The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 | Page 4

according to season and locality, though
the majority of birds always, I think, lay in January.
The nest is generally placed in single trees of no great size, standing in
fields or open jungle. The thorny Acacias are often selected, but I have
seen them on Sisoo and other trees.
The nest, placed in a stout fork as a rule, is a large, strong, compact,
stick structure, very like a Rook's nest at home, and like these is used
year after year, whether by the same birds or others of the same species
I cannot say. Of course they never breed in company: I never found two
of their nests within 100 yards of each other, and, as a rule, they will
not be found within a quarter of a mile of each other.
Five is, I think, the regular complement of eggs; very often I have only
found four fully incubated eggs, and on two or three occasions six have,
I know, been taken in one nest, though I never myself met with so
many.
I find the following old note of the first nest of this species that I ever
took:--
"At Hansie, in Skinner's Beerh, December 19, 1867, we found our first
Raven's nest. It was in a solitary Keekur tree, which originally of no
great size had had all but two upright branches lopped away. Between
these two branches was a large compact stick nest fully 10 inches deep
and 18 inches in diameter, and not more than 20 feet from the ground.
It contained five slightly incubated eggs, which the old birds evinced
the greatest objection to part with, not only flying at the head of the
man who removed them, but some little time after they had been

removed similarly attacking the man who ascended the tree to look at
the nest. After the eggs were gone, they sat themselves on a small
branch above the nest side by side, croaking most ominously, and
shaking their heads at each other in the most amusing manner, every
now and then alternately descending to the nest and scrutinizing every
portion of the cavity with their heads on one side as if to make sure that
the eggs were really gone."
Mr. W. Theobald makes the following note of this bird's nidification in
the neighbourhood of Pind Dadan Khan and Katas in the Salt Range:--
"Lay in January and February; eggs, four only; shape, ovato-pyriform;
size, 1·7 by 1·3; colour, dirty sap green, blotched with blackish brown;
also pale green spotted with greenish brown and neutral; nest of sticks
difficult to get at, placed in well-selected trees or holes in cliffs."
I have not verified the fact of their breeding in holes in cliffs, but it is
very possible that they do. All I found near Pind Dadan Khan and in the
Salt Range were doubtless in trees, but I explored a very limited
portion of these hills.
Colonel C.H.T. Marshall, writing from Bhawulpoor on the 17th
February, says: "I succeeded yesterday in getting four eggs of the
Punjab Raven. The eggs were hard-set and very difficult to clean."
From Sambhur Mr. R.M. Adam tells us:--"This Raven is pretty
common during the cold weather, but pairs are seen about here
throughout the year. They are very fond of attaching themselves to the
camps of the numerous parties of Banjaras who visit the lake.
"I obtained a nest at the end of January which contained three eggs, and
a fourth was found in the parent bird. The nest was about 15 feet from
the ground in a Kaggera tree (_Acacia leucophloea_) which stood on a
bare sandy waste with no other tree within half a mile in any direction."
The eggs of the Punjab bird are, as might be expected, much the same
as those of the European Raven. In shape they are moderately broad
ovals, a good deal pointed towards the small end, but, as in the Oriole,
greatly elongated varieties are very common, and short globular ones
almost unknown. The texture of the egg is close and hard, but they
usually exhibit little or no gloss. In the colour of the ground, as well as
in the colour, extent, and character of the markings, the eggs vary
surprisingly. The ground-colour is in some a clear pale greenish blue;
in others pale blue; in others a dingy olive; and in others again a pale

stone-colour. The markings are blackish brown, sepia and olive-brown,
and rather pale inky purple. Some have the markings small, sharply
defined, and thinly sprinkled: others are extensively blotched and
streakily clouded; others are freckled or smeared over the entire surface,
so as to leave but little, if any, of the ground-colour visible. Often
several styles of marking and shades of colouring are combined in the