Nests and eggs of Indian birds : rough draft / by Allan Hume.

  • Allan Hume
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nests and eggs of Indian birds : rough draft / by Allan Hume. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    41/680 page 29
    “ The nest is placed in a fork near the top of a large tree, about 35 or 40 feet from the ground. All that I have found have been in the line of trees along the bank of the Eastern Jumna Canal, on the outside one farthest from the water, and always in Sheesum trees. I found four nests, one with young (on the 10th June), and three with eggs on the 22nd of May and 3rd and 11th of June. All the eggs were hard-set. The nest is a large circular platform-like structure of sticks, with a few dead leaves in the egg receptacle, but no other lining. I noticed no remains of food in any of them. The diameter of the whole nest was about 20 inches, and the interior depth about 2 inches. I have never found more than one egg in any nest. The egg now before me is a perfect, but very blunt oval; of a slightly yellowish white ground, somewhat profusely spotted and blotched with rather faint yellowish brown, and a pale washed-out purplish brown, which latter colour greatly predominates : the egg is absolutely glossless.” An egg which I owe to Captain Marshall's kindness is a broad oval in shape, and has a greyish white ground, richly blotched and spotted with pale purple. This egg is somewhat larger in every way than that figured by Mr. Hewitson; it has no gloss, and when held up against the light, the shell, as in all these Eagles, is a bright sea green. Other eggs which I have obtained or seen have been less richly marked, but have varied little in size or shape. As a rule, they seem to be more richly marked than those of vindhiana. The five eggs that I have measured have varied from 2*5 to 2*85 inches in length, and from 1*94 to 2’2 inches. 29.—Aquilct vindhiana, FranM. The Indian Tawny Eagle breeds throughout the drier portions of continental India. Here and there this species and the Spotted Eagle may be found breed- ing in close proximity; but this is only on the borders of their respective territories, and as a rule it is just in those well-drained, open, dry districts, where navia never breeds, that the Tawny Eagle most delights to rear its young. In different parts of Upper India, it lays from the middle of November to the middle of June; but the great majority, I think, lay in January. Out of one hundred and fifty-nine eggs, of which I have a record, eighty-three were taken in January, thirty-eight in December, twenty-eight in February, the rest in November, March, April, and June. Only one in this latter month, and none at all in May. The very hot dry weather puts a stop to the laying of most species belonging to the raptorial and in-sessorial groups. The nest is always, as far as my experience goes, placed on trees. I have never met with one placed on rocky ledges, although I have found them on trees at the foot of, or near to, precipices, which contained apparently most “ eligible sites.” They build a large flat nest of sticks, between 2 and 3J feet in diameter, and from 4 inches to 1 foot in thickness, according to situation. The nests are generally lined with green leaves, sometimes with straw or grass intermingled with a few feathers, and sometimes have no lining at all. They are generally placed at the very top of the tree, and though I have found them occasionally on Peepul and Tamarind trees, the great majority were on moderate-sized, but dense Babool trees, standing apart in the midst of fields or low jungles.
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