The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 by Allan O. Hume
page 50 of 758 (06%)
page 50 of 758 (06%)
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the nest was some 20 feet from the ground and made of bamboo-leaves
and grass." A nest of this species taken below Yendong in Native Sikhim, on the 28th April, contained four fresh eggs. It was placed on the branches of a medium-sized tree at a height of about 12 feet from the ground; it was a large oval saucer, 8 inches by 6, and about 2ยท5 in depth, composed mainly of dry bamboo-leaves, bound firmly together with fine stems of creepers, and was lined with moderately fine roots; the cavity was 5 inches by 4, and about 1 in depth. The eggs received from Major Bingham, as also others received from Sikhim, where they were procured by Mr. Mandelli on the 21st and 28th of April, are rather broad ovals, somewhat pointed towards the small end. The shell is fine, but has only a little gloss. The ground-colour is white or slightly greyish white, and they are uniformly freckled all over with very pale yellowish and greyish brown. The frecklings are always somewhat densest at the large end, where in some eggs they form a dull brown cap or zone. In some eggs the markings are everywhere denser, in some sparser, so that some eggs look yellower or browner, and others paler. The eggs are altogether of the _Garruline_ type, not of that of the _Dendrocitta_ or _Urocissa_ type. I have eggs of _G. lanceolatus_, that but for being smaller precisely match some of the _Cissa_ eggs. Jerdon is, I think, certainly wrong in placing _Cissa_ between _Urocissa_ and _Dendrocitta_, the eggs of which two last are of the same and quite a distinct type[A]. [Footnote A: I am responsible, and not Mr. Hume, for calling this bird |
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