Drymoipus inornatus (Sykes), Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 178;
Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 543.
Drymoipus longicaudatus (Tick.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 180.
Drymoipus terricolor, Hume; Hume, Rough Draft N, & E. no. 543 bis.
The breeding-season of this Wren-Warbler commences with the first fall of rain, and lasts through July and August to quite the middle of September.
The birds construct a very elegant nest, always closely and compactly woven, of very fine blades, or strips of blades, of grass, in no nests exceeding one-twentieth of an inch in width, and in many of not above half this breadth. The grass is always used when fresh and green, so as to be easily woven in and out. Both parents work at the nest, clinging at first to the neighbouring stems of grass or twigs, and later to the nest itself, while they push the ends of the grass backwards and forwards in and out; in fact, they work very much like the Baya (P. baya), and the nest, though much smaller, is in texture very like that of this latter species, the great difference being that the Baya, with us, more often uses stems, and Prinia strips of blades of grass. The nest varies in shape and in size, according to its situation: a very favourite locality is in amongst clumps of the sarpatta, or serpent-grass, in which case the bird builds a long and purse-like nest, attached above and all round to the surrounding grass-stems, with a small entrance near the top. Such nests are often 8 or 9 inches in length, and 3 inches or even more in external diameter, and with an internal cavity measuring 1½ inch in diameter, and having a depth of nearly 4 inches below the lower margin of the entrance-hole. At other times they are hung between bare twigs, often of some thorny bush, or are even placed in low herbaceous plants; in these cases they are usually nearly globular, with the entrance-hole near the top; they are then probably 3½ inches in external diameter in every direction. In other cases they are hung to or between two or more leaves to which the birds attach the nest, much as a Tailor-bird would do, using, however, fine grass instead of cobwebs or cotton-wool for ligaments. I have never found more than five eggs in any nest, and four is certainly the normal number.
Mr. R.M. Adam remarks:—"I had a nest brought me in Oudh on the 17th April, containing four eggs. About Agra and Muttra, where as you know the birds are very common, I have always obtained the greatest number of eggs during August; four is the regular number; in one taken on the 16th August I found five eggs."
Mr. W. Blewitt writes:—"During July, August, and the early part of September I found multitudes of nests of this species in the neighbourhood of Hausie, almost exclusively in the Dhasapoor, Dhana, and Secundapoor Beerhs or jungle-preserves.
"The nests, of which numerous specimens were sent to you, were of the usual type, and were nearly all found in ber (Z. jujuba) and hinse (Capparis aphylla) bushes, at heights of from 3 to 4 feet from the ground. I did not meet with more than four eggs in any one nest."
Colonel E.A. Butler says:—"The Indian Wren-Warbler is very common in the plains, frequenting low scrub-jungle and long grass studied with low bushes (Calotropis, Zizyphus, &c.). It breeds during the monsoon, commencing to build in July, during which month and August in the neighbourhood of Deesa I must have examined some three or four dozen nests. There are two distinct types of nests, and there may be two species of this genus in this part of the country; but I must confess that after shooting a large number of specimens of both sexes, and after examining an immense series of the eggs, I have failed to make out more than one species, and that Mr. Hume informs me is his Drymoipus terricolor. The nests alluded to vary as follows:—One type is very closely and compactly woven, as described of D. terricolor ('Nests and Eggs, Rough Draft,' p. 349), with the entrance almost at the top. The other type is built of the same material, with the exception that the grass is rather coarser, but is more in shape like a Wren's nest, and the grass is somewhat loosely put together instead of being woven, and it has the entrance with a slight canopy over it upon one side. The eggs four, and not uncommonly five, in number, were exactly alike in both types, as also were the specimens of the birds themselves that I obtained.
"Nearly all the nests I have seen have been built on the outside of ber bushes (Z. jujuba), at heights varying from 2½ to 5 feet from the ground."
Mr. B. Aitken says:—"I found this nest at Bombay on the 13th October, 1873, at the edge of a tank some 2 feet above the ground. I have found four or five precisely similar ones before, generally in similar situations. The nest was strongly attached to the stems and leaves of four herbaceous plants growing close together. In many cases the strips of grass had been passed through and pierced the leaves. The nest is deep and purse-shaped; the sides were prolonged upwards, except in front where the entrance was, and joined above so as to form a canopy. The nest has no lining, and none of the nests of this species that I ever saw have ever had any lining. The whole nest inside and out is composed of fine strips of blades of grass interwoven. The eggs, five in number, varied much in size. In colour they were bright blue, most irregularly blotched with various shades of purplish brown: some of the blotches very large, some mere specks. Each egg had also washed-out stains or blotches. The smaller eggs were by far the brighter.
"By reason of the roof and walls the entrance to the nest was at one side, but there was nothing that could be called a hole. The roof projected over the entrance, forming a porch.