Hemipus picatus (_Sykes_), _Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 412; _Hume, Rough
Draft_ _N. & E._ no 267.
I quite agree with Mr. Gray that this bird is a Flycatcher and not a
Shrike; no one in fact who has watched it in life can have any doubt
on this subject; but yet, except for their being more strongly marked,
its eggs have no doubt a very Shrike-like character, at the same time
that they exhibit many affinities to those of _Rhipidura albifrontata_
and other undoubted Flycatchers.
Mr. W. Davison says:--"About the first week in March 1871, I found
at Ootacamund a nest of this bird placed in the fork of one of the
topmost branches of a rather tall _Berberis leschenaulti_. For the
size of the bird this was an exceedingly small shallow nest, and from
its position between the fork, its size, and the materials of which it
was composed externally, might very easily have passed unnoticed; the
bird sitting on it appeared to be sitting only on a small lump of moss
and lichen, the whole of the bird's tail, and as low down as the lower
part of the breast, being visible. The nest was composed of grass and
fine roots covered externally with cobweb and pieces of a grey lichen,
and bits of moss taken apparently from the same tree on which the nest
was built: the eggs were three in number. The tree on which this nest
was built was opposite my window, and I watched the birds building for
nearly a week; and, again, when having the nest taken, the birds sat
till the native lad I had sent up put out his hand to take the nest.
I am _absolutely_ certain, as to the identity of this nest and these
eggs."
The eggs brought me by Mr. Davison, of the authenticity of which he is
positive, are very Shrike-like in their appearance; they are rather
elongated ovals, somewhat obtuse at both ends, and entirely devoid of
gloss. The ground-colour is a pale greenish or greyish white, and they
are profusely blotched, spotted, and streaked with darker and lighter
shades of umber-brown; in both eggs these markings are more or less
confluent along a broad zone, which in one egg encircles the larger,
in the other the smaller end: these eggs measure 0·7 by 0·5 inch and
0·69 by 0·49 inch.
Captain Horace Terry writes from the Palani Hills:--"Pittur Valley. I
had a nest brought me which from the description of the bird must, I
think, have belonged to this species. Nest rather a shallow cup placed
in a thorny tree about ten feet from the ground, neatly made of grass
and moss, lined with fine grass and a few feathers, covered a great
deal on the outside with dusky-coloured cobwebs, 2·5 inches across and
1·5 inch deep inside, and 3·25 inches to 3·5 inches across, and 2·25
inches deep outside: contained five very much incubated eggs; shape
and marking exactly like those of _L. caniceps_, having a well-defined
zone round the larger end; size about the same or rather smaller than
those of _Pratincola bicolor_."