Edward Charles Stuart Baker

“ This Magpie is more of a plains than a mountain bird, but in some parts of the Himalayas it is said to wander up to as high as 7,000 feet and to breed at this height. It is a sociable, noisy bird but many of its notes are very musical, though it can give vent to most unmusical discords at times. Its usual call is an oft-repeated "bob-a-link bob-a-link" as it flies from one bush to another, the cry being repeated by each member of the flock in turn. They are practically omnivorous and are arrant egg and nestling thieves during the breeding seasons of the smaller birds. ”

“ In this most remarkable genus are found certain species of birds which appear to be most nearly related to the Choughs but should possibly be placed in a family by themselves.
The bill is slender and very long and the nostrils completely concealed under stiff plumes; the wing is short and rounded and the legs long and strong.
These curious birds, to which the name of Ground Choughs has been given, differ from all other forms of Corvidæ in their very weak flight. In habits they are strictly ground-birds spending practically their whole time upon it. ”

“ Blanford are splendid examples of men carrying on thorough scientific work in the rare and sporadic intervals of exacting, official duties.
Those who are responsible for issuing these volumes may well congratulate themselves on having secured the services of Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker. Mr. Baker is well known to all those in India who take an interest in ornithology and big game shooting. He is equally known to Ornithologists all over the world as a regular contributor for more than thirty years to the "Ibis" and "Bombay Natural History Society's Journal." ”

“ These do not differ from those of the other Jungle-Crows, but over a considerable portion of their northern range they are shy, retiring birds, generally frequenting heavy forest and never scavenging round about villages. Each pair has its own territory over which it hunts and in the breeding season it is most destructive to other birds' eggs and young. It ascends the hills up to some 6,000 feet but is not common above this height, though it wanders up to 8,00 or even 9,000 feet. It occurs all over the plains except, perhaps, in the driest portions of Central Burma. ”

“ Mr. Gates survived his editor by six years. He had spent thirty-two years in the Public Works Department of India and had devoted all his spare time to the ornithology of British India. He was chiefly stationed in Burma and was undoubtedly the world's authority on the birds of that country. His "Birds of British Burma" in two volumes is still a standard work, though it has perhaps been to some extent replaced by his later work in "The Fauna of British India."
He is described by those who knew him as being a lovable but at times hot-tempered man ”

“ North of the Brahmaputra this fine Tit is confined to elevations of 5,000 feet upwards but in the Khasia Hills, Manipur, etc., it is common at 4,000 feet and descends in winter even lower. It may be found either in small parties of half-a-dozen or so, or in pairs. It is a bold familiar bird entering compounds freely and with little fear of watchers. Less restless than the Grey-Tits it is still an active, energetic bird and when hunting for insects assumes the same curious attitudes. ”

“ This Blue Magpie is found in small parties, probably consisting of the parent birds and their last brood. They keep much to evergreen forest at elevations between 5,000 and 12,000 feet, descending lower in the winter but never to the plains as does the next bird. Their flight is slow and undulating and they are rather noisy birds, especially during the breeding season. According to Col. Rattray, they are much given to feeding on the ground. Like all Magpies they are said to be addicted to stealing eggs and young of other birds. ”

“ In India throughout the Himalayas from Kohat to Central Tibet and South-East Tibet.
Nidification. Eggs have been taken in the Liddar Valley and in S.E. Tibet in April and May from nests placed in steep rocky cliffs, either in holes or in crevices in rocks. As a rule the breeding places are almost or quite inaccessible. The eggs differ in no way from those of the European bird. The ground-colour is a very pale yellowish grey, rarely with a cream tint, and the spots are of light brown and neutral tint, rather sparse as a rule but more numerous at the larger end. ”

“ The ground-colour may be any tint of pale stone, very pale cream or pale reddish, and more rarely pale greenish white. The markings are of pale sienna and grey-brown, darker richer brown, or dark reddish brown; typically the markings are richer and bolder than they are on the eggs of the Common Tree-pie and are often confined to the larger end in a ring or cup. Very few of its eggs could be confounded with those of that bird. ”

“ The average of 100 eggs is 37.2 x 27 mm.
Habits. The Indian House-Crow is one of the most familiar birds throughout its habitat, whatever race it may belong to. It haunts human habitations and follows human beings as civilization gradually usurps the place of jungle or forest and wherever man is, there, sooner or later, it will surely be found. Probably originally purely a plains' bird it has followed rail and road routes into the hills almost everywhere, being now found in hill stations at elevations of 6,000 and 7,000 feet or even higher. ”

