139. Pyctorhis sinensis (Gm.). The Yellow-eyed Babbler.
Pyctorhis sinensis (Gm.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 15; Hume, Rough
Draft N.& E. no. 385.
The Yellow-eyed Babbler breeds throughout the plains of India, as also in the Nilghiris, to an elevation of 5000 feet, and in the Himalayas to perhaps 4000 feet. It lays in the latter part of June, in July, August, and September. Gardens are the favourite localities and in these the little bird makes its compact and solid nest, sometimes in a fork of the fine twigs of a lime-bush, sometimes in a mangoe-, orange-, or apple-tree, occasionally suspended between three stout grass-stems, or even attached to a single stem of the huge grass from which the native pens are made. I have taken a nest, hung between three reeds, exactly resembling in shape and position the Reed-Warbler's nest (Salicaria arundinacea), figured in Mr. Yarrell's vignette at page 313, vol. i. 3rd edition.
The nest is typically cone-shaped (the apex downwards), from 5 to 6 inches in depth, and 3 or 4 in diameter at the base; but it varies of course according to situation, the cone being often broadly truncated. In the base of the cone (which is uppermost) is the egg-cavity, measuring from 2 to 3 inches in diameter, and from 2 to 2·5 inches in depth. The nest is very compactly and solidly woven, of rather broad blades of grass, and long strips of fine fibrous bark, exteriorly more or less coated with cobwebs and gossamer-threads. Interiorly, fine grass-stems and roots are neatly and closely interwoven. I once found some horse-hair along with the grass-roots, but this is unusual.
The full number of eggs is, I believe, five. I have repeatedly taken nests containing this number, and have comparatively seldom met with a smaller number of eggs at all incubated.
Colonel G.F.L. Marshall says:—"I found a nest of this species at Roorkee in the early part of July. It contained three eggs and was beautifully made, a deep cup fixed on to an artichoke-stock, and at a little distance much resembled an artichoke."
Mr. E.C. Nunn, writing from near Agra on the 26th September 1867, says:—"I got a Pyctorhis' nest yesterday, suspended between two stalks of jowar (Holcus sorghum), the nest firmly bound with strips of fibrous bark, at two opposite points of its circumference, to the two stems. This is, I imagine, something out of the usual order of things with these birds. The nests which I have hitherto found have been situated in young mangoe-trees, rose-bushes, or peach- and orange-trees."
From Futtehgurh the late Mr. A.A. Anderson sent me the following note:—"The nest and eggs of this bird are very beautiful. A pair once built in a pumplenose-tree (Citrus decumana) in my garden, laying five long eggs. The nest, still in my collection, was placed in the fork of four small upright twigs; it was composed entirely of dry grass-stems (no soft material inside), and laced outwardly, in and out of the twigs, with dry fibre belonging to the plantain-tree.
"The eggs are small for the size of the bird, and scarcely so large as those of the Hedge-Sparrow."
Captain Hutton remarks:—"This likewise is a Dhoon bird; its nest was found there on the 1st July, when it contained four eggs of a dull white colour, thickly speckled and blotched all over with ferruginous spots, forming also an open darker coloured ring at the large end, and intermixed with brown.