells of a deep blue,
blotched and speckled and covered with fine hair-like lines, chiefly
at the large end, of a deep chocolate-brown.
The eggs are a moderately long, and generally a pretty perfect, oval,
often pointed towards one end, sometimes globular, seldom, if ever,
much elongated. The shell is fine and glossy, and comparatively thick
and strong. The ground-colour is normally a beautiful pale greenish
blue, most richly marked with various shades of deep chocolate and
reddish brown. Nothing can exceed the beauty or variety of the
markings, which are a combination of bold blotches, clouds, and spots,
with delicate, intricately interwoven lines, recalling somewhat,
but more elaborate and, I think, finer than, those of our early
favourite--the Yellow Ammer. The markings are invariably most
conspicuous at the large end, where there is very commonly a
conspicuous confluent cap, and the delicate lines are almost without
exception confined to the broader half of the egg.
Very commonly the smaller end of the egg is entirely spotless, and I
have a beautiful specimen now before me in which the only markings
consist of a ring of delicate lines round the large end. Some idea of
the delicacy and intricacy of these lines may be formed when I mention
that this zone is barely one tenth of an inch broad, and yet in a good
light between twenty and thirty interlaced lines making up this zone
may be counted.
The intricacy of the pattern is in some cases almost incredible, and,
what with the remarkable character of the patterns and the rich and
varying shades of their colours, these little eggs are, I think,
amongst the most beautiful known.
Occasionally the ground-colour of the eggs, instead of being a bright
greenish blue, is a pale, rather dull, olive-green, and still more
rarely it is a clear pinkish white. These latter eggs are so rare that
I have only seen six in about as many hundreds.
In size the eggs vary from 0·53 to 0·7 in length, and from 0·42 to 0·5
in breadth; but the average of one hundred and twenty eggs measured
was 0·61 by 0·45.