Hemipus capitalis (_McClell._), _Hume, cat._ no. 267 A.
I must premise that to the best of my belief there is no such thing
as _H. capitalis_, McClell., in India, or, in other words, that this
latter name is a mere synonym of _H. picatus_.[A]
[Footnote A: Mr. Hume would probably now agree with me that _H.
picatus_ and _H. capitalis_ are distinct species. _H. picatus_,
however, is not confined to Southern India, but occurs along the
Terais of Sikhim and Nepal, and throughout Burma. _H. capitalis_
occurs on the Himalayas from Gurwhal to Assam. There is little
doubt that Captain Hutton's nest did not really belong to a Pied
Shrike.--ED.]
Mr. Blyth remarks, Ibis, 1866:--"_Hemipus picatus_. Under this name
two very distinct species are brought together by Dr. Jerdon: _H.
capitalis_ (McClell., 1839; _H. picaecolor_, Hodgson, 1845) of the
Himalaya, which is larger, with proportionally longer tail, and has
a brown back; and _H. picatus_ (Sykes) of Southern India and Ceylon,
which has a black back. Mr. Wallace has good series of both of them.
"_Hemipus capitalis_ has accordingly to be added to the birds of
India."
Now, out of India, Mr. Wallace may have got hold of some brown-backed
_Hemipus_, which is really distinct, but nothing is more certain (I
speak after comparison of a large series from Southern India with a
still larger, gathered from all parts of the Himalayas) than that the
Southern and Northern Indian birds are identical, and that in both
localities the males have black and the females brown backs.
Capt. T. Hutton says:--"On the 12th of May I procured a nest of this
bird in the Dehra Doon; it was placed on the ground at the base of an
overhanging rock, and was composed entirely of the hair of horses and
cows and other cattle, which had doubtless been collected from the
bushes and pasture-lands in the vicinity. There were four eggs of a
pale sea-green, spotted with rufous-brown, and forming an indistinct
and nearly confluent ring at the larger end. The bird had begun to
sit.
"This curious little species is not uncommon in the outer hills up to
5000 feet in the summer months."
The three eggs sent me by Captain Hutton appear to differ somewhat
conspicuously from any other eggs of the _Laniidae_ that I have yet
seen. The ground-colour is a very pale greenish white, and they are
moderately thickly freckled and mottled all over, but most densely
towards the large end (where, in one egg, there is a well-marked,
though somewhat irregular, zone), with pale brownish pink and very
pale purple. In shape the eggs are very regular, rather broad ovals,
and appear to have but little or no gloss. They vary in length from
0·66 to 0·7 inch, and in breadth from 0·53 to 0·55 inch.
Dr. Jerdon's evidence, so far as it goes, tallies with Captain
Hutton's account. He says:--"I obtained its nest once at Darjeeling,
made of roots and grasses, with three greenish-white eggs, having a
few rusty-red spots."
From Sikhim, Mr. Gammie writes:--"At page 178 of 'Nests and Eggs of
Indian Birds' (Rough Draft), Captain T. Hutton's description of the
nest and eggs of _Hemipus picatus_ is given, and at page 179 that of
Mr. W. Davison. The two descriptions differ so radically that, as
there remarked, one of the two must be in error. Permit me to record
my limited experience of the nesting of this bird.
"Common as it is in Sikhim I have but once taken its nest, and that in
the first week of May, at 4000 feet elevation. The nest, which is well
described by Mr. Davison, is made of black, fibry roots, sparingly
lined with fine grass-stalks, and covered outwardly with small
pieces of lichens bound to the sides with cobwebs. It is a very neat
diminutive cup, measuring externally 1·9 inch across by an inch deep;
internally 1·5 by half an inch.
"The whole nest, although quite a substantially built structure, is
barely the eighth part of an ounce in weight. It was placed on the
upper side of a horizontal branch close to its broken end, about
fifteen feet from the ground, and contained two fresh eggs. I send
you the nest and an egg, both of which will, I think, be found on
comparison to agree exactly with those taken by Mr. Davison."
Mr. Mandelli has sent me two nests of this species, found on the 15th
August above Namtchu in Native Sikhim. They were placed about two feet
from each other, each in a small fork of the branches of a small tree
which was situated in heavy forest. Each contained two fresh eggs.
The nests are very similar, but one is rather larger and less tidily
finished-off than the other. Both are shallow cups, miniatures of some
of the nests of _Dicrurus_, composed of excessively fine grass-stems,
coated exteriorly all round the sides with cobwebs, and, in the case
of one of them, plastered exteriorly with tiny films of bark and dry
leaves like some of the nests of the _Pericrocoti_. Both have a little
soft silky vegetable down at the bottom of the cavity. The one nest is
about two inches, the other about two and a half inches in diameter
exteriorly, and both are a little less than three quarters of an inch
high outside. The cavity in the one is about an inch and a half, in
the other about an inch and three quarters in diameter, and both are
about half an inch deep.
Eggs received from Sikhim are broad ovals, glossless, with
greenish-white grounds, profusely speckled and mottled with slightly
varying shades of brown, here and there intermingled with dull, pale
inky purple. The markings are densest generally round the broadest
part of the egg. They measured from 0·61 to 0·7 in length, and from
0·51 to 0·55 in breadth.