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494.  Cercomela fusca, Blyth.

Saxicola, apud Blyth, J. A. S. XX., 523, and XXIV., 188 -  Blyth, Cat. 1907.

The Brown Rock-chat.

Descr. - Above light fuscous brown or rufous olive, tinged with fawn color on the back; tail dark sepia brown, obsoletely banded, as seen in a strong light; beneath rufescent fawn or dull ferruginous.

Bill and legs black, Irides deep brown. Length 6 1/2 Inches; wing 3 6/10; tail 2 8/10 ; tarsus 1 1/16; bill at front nearly 1/2 Inch.

This plain-colored Stone-chat, colored somewhat similarly to Mirafra pliaenicura, is found at Saugor, Bhopal, and Bundlecund, extending towards Gwalior and the N. W. Provinces. It is a permanent resident at Saugor, and I have always found it on the sandstone hills there, among the rocks, cliffs, and loose stones, never coining to the cultivated ground below, and rarely found on the trap-hills that occur in close proximity to the others. It feeds on the ground, on various coleopterous insects, ants, &c. Mr. Blyth remarks that it approaches in color Saxicola infuscata of S. Africa. It forms an easy transition to the Redstarts, the next group.

Pr. Bonaparte gives two other species of this genus from Palestine and Arabia, S. lypura, Ehr., and S. asthenia, Bonap. S. erythraea, Ehr., from Palestine, should also, perhaps, be classed here. S. infuscata and S. baroica, Smith, from S. Africa, appear allied, though the Prince makes of them a separate division, Agricola. If Bradornis of A. Smith belongs to the Saxicolinae, It probably should be placed not far from these last birds.

Two other African genera of Saxicoline birds are recorded by Bonaparte, viz. Campicola, and Pogonocichla. Sialia, containing the Blue Robins of America, and the Australian genera, Petroica and Erythrodryas. appear to appertain to this sub-family, or at all events to represent them respectively In N. America and Australia. We next Pass to birds more sylvan in their habit, viz., the Redstaris and Robins, most of which Perch more freely on trees than the Stone-chats. Still many arc partial to rocks and buildings, and nidificate in their crevices. Certain among them of still more retired habits, Larvivorinae, Blyth (in lit.), are peculiar, or nearly so, to the Himalayas and part of Central Asia ; and these have sometimes been classed apart, but they are placed together by Gray and Bonaparte, and cannot, 1 think, be well separated. The well known Robin and Redstart of Europe are the types of this sub-family.

Cercomela fusca (Blyth).  
The Brown Rock - Chat.

Cercomela fusca (Blyth), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 134; Hume, Bough Draft N. & E. no. 494.

The Brown Rock - Chat breeds in the northern portions of the Central Provinces, the western and northern districts of the Northwestern Provinces, and the eastern and central parts of the Punjab and Rajpootana, from about the middle of March to nearly the end of July. It may occur and breed elsewhere, but it is only within these limits that 1 have any certain knowledge in regard to its nidification.

During the breeding - season it lays regularly twice, at times thrice. It is a great frequenter of old buildings, and all the grand Mahomedan and Hindoo ruins, forts, and palaces, mosques, and temples afford nesting - sites for one or more pairs of this species. They are tame and fearless. A pair built for years regularly in my house at Etawah, and they often build about native huts. Deep ravines and earthy cliffs also attract them, and thousands of pairs build yearly in that vast network of ravines that fringe the courses of the Jumna and Chambul from opposite Agra to Calpee. Others nest in quarries, and I got several nests from those in the neighbourhood of Futtehpoor Sikri.

Holes in walls, whether mud or stone, and in earthen cliffs and banks, ledges and chinks in rocks and quarries, and the like, are the sites chosen, and in these they build, for the most part, a loose pad - like nest with a feeble central depression, composed of grass stems and roots, the hollow scantily lined with finer roots, horsehair, and a little wool. Rarely they construct a regular and fairly neat, but still shallow, cup - shaped nest, using the same materials.

Three is the usual complement of eggs, but I have repeatedly (say in five cases out of fifty) taken four.

Major C. T. Bingham writes : -" Very common at Delhi among the ruins around. Breeds from March to August in holes in walls lined with grass and feathers. Eggs usually four in number, pale green, blotched and spotted with reddish."

Writing of his experience in the Saughor, Jhansi, and the Delhi divisions, from all of which localities he sent me eggs, Mr. F. R. Blewitt says that this species " breeds from the middle of May to July. The nest, if it can be so called, I have found in holes of old walls, under ledges of rocks, on the ground, and on one occasion at the base of a thick growing bush. Occasionally, too, it makes its nest in the roofs of outhouses.

