Nests and eggs of Indian birds : rough draft / by Allan Hume.

  • Hume, Allan Octavian, 1829-1912.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nests and eggs of Indian birds : rough draft / by Allan Hume. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    nests of young* birds, and that while the clustered nests are tenanted by the same species year after year (in one case that I know of, for certainly the last fifty years), these solitary nests are rarely, if ever, re-occupied by this Vulture, who, after the first year, abandons them to other tenants. On two occasions I have found nests of this bird that I had robbed one year, occupied the next by the Grey Eagle-owl (AscalapAia coromanda), and once I found a lordly King- Vulture in possession of its plebeian brother's former residence. The nest is a large irregular platform of sticks, sometimes quite at the top of the tree, often wedged in a fork, averaging probably nearly 3 feet in diameter and 6 inches in thickness, but often far exceeding this latter dimen- sion, especially where a deep fork has to be filled in. Not far from Puhpoondh, I made a man measure one in my presence, which was an irregular cone (the apex downwards), by pushing an iron ramrod through it, and found the depth to be 22 inches ! The materials of the nest appear to be heaped on at random, but in reality they are so carefully overlaid, that it is very difficult to pull out one of the sticks that compose the nest without pulling the whole fabrics to pieces. The shape of the nest depends upon the locality, and is more generally oblong or oval than truly circular. There is only a slight depression, as a rule, towards the centre of the nest; but I found one nest near Hodul, which was a re- gular deep cup, in which I really think a moderate-sized sheep might have been stowed away. They always line the centre of the nest more or less with leaves, and the Peepul seems their favourite. These leaves are green and fresh when the egg is first laid, and before you blow it, you can pretty well guess how long the egg has lain in the nest by the condition of the lining leaves. Mr. A. Anderson remarks, that it “ builds exclusively on trees, and seems to have a decided partiality for the Burgot and Peepul (Ficus indica and F. religiosa). It is the earliest breeder amongst our Indian Baptores. Several eggs were collected near Futtegurh as early as the 15th of October last year; and though I added considerably to the numbers in the following month, they were all, with one exception, without any spots. Later in the season, I got an egg almost completely capped at the small end with rich purple-red, but unfortunately it contained a live chick. A curious trait in the habits of this species, viz., that of breaking off green twigs with its beak for a nest lining, does not appear to have been recorded before.” Mr. W. Theobald makes the following note of this bird's breeding in the neighbourhood of Pind Dadan Khan and Katas in the Salt Range :—“Lay in the first and second weeks of March; eggs, one only; shape, ovato pyriform; size, 3'36 by 2*62 inches; color, dull white: nest, of sticks and twigs, in large trees. I shot a fine male off a nest on the 8tli March, thus proving that the males participate in the labour of incubation. The female in this case did not return for some hours; and when she did, she was apparently so enraged at finding her egg (which was much incubated) gone, and her husband missing, that she tore the upper part of the nest to pieces, scattering the sticks and leaf lining here and there, and making a wonderful snorting and hissing all the while. This is not the only instance I have witnessed of birds tearing their own nests to pieces in anger at the loss of their eggs—(Vide Grus antigone, No. 833, and for a somewhat similar incident, Falco jugger, No. 11). They lay normally a single egg. That two eggs may have been found in one nest, I will not take upon myself to deny; but I have before me now notes of eighty odd nests, and besides these, I have had many others examined, of which I took no note at the time, and yet I never met with more than a single egg or a single young one in any nest. In color, the eggs when fresh are dull