54 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



" Buch. Hamilton saA-s it is common in the neighbour- 

 hood of Calcutta, building among bamboos, living in 

 pairs, and i'eeding on insects and fruits. It is said to 

 sing well, he says, and is frequently tamed by the 

 Mussulmans, who in the morning carry it about, and 

 invoke the name of God and the prophet, in the same 

 manner as they do with Parrakeets. The Lepchas of 

 Darjeeling brought me a nest, which was said to have 

 been placed high up in a large tree. It was composed of 

 twigs and roots, and a few bits of grass, and contained 

 two eggs, livid white, with purplish and claret spots, 

 and of a very elongated form." " Birds of India." 

 Vol. I., pp. 439. 440. 



In Hume's " Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds," 2nd 

 edition, pp. 213-214, are the following notes, which I 

 think should be quoted: 



" Mr. R. Thompson says : ' The Hair-crested 

 Drongo is extremely common as a breeder in 

 all our hot valleys ('Kumaon and Gurwhal). It lay.s 

 in May and June, building in forks of branches of small 

 leafy trees situated in warm valleys having an elevation 

 of from 2,000 to 2,500 feet. The 'nest is circular, about 

 five inches in diameter, rather deep and hollow ; it is 

 composed of fine roots and fibres bound together with 

 cobwebs, and it is lined with hairs and fine roots. They 

 lay from three to four much elongated, purplish-white 

 eggs, spotted with pink or claret colour.' 



" Mr. J. R. Cripps has written the following valuable 

 notes regarding the breeding of the Hair-crested Drongo 

 in the Dibrugarh district, in Assam: 



"'May 17th. 1879. Nest with three fresh eggs. 

 attached to a fork in one of the outer branches of an 

 otinga (JJillriiin /a nttnji/Ha) tree, and about 15 feet off 

 the ground. 



" 'May 15th, 1880. Three fresh eggs in a nest 20 feet 

 off the ground, and a few yards from my bungalow, in 

 an oorian (Bisclwffia jnvanica, Bl.). 



" ' June 5th, 1880. Nest with three partly-incubated 

 eggs, in one of the outer branches of a jack (Artocarpus 

 integrifolla} tree, and about 15 feet off the ground. 



" ' May 27th, 1881. Three fresh eggs in a nest on a 

 soom (Machilus odoratissima) tree at the edge of the 

 forest bordering the tea. The nests ai*e deep saucers, 

 3$ inches in diameter, internally 1 deep, with the sides 

 about i thick ; but the bottom is so flimsy that the eggs 

 are easily seen from below, the materials being grass, 

 roots, and fine tendrils of creepers, especially if these 

 are thorny, when they are used as a lining. The nest 

 is always situated in the fork of a branch.' " 



This bird has been exhibited in our Zoological 

 Gardens, where it was received as long ago as 1866 ; 

 in 1894 it was imported by Fockelmann, of Hamburg, 

 but according to the late Dr. Rv.s? is much rarer in 

 the mai'ket than the preceding species. 



WOOD=SW ALLOWS (Artawlas). 



The affinity of these birds to the Drongos has been 

 pretty generally recognised, but various authorities 

 have also regarded them as showing affinity to the 

 Swallows (Blyth), to the Orioles (Cabanis). and to the 

 StarlingvS (Reichenow). Of late years they have net in- 

 frequently been exhibited at bird shows. 



WHITE-EYEBROWED WOOD-SWALLOW (Artamus 



superciliosus) . 



Above smoky grey, paler on rump and tail, blackish 

 upon the crown ; lores, area encircling eye, and ear- 

 coverts black ; chin greyish-black ; a white eyebrow- 

 stripe pointed in front, spatulate at back ; tail-feathers, 

 excepting the outer ones, tipped with white ; outer 

 webs of outer feathers grey ; under surface chestnut ; 

 wings below white ; bill pale blue ac base, black at tip ; 



feet dark lead-coloured ; irides blackish. Female with 

 the lores and area encircling eye duller, eyebrow-stripe 

 less defined ; throat grey ; tail less distinctly tipped with 

 white; under surface paler chestnut. Hab., New South 

 Wales. 