" For the construction of the nest roots, grass, khus, feathers, and sometimes horsehair and wool are used, .all loosely but thickly packed together, the finer material above. One nest I obtained at the base of a rock was neatly put together. The exterior, an inch or so thick at the base, was formed of roots and coarse grass; the inner cavity cup - shaped, an inch and a half deep, was lined with fine khus and grass.   The outer diameter was 5.5, inner 3.

“The eggs are in colour a very light blue - green, with close dark brown spots, sometimes at the upper end coalescing so as to form a well - defined ring. I have never found more than three eggs in a nest, although I am informed that four are sometimes met with in a single nest. The eggs are almost uniform in size; 0.8 in length and 0.6 in breadth may be taken as the average.

" I have seen this bird more frequently on the plains than among rocks and cliffs. It is in its habits free and familiar, much like the Robins."

I notice that out of several scores of nests that I have seen I myself never met with one out in the open built merely at the base of a bush. Such situations for their nests must, I think, be quite exceptional. I quote a couple out of many notes that I have made about this bird's nidification  : -

"March 23rd, Etawah.  -  Took a nest of this Chat. The nest contained three eggs slightly incubated. It was a flat pad of fine grass stems and roots, 4 inches in diameter and 1 1/2 inch thick, with a broad shallow depression in the upper surface, which was very scantily lined (a mere pretence for lining) with a little wool and a few horsehairs. It was in a hole of an earthen cliff of a dry nullah, about 9 or 10 feet from the ground and a foot in. The eggs were oval, a good deal narrowed towards the small end, pale blue, with numerous very faint reddish - brown spots and specks, predominating at the large end."

"March 29th, Ajmere.  -  Took a nest in a hole in one of the old walls of the grand Arhai - din - ki - jompri. It was a shallow circular nest about 4 inches in external diameter, chiefly of grass, but with an intermixture of horsehair, thread, sheep's wool, and cotton wool. There were three fresh eggs, rather long ovals, of a delicate pale blue, one almost entirely spotless, the others with numerous reddish - brown specks and spots, in one most numerous over the large end and sparse elsewhere, the other with most of the spots collected into a zone near the little end."

From Sambhur Mr. R. M. Adam tells us that “The Brown Rock - Chat is very common, and is generally seen in pairs about old buildings, near villages, or the loose stony portions of the hills. On the 23rd March I found a nest in the Sambhur fort in a wall of an inner room. It was about 5 feet from the ground. It was cup - shaped, the outside measuring 4 1/2 inches in diameter and the egg - receptacle about 2 1/2 inches. The nest was composed of fine grass, loosely rounded together, and had for a lining a layer of goat's hair worked carelessly round into the shape of the nest. The eggs are blue, with pale, or sometimes dark, reddish - brown spots near the thick end.

" To show how fearless this little bird is, I may mention that in April last one of them built in a hole in a bath - room wall, and did not appear to be frightened by the people going out and in. About three weeks after, when the young had left the nest, the birds laid three eggs in the same nest, and these I took on 10th April, 1873. Later these birds laid a third batch of eggs in the same nest, and these they were allowed to hatch."

Writing from Mount Aboo Colonel E. Butler inquires  : - " Have you any instances recorded of Cercomela fusca depositing its eggs in the disused nests of other species ? I found this bird last month (i. e. in June) sitting upon three eggs in a nest (in a cave) which appeared to me to have belonged to Cotyle concolor. It was unmistakably a nest belonging to one of the Swallows  -  a broad inverted cone built of mud to the side of the cave and lined with dry grass. I have seen many nests of this species this year, but in no other instance have I found the eggs laid in another bird's nest.

“The Brown Rock - Chat breeds at Mount Aboo in February, March, and April. The nest is usually built in holes of rocks, buildings, or stone walls, and when in the former is often supported by a heap of small stones and pellets of dry earth, forming an embankment that extends from 6 to 10 inches beyond the side of the nest, which is evidently intended to make the nest rest horizontally, I have noticed it in so many cases that I look upon it now rather as a rule than as an exception. During the period of incubation both birds are extremely pugnacious, and vigorously attack any small birds, squirrels, rats, lizards, &c. that venture to approach the nest. The eggs, varying in number from three to four, are pale blue, with small dark reddish - brown spots thinly scattered over the whole shell and formed into a narrow circle round the large end."

Lieut. H. E. Barnes informs us that in Rajputana the Brown Rock - Ghat breeds from March to the end of July, rearing, he believes, two or three broods in the season.

The eggs are truly Saxicoline. In shape moderately broad ovals, generally somewhat pointed towards the small end, and usually with a good deal of gloss. The ground - colour is a most delicate pale pure blue. The markings consist of tiny specks and spots of different shades of red and brownish - red ; often very faint, commonly almost exclusively confined to the larger end, but sometimes thinly speckled over the whole surface, and in one egg that I possess forming a broad, irregular, dotted zone round the small end, while the large end is almost entirely free from spots. This latter, however, is quite an abnormal variety. Occasionally the markings are entirely wanting. Considerably elongated examples occur, but as a rule the shape is very uniform.

