Major C.T. Bingham writes from Tenasserim:—"I saw several nest-holes of this bird, which was very common in the Reserve, but none of them were accessible; and it wasn't till the 18th April that I chanced on one in a low tree, the nest being in the hollow of a stump of a broken branch. It was composed and loosely put together of grass, leaves, and twigs, and contained three half-fledged young and one addled egg of a light blue colour, spotted, chiefly at the large end with purplish brown."
The eggs very similar to those of E. religiosa, but, what is very surprising, it is very considerably smaller.
Of E. religiosa the eggs vary from 1·2 to 1·37 in length, and from 0·86 to 0·9 in breadth, and the average of eight is 1·31 by 0·88.
This present egg only measures 1·12 by 0·8, and it must, I should fancy, be abnormally small.
In shape it is an extremely regular oval. The ground is a pale greenish blue, and it is spotted and blotched pretty thickly at the large end (where all the larger markings are) and very thinly at the smaller end with purple and two shades (a darker and lighter one) of chocolate-brown, the latter colour much predominating. The shell is very fine and close, but has but little gloss.
And later on Major Bingham again wrote:—"One of the commonest and most widely spread birds in the province. The following is an account of its nidification:—
"This bird lays two distinct sizes of eggs, all, however, of the same type and coloration. Out of holes in neighbouring trees, on the bank of the Meplay, on the 13th March, 1880, I took two nests, one containing three, and the other two eggs. The first lot of eggs measured respectively 1·15 x 0·77, 1·15 x 0·80, and 1·16 x 0·79 inch; while those in the second nest 1·30 x 0·95, and 1·27 x 0·93 inch respectively. All the eggs, however, are a pale blue, spotted chiefly at the larger end with light chocolate. The nests were in natural hollows in the trees, and lined with grass and leaves loosely put together."
The eggs apparently vary extraordinarily in size; they are generally more or less elongated ovals, some slightly pyriform and slightly obtuse at both ends, some rather pointed towards the small end. The shell in all is very fine and compact and smooth, but some have scarcely any appreciable gloss, while others have a really fine gloss. The ground-colour is pretty uniform in all, a delicate pale greenish blue. The markings are always chiefly confined to one end, usually the broad end; even about the large end they are never very dense, and elsewhere they are commonly very sparse or almost or altogether wanting. In some eggs the markings are pretty large irregular blotches mingled with small spots and specks, but in many eggs again the largest spot does not exceed one twelfth of an inch in diameter. In colour these markings are normally a chocolate, often with more or less of a brown tinge, in some of the small spots so thickly laid on as to be almost black, in many of the larger blotches becoming only a pale reddish purple, or here and there a pale purplish grey. In some eggs all the markings are pale and washed out, in others all are sharply defined and intense in colour. Occasionally some of the smaller spots become almost a yellowish brown.
526. Eulabes ptilogenys (Blyth). The Ceylon Grackle.
Eulabes ptilogenys (Bl.), Hume, cat. no. 693 bis.