Gould says that this is a shy species, giving 

 " preference to the topmost branches of the highest 

 trees, from which it sallies forth for the capture of 

 insects, and to which it again returns, in the usual 

 manner of the tribe. In every part where I have 

 observed it. it is distinctly migratory, arriving in 

 summer, and departing northwards after the breeding 

 season. 



" The nest is most difficult of detection, being^ 

 generally placed either in a fork of the branches or in 

 a niche near the bole of the tree, whence the bark has. 

 been partially istripped. It is a round, very shallow* 

 and frail structure, composed of small twigs and lined 

 with fibrous roots; those I discovered contained two- 

 eggs, but I had not sufficient opportunities for ascer- 

 taining if this number was constant. Their ground- 

 colour is dull buffy- white, spotted with umber-brown, 

 forming a zone near the larger end ; in some these- 

 spots are sparingly sprinkled over the whole surface ; 

 they have also the obscure grey spotting of those of 

 A. sordid us. The eggs are rather more than eleven 

 lines long by eight and a half lines broad." " Birds 

 of Aust"ali:i," Vol. I., p. 153. 



Mr. A. J. North says (Cat. Nests and Eggs of Birds 

 found breeding in Australia and Tasmania, p. 48) : 

 "It builds a round, and almost flat, scanty nest of 

 roots and grasses through which the eggs, in some 

 situations, can be seen from below in every possible 

 position, both in the indigenous and acclimatised tree^ 

 of our public parks and gardens. In Albert Park I 

 have found no less than ten nests, each containing e 

 in a single row of pines (Pinu* in.-'ii/iiis) of about fifty 

 yards in length, the tree at that time being of _a 

 uniform height of five feet ; at other times the nest is 

 placed in the horizontal fork of the branches of the- 

 eucalyptus or acacia, the broad, flat fronds of the 

 Norfolk Island pine (Araucaria ercclta], and on two 

 occasions I have found it in the leafy top of a rose- 

 bush. The eggs are three in number, usually of a 

 buffy-white ground-colour, blotched and freckled all 

 over with light brown, and umber-brown markings, par- 

 ticularly towards the larger end. Occasionally an egg 

 in a se't is found of a dull white ground-colour, with 

 a well-defined zone of dark umber round the larger 

 end. The measurements of a set taken at Albert Park 

 in December, 1870 are as follows -.Length (A) 0.9 x 

 0.7 inch; (B) 0.95 x 0.7 inch; (C) 0.93 x 0.67 inch." 



In a note published in Tie Emit, Vol. II., p. 217, 

 Mr. F. L. Berney records the fact that the Wood- 

 Swallows feed upon honey. He says: "Two of the 

 species (Artamus perannatus and .4. superciliosus} have 

 been nocking lately on the bauhinia trees, which are 

 just now in full bloom. I watched them quite close, 

 there being no need for the glasses, for in their eager- 

 ness to gather their breakfast of honey they crowded 

 round me within 8ft. of my head." The writer shot 

 some of these birds, but appears to have found only 

 ants and one beetle in the stomachs, which (the editor 

 points out) suggests that the birds were after inserts 

 and not honey; however, in Vol. III., p. 112. Miss 

 Helen Bowie writes : " I have kept two pairs of Wood- 

 S \vallows for the last seven months. They were turned 

 out into an aviary in which there wns honey for some 

 KTcli pjtnfjidrp. No sooner were the Wood-Swallows at 

 liberty than they made their way to the pot, and seemed 

 to recognise it as a natural diet. At presen* they live 

 principally on fruit and honey, with a little Lark food! 

 and occasional insects "by way of a treat. They visit 



