225. Yuhina nigrimentum (Hodgs.). The Black-chinned Yuhina.
Yuhina nigrimentum (Hodgs.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 262; Hume, Rough
Draft N. & E. no. 628.
A nest of the Black-chinned Yuhina, taken by Mr. Gammie on the 17th June below Rungbee, at an elevation of about 3500 feet, was placed in a large tree, at a height of about 10 feet from the ground, and contained four hard-set eggs. It is a mere pad, below of moss, mingled with a little wool and moss-roots, and above, that is to say the surface where the eggs repose, of excessively fine grass-roots.
Dr. Jerdon says:—"A nest was once brought me which was declared to belong to this species; it was a very small neat fabric, of ordinary shape, made with moss and grass, and contained three small pure white eggs. The rarity of the bird makes me doubt if the nest really belonged to it."
The eggs are tiny little elongated ovals, pure white, and absolutely glossless.
Two sent me by Mr. Gammie measure 0·58 by 0·42 and 0·57 by 0·43.
226. Zosterops palpebrosa (Temm.). The Indian White-eye.
Zosterops palpebrosus (Temm.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 265; Hume,
Rough Draft N. & E. no. 631.
The Indian White-eye, or White-eyed Tit as Jerdon terms it, breeds almost throughout the Indian Empire, sparingly in the hotter and more arid plains, abundantly in the Nilghiris and other ranges of the Peninsula to their very summits, and in the Himalayas to an elevation of 5000 or 6000 feet.
The breeding-season extends in different localities from January to September, but I think that everywhere April is the month in which most eggs are to be met with.