AVIS-IBIS

Birds of Indian Subcontinent

1258. Chalcoparia jsingalensis rubinigentis

(1258) Chalcoparia singalensis rubinlgenthis Stuart Baker.
THE INDIAN RUBY-CHEEK.
Chalcoparia singalensis lepida, Fauna B. I., Birds, 2nd ed. vol. iii, p. 370.
Chalcoparia singalensis rubinigentis ibid. vol. viii, p. 665.
This is a Sub-Himalayan form occurring throughout the Teraii from Sikkim to Eastern Assam, the hills and adjoining country South of the Brahmapootra ; Manipur, the hill-tracts and districts of Bengal East of the Bay, and in Dacca and Mymensingh districts on the West.
The haunts of this little bird are forest, scrub and small tree-jungle and the secondary growth in deserted cultivation. The few nests I have seen have all been built in the bush and tangled scrub growing on the sites of abandoned villages, or else in deserted hill rice fields where the soil was poor and the new growth scanty and only growing in patches.
The three nests taken by myself were all attached to tiny drooping twigs of small bushes and were between 2 and 4 feet from the ground. In appearance they were like large pears covered with black hair—in fact, very much like the nest of the preceding bird described by Oates. They were all three made of very fine fibres, torn, I think, from the trunks of palm-ferns, mixed with fern-rachides and the stalks of maidenhair-ferns, the lining also being of the same material The nests measured roughly 4.1/3 by 3.1/4 inches externally and the large entrance was protected by an over¬hanging porch, just showing the lower edge. In no case was the porch produced so low as the bottom of the nest, as in that of the Burmese form. The nests were very compactly and stoutly built, although all the ends hung down everywhere in the most untidy fashion.
My three nests were taken on 23rd March and on the 6th and 17th June, the first two containing each two hard-set eggs, while there was a single fresh egg in the third.
These are all of the Sparrow’s-egg type ; the single egg is an obtuse oval, densely speckled with brown-grey, a little less dense at the smaller end, while the others are decidedly pointed ovals, one pair densely and the second pair less densely speckled with blackish-grey. The second pair has an almost confluent ring of blackish specks at the larger end.
Eight eggs average 16.9 x 12.05 mm. : maxima 18.3 x 12.3 mm. ; minima 16.0 x 11.7 mm.
I have never caught the cock bird on the nest, so cannot say whether it assists in incubation and, "judging by analogy, should not expect it to do so.

BookTitle: 
The Nidification Of Birds Of The Indian Empire
Reference: 
Baker, Edward Charles Stuart. The nidification of birds of the Indian Empire. Vol. 3. 1934.
Title in Book: 
1258. Chalcoparia jsingalensis rubinigentis
Spp Author: 
Stuart baker.
Book Author: 
Edward Charles Stuart Baker
CatNo: 
1258
Year: 
1934
Page No: 
198
Common name: 
Indian Ruby Cheek
M_ID: 
28828
M_SN: 
Chalcoparia singalensis assamensis
Volume: 
Vol. 3
id: 
14342

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Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith