"Colonel Renny told me that the birds built on this cliff-side every monsoon."
Mr. E. Aitken has furnished me with the following note:—
"Of this bird I have seen two nests—one containing two hard-set eggs on April 29, 1872, situated in a hole in a tree overhanging a stream about 20 feet from the ground; the other containing three hard-set eggs on May 22nd, 1872, and situated on a ledge of rock in the bed of a stream; both the nests were rather coarsely made of roots. My brother says he has also found three other nests, two placed in holes of trees and the other on a rocky ledge, but the nests were in every case near to running water. The bird stays with us all the year, and is one of our commonest species. Its clear whistle is always to be heard the first thing in the morning before the other birds get up, and daring the violent rains of the S.W. monsoon it seems almost the only bird which does not lose heart at the incessant downpour. April and May appear to be the breeding months."
Messrs. Davidson and Wenden remark:—"Scattered all over the Deccan in suitable localities. W. got two nests, one on the Bhore Ghât on 5th August, and one on the Thull Ghât on 17th of same month. That on the Bhore Ghât was built on a ledge of rock some 15 feet in from the face of a railway tunnel where 30 or 40 trains daily passed within a few feet of it. That on the Thull Ghât was in a cutting at the entrance of a tunnel, and about the same height above and from the rails as the one on the Bhore Ghât. In both cases the eggs were much discoloured by the smoke from engines, but on being washed, W. observed that one of the three eggs in each nest was of a decidedly greenish blue, finely speckled and splashed with pinky brown, while the others were of the pale salmon-pink, as described in Mr. Hume's Rough Draft of 'Nests and Eggs.' The male bird was sitting on one of the nests and was shot. W. saw numerous other nests, some high up on cliffs, beyond the reach of a 15-foot ladder. Two nests in holes in trees were reported to him, but he could not go to examine them. The nests were about 4 inches diameter by 2½ inches deep inside and 8 to 10 inches broad outside, and not more than 10 inches high. The foundation portion contained a great deal of clay and earth, which seemed to be necessary to secure the nests in positions so exposed to the heavy gusts of wind which prevail on these ghâts during the monsoon."
Mr. Rhodes W. Morgan, writing from South India, says:—"I found the nest of this Thrush on the Seeghoor Ghaut of the Neilgherries. Mr. Davison was with me at the time; and the nest being built on an open ledge of rock, we both sighted it at the same moment; and I having managed to make better use of my legs than my friend, was fortunate enough to secure it, and one egg, which was of a pale flesh-colour, with a few faint spots and blotches of claret towards the larger end. The nest was made of leaves and moss mixed with clay, and lined with fine roots. The dimensions of the egg are 1·3 inch in length by ·85 in breadth. It was in May that I found this egg; but the nest had evidently been deserted for some time; for the egg has a hole in its side, through which the contents had escaped or been sucked by a snake or some animal."
Dr. Jerdon says:—"I once procured its nest, placed under a shelf of a rock on the Burliar stream, on the slope of the Nilghiris. It was a large structure of roots, mixed with earth, moss, &c., and contained three eggs of a pale salmon or reddish-fawn colour, with many smallish brown spots;" and such is unquestionably the usual situation of the nest.
The eggs of this species, which I have received from Kotagherry and other parts of the Nilghiris, are broad, nearly regular ovals, slightly compressed towards the lesser end; considerably elongated, and more or less spherical, and pyriform varieties occur. The shell is fine, and has a slight gloss; the ground-colour is pale salmon-pink or pinkish-white, occasionally greyish white. The whole egg is, as a rule, finely speckled, spotted, and splashed with pinkish brown or brownish pink. The markings, in most eggs, everywhere very fine, are often considerably more dense at the large end, where they are not unusually more or less underlaid by a pinkish cloud, with which they form an irregular ill-defined and inconspicuous cap.
At times more boldly and richly marked eggs are met with; one now before me is everywhere thickly streaked with dull pink, in places purplish, and over this is thinly but rather conspicuously spotted and irregularly blotched (the blotches being small however) with light burnt sienna-brown.
In length they vary from 1·18 to 1·48 inch, and in breadth from 0·92 to 1 inch.
191. Larvivora brunnea, Hodgs. The Indian Blue Chat.