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.

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    as a rule, there is generally a certain smoothness in the feel of these eggs which distinguishes them from those of other species; but this is by no means an invariable test. The eggs vary from 2*55 to 3 inches in length, and from 2*02 to 2*27 in breadth; but the average of thirty eggs measured was 2*77 by 2’17 inches. 43.— Cuncumct leucogcister, Gmel. Mr. H. C. Parker procured an egg of the White-bellied Sea-eagle on the 28th January 186], from a nest in a lofty tree near the Roopnarin, in the neighbourhood of Diamond Harbour. Both birds were shot, the one from the nest. The egg, which was fresh, was nearly pure white, a very regular oval, slightly pointed towards one end, and measured 2*87 by 2T7 inches. Dr. Jerdon states that “In Pigeon Island, 30 miles or so south of Honore, which is well-wooded with large forest trees, a whole colony of these birds have their nests, at least thirty or forty of them; and the ground below their nests is strewed and whitened with bones of sea snakes chiefly, and also of fish. They breed in December, January, and February.” My friend, Mr. H. It. P. Carter, has verified this observation through a correspondent, and, I believe, procured eggs thence ; but I never received these. Mr. Davison remarks : “ I found the nest of this bird on the 8tli of March on Nancowry (Ni cobars). It was a huge mass of sticks placed between two great branches of a large tree, at a height of about 80 feet from the ground. The tree grew on the edge of a small land-slip, about 200 feet from the shore. It must have had eggs, as the bird was sitting; but I failed to obtain them. I could not climb the tree myself, and I could get no assistance from the Nicobarese.” 45.—Buteo ferox, Gmel. The Long-legged Buzzard is said to breed in the North-West, Punjab, and certainly breeds in the interior of the Himalayas west of the Ganges, as in Bussahir, Kooloo, and Kashmere. Mr. W. Theobald makes the following note of this bmPs breeding in the neighbourhood of Pind Dadan Khan and Katas in the Salt Range :—- “Lays in the first and fourth weeks of March. Eggs, two to three ; shape, ovato pyriform; size varies from 2*00 to 2T9 inches in length, and 1*66 inch in breadth; colour, greenish-white, or white blotched with red or claret- brown, vary greatly. Nest, large, in trees ; sticks lined with cotton, rags, &c., and daubed with mud.” Of their breeding in the valley of Kashmere, he says : “Lays in the fourth week of April eggs, two in number, ovato pyriform, measuring from 2T0 to 2*40 inches in length, and from P77 to 1*80 inch in breadth. Nest and eggs as in plains.”
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