"_Hyderabad, 19th April_, 1878.--Noticed two young birds scarcely able
to fly; fresh eggs were laid, therefore, about the beginning of March.
On the 20th April near the same place I found a nest containing young
birds. It consisted of a neat little cup composed of dry grass smeared
all over exteriorly with cobwebs, and fixed in a fork of one of the
outer branches of a large babool-tree about 10 feet from the ground.
The nest was very small for the size of the bird, and had I not seen
the old bird on it. I should have taken it for a nest of _Rhipidura
albifrontata_."
The late Captain Beavan remarked that this bird "appears to come to
the Maunbhoom District for the purpose of breeding. I procured the
nest and eggs early in April, and the young were nearly fledged by the
20th of that month; they appear to come year after year to particular
localities to breed.
"Several nests were brought me from the neighbourhood of Kashurghur
both in 1864 and 1865, whereas none were seen elsewhere. The nest is
very small for the size of the bird, and the material of which it is
composed closely resembles the bird's plumage in colour. The nest
is round and very shallow, something like a Chaffinch's, being very
neatly made; diameter inside 2 inches, depth 1 inch; composed of grey
fibres, bits of bark, grass, and the like, cemented with spider's web.
The eggs are two in number, greenish white, spotted with brown and
slate-coloured dots, which in most specimens form a well-defined zone
round the thickest part of the egg, leaving both ends without marks.
Length of the egg ·75 inch; breadth ·59 inch. This bird was not
observed in Maunbhoom except during the breeding-season."
Mr. G.W. Vidal, writing from the South Konkan, remarks:--"Common, as
also at Sávant Vádí. Nest found with three hard-set eggs on the 18th
February, low down in a mango-tree. Nest a very neat compact cap of
grasses and fibres, woven throughout with spiders' webs. Eggs greyish
white, with brown and inky-purple spots."
Dr. Jerdon remarks:--"The nest has been brought to me in August at
Nellore, chiefly made of roots and lined with hair; and the eggs,
three in number, were greenish white with large brown blotches."
Major M.F. Coussmaker sends me the following note from Mysore:--"I
took the nest of this bird on April 16th. It was composed of fine
roots and fibres closely woven into a compact nest, secured to a
horizontal bough with cobweb and covered externally with lichen to
match the tree. It measured in diameter 4·1 inches externally and 2·2
internally and ·8 deep. The parent bird was shot from the nest.
"The nest contained two eggs, white with brown spots and markings.
They were so broken when I got them that no reliable measurements
could be taken."
Lastly, Mr. Gates writes from Pegu:--"Nest with three fresh eggs on
the 3rd March near Pegu."
The eggs are very Shrike-like in appearance, and many of them are
perfect miniatures of the eggs of _Lanius lahtora_, but some of them
have a more uniformly brown tint than any of this latter species that
I have yet met with. The ground-colour is generally either a very pale
greenish white or a creamy-stone colour, and more or less thickly
spotted and blotched with different shades of yellowish and reddish
brown; many of the markings are almost invariably gathered into a
conspicuous, but irregular and ill-defined, zone near the large end,
in which zone clouds of subsurface-looking, pale, and dingy purple,
not usually observable on any other portion of the egg, are thickly
intermingled. The texture of the shell is fine and close, but scarcely
any gloss is ever perceptible. Occasionally the eggs are very faintly
coloured, and have a dull white ground, while the markings consist of
only a few spots and specks of very pale purple and pale rust-colour
confined to a zone near the large end.
In length the eggs vary from 0·69 to 0·8 inch, and in breadth from
0·57 to 0·65 inch; but the average of a dozen eggs is 0·75 by 0·61
inch nearly.