“ The nest is the neatest and best built of any made by Crows, and I have seen specimens made entirely of moss and moss roots and so neatly lined with hair and fur that they would have been a credit to any bird architect. The eggs number four to six and differ from those of intermedius in being duller, browner and darker in their general tint and being somewhat broader in proportion to their length. They average 43.1 × 31.6 mm. In Assam and Upper Burma the breeding season is during April and May but in Lower Burma and Siam January and February are the laying months. ”

“ But while in the Mammals the larynx is a comparatively stable structure, in the birds the syrinx presents a very remarkable range of differences both in regard to its fundamental structural characters, as well as of musculature.
For the present it must suffice to give a brief survey of the essential features of the syrinx in the Passeres and, for systematic purposes, the musculature is the dominant factor. ”

“ Genus NEOSUTHORA Hellmayr, 1911.
This genus differs from Suthora in having the tail less graduated and much shorter, not more than three-fourths the length of the wing; the bill is larger and much deeper in proportion; the wing is still more rounded, the 4th to the 7th being subequal. It contains but one species, Neosuthora davidiana, of which a subspecies, N. d. thompsoni, comes within our limits.
(103) Neosuthora davidiana thompsoni. ”

“ In all the island adults the bases to the feathers are very pure white, whereas in the Assam and Burmese birds they range from almost pure black to more than equally pure white. Northern birds have more white than southern, but even this is only a question of degree in average.
Nidification. In Assam and N. Burma almost entirely a jungle bird; in Central and Lower Burma it frequents the neighbourhood of human habitations more freely, occasionally building its nest in towns and villages. ”

“ The Red-billed Chough breeds freely in Tibet, Ladakh and Northern Kashmir, breeding generally in cliffs, but, in Tibet, frequently in the Tibetan houses and buildings whether occupied or not. They are early breeders, laying in the end of March and April and often having a second brood. The eggs are like those of the English bird, but much duller and more brownish in tint and they average much bigger, 41.7 X 28.4 mm. ”

“ The would-be Ornithologist in India must also remember that it is not only the dry skins of birds which are required by the systematist who, though he may have the good fortune to work in big museums and other centres where masses of material are available for comparison and where good libraries are at hand for reference, yet urgently needs specimens, especially of the rarer forms in spirit, not only for anatomical purposes but for the study of Pterylosis etc. ”

“ This beautiful Magpie is an inhabitant of low-level, evergreen forests and heavy jungle, but may also be found in bamboo-jungle and the more dry, deciduous forests, such as oak, etc. in Burma they seem to be more often found in dry open parts than in the heavier evergreen cover. Their name "Hunting Jay," or "Hunting Magpie," is well applied, as they are determined hunters of big insect life and of small unfledged birds, etc., and for their quarry they will regularly quarter the country they work over. They feed alike on high trees, scrub-jungle and actually on the ground itself. ”

“ The genus Panurus, the Bearded Tits, should probably also be placed with the Paradoxornithidæ.
As regards the Indian Titmouses, I see no reason to divide them into subfamilies, and I include them all in the same. Since, however, the 'Fauna of India' was published, we have had to add other genera and species to our list, the principal being Remiz (Anthoscopus) coronatus and Parus (Cyanistes) cyanus.
The key to the genera given below applies only to our Indian species. ”

“ The Burmese Tree-pie, though equally tame and confiding in its ways, is not so exclusively confined to open country in civilization as is the Indian Tree-pie and it may also be found in thin forest and the more open parts of evergreen forest. ”

“ Again, poor skins of moulting birds are often more valuable than those in the finest condition of plumage, while the nestlings and young of many of the most common birds are still desiderata in the British Museum and other institutions. ”

“ A dark bird distinguishable from all others of the dark forms by its greater size; both upper and lower parts are not as dark, however, as in cinereus, but the nuchal patch is grey and very inconspicuous.
Colours of soft parts as in cinereus.
Measurements. Wing 70 to 79 mm.; tail 60 to 70mm.
Distribution. Kashmir, Garhwal, Simla, and Hills of the North-West.
Nidification. Breeds freely in Kashmir and elsewhere, from 3,500 feet up to 9,000 feet or higher. The eggs four to six, or even seven, are more richly coloured than are those of the Indian Grey-Tit and measure about 18.5 × 13.5 mm. ”

“ In the first place, the trinomial system has been adopted — a decision which has added very greatly to the number of birds to be described, i.e. to the total number of species and subspecies, though, on the other hand, it has reduced the number of species, for it has relegated to their proper positions as subspecies or geographical races many forms which have hitherto improperly held the status of species. ”

