Pericrocotus brevirostris (_Vig._), _Jerd. B. Ind._ i, p. 421; _Hume,
Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 273.
The Short-billed Minivet breeds in the Himalayas at elevations of from
3000 to 6000 feet in Kumaon, and again in Kulu and the valley of the
Sutlej. It lays in May and June, building a compact and delicate
cup-shaped nest on a horizontal bough pretty high up in some oak,
rhododendron, or other forest tree. I have never seen one on any kind
of fir-tree.
Sometimes the nest is merely placed on, and attached firmly to, the
upper surface of the branch; but, more commonly, the place where two
smallish branches fork horizontally is chosen, and the nest is placed
just at the fork. I got one nest at Kotgurh, however, wedged in
between two upright shoots from a horizontal oak-branch. The nests are
composed of fine twigs, fir-needles, grass-roots, fine grass, slender
dry stems of herbaceous plants, as the case may be, generally loosely,
but occasionally compactly interlaced, intermingled and densely coated
over the whole exterior with cobwebs and pieces of lichen, the latter
so neatly put on that they appear to have grown where they are.
Sometimes, especially at the base of the nest, a little moss is
attached exteriorly, but, as a rule, there is nothing but lichen. The
nest has no lining. The external diameter is about 2½ inches, and the
usual height of the nest from 1½ to 2 inches; but this varies a good
deal according to situation, and the bottom of the nest, which in some
may be at most ¼ inch thick, in another is a full inch. The sides
rarely exceed ¼ inch in thickness. The egg-cavity has a diameter of
about 2 inches, and a depth of from 1 to 1·25 inch.
Five seems to be the maximum number of eggs laid, but I have now twice
met with three, more or less incubated, eggs.
Mr. Hodgson notes:--"May 16th: At the top of the great forest of
Sheopoori, secured a nest built near the top of a kaiphul tree, and
laid on a thick branch amongst smaller twigs. The nest is about 2
inches deep and the same in diameter: inside it is 1·5 inch deep; it
is made of paper-like bits of lichen welded together with spiders'
webs, and with a lining of elastic fibres. It is the shape of a deep
soap-stand, open at the top of course. It contained two eggs of a
bluish or greenish-white ground, much spotted with liver colour,
especially near the large end, where the spots are clustered into a
zone."
Dr. Scully, writing also from Nepal, says:--"During the
breeding-season (May and June) this Minivet is found in forests on
the hills up to an elevation of 7500 feet. A nest was found in the
Sheopoori forest on the 17th June, which contained two very young
birds and one egg."
The eggs of this species that I have seen are moderately broad ovals,
as a rule, very regular in their shape, and scarcely compressed at all
towards the lesser end. The shell is fine and satiny, but the eggs
have little or no real gloss. The ground-colour is a dull white,
sometimes slightly tinged with pink, sometimes with green, and they
are richly and profusely blotched, spotted, and streaked, most
densely, as a rule, towards the large end, with brownish red and
pale purple. Most eggs exhibit a more or less conspicuous, though
irregular, zone round the larger end.
The eggs vary in length from 0·71 to 0·8 inch, and in breadth from
0·54 to 0·6 inch.