AVIS-IBIS

Birds of Indian Subcontinent

1095. Gymnoris xanthoeollis transfuga

(1095) Gymnoris xanthocollis transfuga Hartert.
THE SIND YELLOW-THROATED SPARROW.
Gymnoris xanthocollis transfuga, Fauna B. I., Birds, 2nd ed. vol. iii, p. 168.
Within our limits this Sparrow breeds in Sind and the extreme West of the Punjab and the North-West Province, whence it extends into Baluchistan, Afghanistan and Persia.
The nesting of the present race differs in no way from that of the preceding bird, though it seems to build its nest more frequently in walls and roofs of buildings, possibly owing to there not being sufficient trees for building purposes. Like the last bird, it often appropriates the nesting-holes of Barbets and Woodpeckers and, again like the last bird, it has the curious habit of placing its nest in lamp-posts.
Butler writes (Hume’s ‘Nests and Eggs,’ vol. ii, p. 158) from Hyderabad in Sind:—“15th April, 1878. A nest built in a hole of one of the mud walls of my verandah, about 12 feet from the ground, containing four much incubated eggs. Another nest on the 1st May, near the same spot and in a similar position, contained three hard-set eggs, and another on the same date inside the top of an old lamp-post.
“The hole by which the bird entered was in the bulb at the top of the post upon which the lamp rests and was so small that the hen bird had some difficulty in passing in and out. I may add that the lamp was lit regularly every evening and burnt all night. Subsequently I found several other lamp-posts in camp occupied, by a pair of these Sparrows.”
Eates informa me that he has found them partial to small natural hollows in “lai” and “babur” trees, and he notes that the grass-and-feather-lined nests are often very meagre and poorly put together. Otherwise the nest is much like that of the Indian race and is built of similar materials.
Occasionally, owing to no holes in trees or elsewhere being available, they breed in queer places. Ticehurst thinks a pair he found breeding in an isolated "Babool” grove nested in an old Crow’s neat, whilst Whitehead found a pair that had built a nest like “that of Passer domesticus and placed conspicuously in the top of a thorn-bush.” This was found at Kohat on the 1st April, and this month seems to he the usual breeding one, a few eggs only being laid in May.
The full clutch numbers three or four, and the eggs cannot be distinguished from those of the Indian race.
Twenty-six eggs average 18.0 x 12.6 mm. : maxima 19.4 x 13.1 and 18.0 x 13.3 mm. ; minima 17.4 x 12.8 and 17.7 x 12.3 mm.

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: 
1095. Gymnoris xanthoeollis transfuga
Spp Author: 
Hartert.
Book Author: 
Edward Charles Stuart Baker
CatNo: 
1095
Year: 
1934
Page No: 
73
Common name: 
Sind Yellow Throated Sparrow
M_ID: 
29446
M_SN: 
Gymnoris xanthocollis transfuga
Volume: 
Vol. 3
id: 
14190

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