"_16th April, 1878_.--Took two perfectly fresh eggs from a nest built
on a date-tree. The date-trees in this district are tapped annually
for the juice, from which sugar is manufactured. The leaves and the
bark for a depth of 3 inches are sliced away from one half of the
trunk, the leaves on the other half remaining, and at the root of
one of these the nest was built, wedged in between the trunk and the
leaves; the external diameter was 4½ inches, depth 3 inches, thickness
of sides of nest ¾ inch; a rather shallow cup, composed exclusively of
fine grasses with no attempt at a lining.
"_17th April, 1878_.--Secured two fresh eggs from another nest on a
date-tree. In size and shape they were similar and the materials were
the same grasses with no lining. The trees these nests were on formed
a small clump alongside a ryot's house. People were passing under them
all day, but the birds never noticed them. Any bird, from a Kite to
a Bulbul, coming near received a warm welcome. The nests are at all
times exposed, and the natives believe that two males and one female
are found occupying one nest. The birds being gregarious build on
adjoining trees, and while the ladies are engaged with their domestic
affairs their lords keep each other company, so the natives put them
down as polyandrous. I have found over a dozen nests, and every one
has been the counterpart of the other, and only on date-trees."
Miss Cockburn writes from the Nilghiris:--"On the 17th May, 1873, a
nest of this bird was found. It was formed in a perpendicular hole in
a dried stump of a tree, about 15 feet in height. The nest consisted
entirely of slight sticks lined with fine grass, no soft material
being added as a finish, and the whole structure went to pieces when
removed. This nest contained three eggs, their colour white, with a
few dark and light brown spots and blotches all over, and a strongly
marked ring round the thick end.
"The birds frequently returned to the place while the eggs were being
taken, till one of them was shot."
Mr. J. Davidson remarks:--"This bird is very local in the Tumkur
districts in Mysore, and I have only found it in three or four
gardens. I knew it had been breeding (from dissection) since March,
but till to-day (May 9th) I could not find its nest. To-day, however,
I saw four or five birds perpetually flying round and round a very
ragged old cocoanut-tree, the highest in that part of the garden, and
determined to send a man up. Two birds, however, at that moment lit on
one branch and I shot them both, and they proved to be fully-fledged
young ones. I sent the man up, however, and was rewarded by his
announcing two old nests and a new one containing one egg. The nests
were near the trunk of the tree on the horizontal leaves, and were
formed of thin roots and a little grass and were very slight. The egg,
which is large for the size of the bird, is creamy white, with a broad
ring round the larger end formed of blotches of orange, brown, and
purple, and in the cap within the ring there are a number of faint
purple spots. The egg was perfectly fresh, and the old birds defended
it by swooping down upon the man; and I can't help thinking that both
the young birds and the new nest belonged to one pair of birds, and
that as soon as their first brood was fledged they had commenced to
lay again."
A nest taken by Mr. Gammie on the 24th April, at an elevation of about
3500 feet in Sikhim, was placed on a dead horizontal limb near the top
of a large tree. It contained four eggs slightly set; it is a somewhat
shallow cup, interiorly 3 inches in diameter by nearly 1½ in depth,
and composed almost entirely of fine roots, pretty firmly interwoven.
It has no lining, but at the bottom exteriorly it is coated partially
with a sort of plaster, composed apparently of strips of bark and
vegetable fibre partially cemented together in some way.
The egg sent me by Miss Cockburn is of quite the same type as those
found by Mr. Gammie, but it is a trifle longer, measuring 1·0 by 0·7,
and the colouring is much brighter. The ground is a sort of creamy
white. There is a strongly marked though irregular zone round the
large end of more or less confluent brownish rusty patches (amongst
which a few pale grey spots may be detected), and a good many spots
and small blotches of the same are scattered about the whole of the
rest of the surface of the egg.
Numerous eggs subsequently obtained by Mr. Gammie correspond well with
those already described as procured by himself and Miss Cockburn.
In length the eggs vary from 0·82 to 1·0, and in breadth from 0·6 to
0·72, but the average is 0·94 by 0·68.
513. Artamus leucogaster (Valenc.). _The White-rumped
Swallow-Shrike_.
Artamus leucorhynchus (_Gm.), Hume, Rough Draft N. & E._ no. 287 bis.
The White-rumped Swallow-Shrike breeds, we know, in the Andamans and
Great Cocos, and that is nearly all we do know. Mr. Davison says:--"On
the 2nd of May I saw a bird of this species fly into a hollow at the
top of a rotten mangrove stump about 20 feet high. The next day I
went, but did not like to climb the stump, as it appeared unsafe, so
I determined to cut it down, and after giving about six strokes that
made the stump shake from end to end, the bird flew out. I made sure
that as the bird sat so close the nest must contain eggs, so I ceased
cutting and managed to get a very light native, who voluntered to
climb it; but on his reaching the top, he found, to my astonishment,
that the nest, although apparently finished, was empty. The nest was
built entirely of grass, somewhat coarse on the exterior, finer on the
inside; it was a shallow saucer-shaped structure, and was placed in a
hollow at the top of the stump."
Family ORIOLIDAE.