In length the eggs vary from 0.75 to 0.88 in length, and from 0.58 to 0.65 in breadth; but the average of twenty - four eggs measured is 0.82 by 0.62.

* Saxicola isabellina, Cretzschm. The nest of this species lias not yet been found in or near India, and the following note by Dr. Scully will be of interest : -"In the neighbourhood of Yarkand it breeds in April and Slay ; three quite young birds were obtained there during the latter month.'

Vernacular names. Shama (Cen. Prov.).

Description. Upper plumage brown, fringed with rufous after the autumn moult; upper tail-coverts darker and tail very dark brown ; wings dark brown, each feather edged with rufous in fresh plumage; sides of head and neck and lower plumage dull rufous.

Colours of soft parts. Iris dark brown; bill, legs and feet black.

Measurements. Total length about 165 to 170 mm.; wing 84 to 93 mm.; tail 64 to 69 mm. tarsus about 20 mm.; culmen 13 to 15 mm.

Distribution. Resident in Central India. It is found practically throughout the United Provinces, the South of the Punjab, the extreme North-East of the Central Provinces, Rajputana East to Cutch. "Whistler found it to be fairly common in the small hills round about Takuwala in the Jhang district of the Punjab.

Nidification. The Brown Rock-Chat breeds wherever found within the limits given above. The nest is a roughly made shallow cup, often little more than a pad, of grass, roots, wool, hair, etc., much mixed together but, generally, with the latter materials as a lining. It may be placed in a hole in almost any position: a bank, cliff, stone wall, well or empty building and very often in houses which are occupied. In these they not only place their nests in holes but under the eaves, on the rafters or on any other con­venient ledge. The eggs generally number three only, sometimes four and very rarely five. They are typical Wheatears' in colour, shape and markings. The ground is a pale blue or bluish green, sometimes almost or quite spotless but in nine eggs out of ten with a fairly well-marked ring of reddish specks and small blotches at the larger end. In shape they are usually a broad obtuse oval, less often a longer oval with the small end well pointed.

Habits. In its ways, flight, food and voice this bird is a quite typical Wheatear but, unlike practically all species of Oenanthe, the Brown Rock-Chat is one of the tamest, boldest and most confiding of birds. When breeding it seems to lose all fear of man and will build in rooms and offices which are continually in use, passing in and out of them quite regardless of the numerous human beings within. It is found both round about and in villages and towns and also in arid stony wastes, rocky hills and cultivation.

THE BROWN ROCK-CHAT
Cercomela fusca (Blyth)

Description:-
Length 6 inches. Sexes alike. The whole plumage dull rufous-brown, redder on the sides of the head and lower parts ; tail very dark brown.

Iris dark brown ; bill and legs black.

Field Identification:-
Plains species, frequenting ruins, outskirts of towns, old brickyards and low rocky hills ; a plain dark-brown bird familiar in demeanour, coming into occupied buildings.

Distribution:-
This is purely an Indian species and is confined to a patch of country in the centre of the Peninsula, including the Southern and Eastern Punjab, the United Provinces, Chota Nagpur, the extreme North-east of the Central Provinces, and Rajputana as far east as Cutch.

Habits, etc:-
The Brown Rock-Chat is a common and familiar Species found both in arid stony wastes, in deep ravines and earthy cliffs, on rocky hills, and in and about villages and towns. It is a great frequenter of buildings, flitting in and out of the empty chambers and gaping windows of ancient palaces and forts, perching in the cornices of tombs and mosques, and living even in the more frequented houses and offices of the work-a-day world, the friend alike of rich and poor. It comes into rooms even when there are people moving and talking within ; it is a regular Wheatear in its habits, flying from ground to roof-ridge, from window to cornice, with the Strong direct flight of those birds ; its food consists of insects, beetles, ants, and the like, which it captures on the ground, flying down from the elevated situations where it perches. During the breeding season it becomes rather pugnacious and readily attacks squirrels, rats, lizards, and birds in the neighbourhood of the nest.

The breeding season lasts from February to August, but most eggs will be found in March and April. Two or three broods are reared in a year, sometimes in the same nest.

The nest is a shallow, loosely-constructed cup of grass-roots, wool, hair, and similar materials, sometimes separately lined with wool and hair; occasionally it is supported by a little heap of small Stones and fragments of clay. It is built in holes in rocks, buildings, and Stone walls, and when in buildings may be placed on shelves and rafters without any attempt at concealment.

The normal clutch consists of three eggs, but four or five are sometimes laid.

The egg is a moderately broad oval, rather pointed towards the small end ;  the texture is fine with a good deal of gloss.   The ground-colour is a most delicate pale pure blue; the markings consist of tiny specks and spots of reddish-brown, which tend to collect in a zone round the broad end.

The egg measures about 0.82 by 0.62 inches.