AVIS-IBIS

Birds of Indian Subcontinent

527. Phoenicurus schisticeps

(527) Phoenicurus schisticeps (Hodgs.).
THE WHITE-THROATED REDSTART.
Phoenicians schisticeps, Fauna B. I., Birds, 2nd ed. vol. ii, p. 70.
The exact breeding range of this Redstart is not really known, but it has been obtained in Summer in Nepal, Sikkim, Tibet and Kansu. It is a bird of the highest elevations, being found in Sikkim at 10,000 feet in Winter. Stevens, it should be noted, doubts if it ever breeds in that State, and its breeding in Nepal also seems very doubtful.
Pleske records its breeding in Kansu and found its nest on the 11th May, a cup made of moss and lined with hair and feathers. The eggs he describes as reddish-pink, faintly spotted with light brown, i. e., the same type of egg as that laid by frontalis.
I have had two sets of eggs sent me from Tibet, one from North of the Chambi Valley and one from above Gyantse, both taken at elevations of about 12,000 to 14,000 feet. In one case a skin of a female P. schisticeps was sent with the eggs but, in spite of this, I cannot be sure that the identification is correct, and they may be those of P. hodgsoni or P. ochruros. The nests were “cups of grass, roots and fibre, lined with hair and wool and placed in holes in the stone boundary walls which Tibetans build round their fields.”
They were taken on the 8th May and the 3rd June and contained three and four eggs respectively, which are a uniform pale blue but rather darker and softer in texture than would be normal for the eggs of either P. hodgsoni or R. ochruros. They are broad, blunt ovals in shape, and the measurements vary between 20.4 x 15.2 and 19.1 x 14.3 mm.

BookTitle: 
The Nidification Of Birds Of The Indian Empire
Reference: 
Baker, Edward Charles Stuart. The nidification of birds of the Indian Empire. Vol. 2. 1933.
Title in Book: 
527. Phoenicurus schisticeps
Spp Author: 
Hodgs.
Book Author: 
Edward Charles Stuart Baker
CatNo: 
527
Year: 
1933
Page No: 
66
Common name: 
White-throated Redstart
M_ID: 
28335
M_CN: 
White-throated Redstart
M_SN: 
Phoenicurus schisticeps
Volume: 
Vol. 2
id: 
13704

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