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134. Timelia pileata, Horsf. Red-capped Babbler
Timelia pileata, (Horsf.), Jerdon B. Ind. ii, p. 24; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 396.
Mr. Eugene Oates records that he "found the nest of this bird at Thayetmyo on the 2nd June with young ones a few days old. The nest was placed on the ground in the
centre of a low but very thick thorny bush."
Subsequently he wrote from Pegu, further south: "The nest is placed in the
fork of a shrub, very near to, or quite on, the ground, and is surrounded in
every case by long grass. A nest found on the 4th July, on which the female
was sitting closely, contained three eggs slightly incubated. The
breeding-season seems to be in June and July.
"The nest is made entirely of bamboo-leaves and is lined sparingly with fine
grass. No other material enters into its composition. It is oval, about 7
inches in height and 4 in diameter, with a large entrance at the side, its
lower edge being about the middle of the nest.
"When the bird frequents elephant-grass, where there are no shrubs, it builds
on the ground at the edge of a clump of grass, and I have found two nests in
such a situation, only a few feet from each other.
"In looking for the nest a good deal of grass is necessarily trodden down;
the consequence is that if you do not find eggs, there is little chance of
their being laid later on. I have found some ten nests, more or less
completed, but only three eggs."
And again, later on: "This bird would appear to have two broods a year, for I
procured two sittings of three eggs each this year in April, former nests
having been found in June and July. With many eggs before me I find that the
density of the markings varies considerably. The size is very constant; for
the length of numerous eggs varies only from ·75 to ·72, and the breadth from
·6 to ·54 inch."
I was, I believe, myself the first to obtain the eggs of this species, but
the first of my contributors who sent me eggs, nest, and a note on the
nidification of this species was Mr. J. C. Parker. Writing to me in September
1875, he said:
"On the 14th August I took a nest of Timelia pileata on my old ground
in the Salt Lakes. I discovered this by a mere accident, for I happened to
see a female Prinia flaviventris (whose eggs I was in quest of for
you) perched on the top of a bush inland about 10 feet from the bank of the
canal, and from her movements I thought she must have a nest near at hand.
"Accordingly I landed, although not in trim for wading through a bog. Sure
enough I was not mistaken; the Prinia had a nest, but it contained only one
egg. Close by, however, I saw a nest, from out of which a bird flew, and
although I did not shoot it I am quite sure it was Timelia pileata.
The jungle was particularly thick just about where I stood, indeed
impenetrable, and I could not follow the bird, but I soon heard the male bird
talking to his mate in that extraordinary way which these birds have, and
which once heard cannot be mistaken.
"The nest was placed on the spikes growing from the joints of a species of
grass very thick and stiff, and forming a secure foundation for the nest.
This latter is 6 inches high and 4 inches broad. Egg-cavity 2 inches,
entrance-hole 1½ by 2. The nest itself is very loosely put together with the
dead leaves of the tiger-grass twisted round and round, and lined roughly
with coarse grass. The nest was quite open to view and about three feet from
the ground. I suppose the birds never expected that such a wild swampy spot
as they had selected would be invaded by any oologist."
Mr. J. R. Cripps writing from Eastern Bengal says: "Pretty common. Permanent
resident. Oftener found in the patches of cane brushwood jungle found in and
around villages than in unfrequented jungle and thickets as Dr. Jerdon says.
I have, however, once seen it in a field of jute, which was alongside a
village. Its well-known note can be heard a long way off. I have several
times found nests in course of construction, but only once secured a clutch
of eggs. When the nests are being built, if the bush is at all disturbed the
nest is deserted. The earliest date on which I found a nest was the 1st
April, 1878; it was half finished, and as I pulled the cane-leaves asunder to
see if there were eggs, the birds deserted it. After this I found four nests
in cane-clumps on the sides of roads, but they were empty, and as the birds
abandoned them in due course I despaired of getting any eggs; but on the 15th
June, while going along a road, the edges of which were bounded by the small
embankments natives throw up round their holdings, and which are always
overgrown with 'sone' grass, I saw one of these birds with a straw in its
bill disappear at the root of a small date-tree. The nest could be discerned
from the road. On the 20th June I returned and found two fresh eggs; the nest
was placed at the junction of the frond and the stem of the date-tree about
five inches from the ground, and was an oval deep cup and measured externally
5 inches deep by 3¾ broad. Egg-cavity 2 broad and 1¾ deep, composed
exclusively of 'sone' grass with no lining."