“ The majority feed completely on the ground, others are strictly arboreal. They all agree in laying four or five spotted eggs except certain species of the genus Podoces, which lay white eggs in burrows. The mode of nidification of the remaining genera varies greatly, some species breeding in holes of trees and cliffs, the others, the majority, constructing large nests of sticks and twigs. Most of them are omnivorous, but some of the smaller tropical species appear to confine their diet to insects. ”

“ The Himalayan bird is not so much addicted to haunting the vicinity of human habitations as is the Common Jungle-Crow and pairs may be found inhabiting stretches of forest far from any camp or village. Its voice is notably louder and deeper than that of the plains' bird. ”

“ Forehead, lores and feathers above the eye black; sides of the head, chin and throat dark sooty-brown, fading and spreading over the sides of the neck and breast; crown of the head, nape and upper back ashy; back and scapulars clear brownish buff; rump and upper tail-coverts ashy; wings and their coverts black, all the primaries but the first two with a patch of white at their base, forming a conspicuous spot; central pair of tail-leathers ashy for two-thirds of their length, then black; the others all black except their extreme bases, which are ashy; abdomen and flanks cinereous ”

“ According to Stoliczka this species is very social and frequently visits the camp of the traveller in Spiti and Ladakh, as it does also in Tibet. It is as familiar and noisy in the neighbourhood of villages and camping-grounds as the common House-Crow is in India. In the breeding season it to some extent deserts human habitations for the wilder cliffs. ”

“ The bill, however, is short, with the commissure greatly curved and in one species, D. bayleyi, the tail approaches the next genus in structure, the central tail-feathers being gradually enlarged throughout their length, not suddenly at the tip as in Crypsorhina.
The Tree-pies are sociable, associating in small flocks and they are arboreal, seldom descending to the ground. They have a series of clear metallic notes, which sound very pleasantly in the jungle. They construct large nests, generally in trees, and lay eggs which are less Corvine in appearance than those of the true Magpies. ”

“ The genus Ægithaliscus contains a group of very small Titmouses with tails longer in proportion and more graduated than in Parus. There is no crest but the feathers of the crown are very long and full. There is no ventral band.
Key to Species.
Ægithaliscus concinnus Gould, 1855.
Our little Indian Tits hitherto known as erythrocephalus are only a geographical race of the Chinese concinnus, moreover the name itself cannot be used for this Tit as it is invalidated by Linné's Parus erythrocephalus, x. ed. p. ”

“ If birds from only the higher portions of their habitat were taken, the wing average would probably be well over 340 mm., but the average is greatly decreased by late summer birds, which may well be visitors from the plains wandering into the hills after breeding. ”

“ In shape also they average longer in proportion. One hundred eggs average 39⋅6 × 28⋅9 mm.
Habits. Normally the Jungle-Crow is, as its name implies, a bird of the forests and jungles rather than of cities and civilization: at the same time this particular race has taken to emulating the Indian House-Crow in haunting the abodes of men and, even where it still keeps to the jungles, generally selects places within easy distance of some village, possibly for the sake of the food it is able to scavenge from it. ”

“ The genus Pyrrhocorax contains the Choughs, of which there are two species—P. pyrrhocorax, the Red-billed Chough, and P. graculus, the Yellow-billed Chough, which occur unchanged over a great area of three continents. Both are found within Indian limits.
They resemble the true Crows in colour, but differ from them all in having the bill and feet brilliantly coloured. ”

“ In the Tree-pies we have a collection of birds which are closer to Pica than to either Urocissa or Cissa, inasmuch as they have black bills and very numerous stiff, but somewhat short, bristles completely concealing the nostrils. ”

“ Forehead, crown and nape pale reddish brown; lores, a very broad band through the eye to the nape, chin and throat black; cheeks and ear-coverts white; upper plumage, a band over the ear-coverts, wing-coverts and the edges of the wing-feathers olive-grey; wiuglet and primary-coverts dark brown; tail brown, the outermost feather with the outer web white and the inner tipped with white, the next feather obliquely, and the one next to this again very narrowly tipped with white; lower plumage reddish fawn, the portion immediately next the black throat deep rusty red. ”

“ There is but one species of Pica in India containing three sub-species which grade into one another in the areas where they meet, but which are well differentiated over large tracts of country in which their characteristics are quite constant. ”

“ Baluchistan, Afghanistan, Sind, Mekran coast and S.E. Persia as far north as Fao. It is common in Kashmir, where it breeds, and wanders into the Punjab.
Nidification. The breeding season of the Sind House-Crow appears to commence in the latter half of June as soon as the monsoon breaks. It breeds in immense numbers all round and in Karachi and as nesting sites are here not too common, for trees are comparatively few, many eggs are thrown out of the nest during squabbles between the owner of the nest and other crows. ”