The eggs of this species are broad ovals with a tolerably fine gloss. The
ground-colour is pure white. The whole of the larger end of the egg is pretty
thickly speckled and spotted with brown, varying from an olive to a burnt
sienna intermingled with little spots and clouds of pale inky purple, and
similar spots and specks chiefly of the former colour, but smaller in size,
scattered thinly over the rest of the egg. In size they vary from 0·69 to
0·75 in length, and from 0·55 to 0·6 in breadth.
135. Dumetia hyperythra (Frankl.) Rufous-bellied Babbler
Dumetia hyperythra (Frankl.), Jerdon B. Ind. ii, p. 26; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 397.
The Rufous-bellied Babbler breeds throughout the Central Provinces, Chota
Nagpur, Upper Bengal, the eastern portions of the North-West Provinces, parts of Oudh, and even in the low valleys of Kumaon.
It lays from the middle of June to the middle of August, building a globular
nest of broad grass-blades or bamboo-leaves some 4 or 5 inches in diameter,
sparingly lined with fine grass-roots or a little hair, or sometimes entirely
unlined. The nest is placed sometimes on the ground amongst dead leaves, some
of which are not unfrequently incorporated in the structure; sometimes in
coarse grass or some little shrub a foot or two from the ground, but by
preference, according to my experience, in amongst the roots of a bamboo-clump.
Four is the usual number of eggs laid.
Mr. Brooks writes: "On the 26th June, 1867, in the broken ground above Chunar,
I took two nests in the foot of a thick bamboo-bush about 2 feet from the
ground. The nests were made of bamboo-leaves rolled into a ball with the
entrance at the side, and no lining except a few hairs. There were two eggs
in one nest and three in the other. They were all fresh. The eggs in the two
nests varied somewhat: the ground of the one was nearly pure white, and it
was finely speckled with reddish brown, which at the large end was partly
confluent: the other nest had the eggs with a pinkish-white ground, the spots
larger and less neatly defined, and with a rather large confluent spot at the large end."
Writing from Hoshungabad, Mr. E. C. Nunn remarks: "I found two nests of this
species, each containing two eggs, on the 20th July and 6th August, 1868.
Both nests were ball-shaped, of coarse grass very firmly and compactly
twisted together, and with numerous dead leaves incorporated in the body of
the nest and towards the base, forming the major portion of the material.
They were thinly lined inside with fine grass-roots. One was placed at the
root of a small thorny bush: the other on the ground in a thick clump of rank
grass." The nest Mr. Nunn sent to me was peculiarly solidly made. The cavity
was small, about 2·25 inches in depth and 1·5 in diameter. The bottom of the
nest was some 2 inches and the sides 1·25 inch thick.
From Raipur Mr. F. R. Blewitt tells us that "in July and August four nests
of this Babbler were taken; in two there were four eggs each, in the third,
three, and in the fourth, two--thirteen in all. The nests were carefully made
on the ground, at the base of clumps of long grass growing very near to
bamboo thickets. Three are made exclusively of the dry leaves of the bamboo;
the fourth of coarse grass. They were nearly globular, about 4 inches in
diameter, and without any regular lining, although in the interior of the
cavity a good deal of fine grass-stems had been incorporated in the nest.
They were well hidden in the grass."
Mr. Henry Wenden writes: "On July 18th, about 15 miles from Bombay, on the
line of railway, I found a nest and eggs of the following description: nest,
a rough loose ball of soft flat grasses, lined with hard but fine
grass-stems, entrance at side near top; situated in a thorny bush in
cactus-hedge, by a narrow lane, not 4 feet wide, through which numerous
people passed. The nest, about 3 feet from the ground, was in no way
concealed. On the 18th there were two eggs, and on the 20th, when there were
four eggs, the bird was snared and nest taken."
The eggs are short, broad ovals, very slightly compressed towards one end.
The ground-colour is white or pinkish white, and it is streaked, spotted, and
speckled most thickly at the large end (where there is a tendency to form an
irregular confluent cap or zone), and thinly towards the small end, with
shades of red, brownish red, and reddish purple, varying much in different
examples. In some the markings are pretty bold and blotchy, in others they
are small and speckly; in some they are smudgy and ill-defined, in others
they are clear and distinct. Some of the eggs are miniatures of some types of
Pyctorhis sinensis, but many recall the eggs of the Titmouse. They are
much about the size of those of Parus caeruleus and P. palustris,
but a trifle less broad than either of these. The eggs have a faint gloss.
In length they vary from 0·63 to 0·7, and in breadth from 0·5 to 0·56; but
the average of twenty-four eggs now before me is 0·67 by 0·53.
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