Pliny the Elder [1st century CE] (Natural History, Book 10, 79): ...the blackcap's [melancoryphus] brood over twenty and always an odd number, and no other bird has a larger brood: so much more prolific are the small species. - [Rackham translation]

Thomas of Cantimpré [circa 1200-1272 CE] (Liber de natura rerum, Birds 5.81): Melancoriphus is a bird, as Pliny says, which, although it is small, is nevertheless more fecund than larger birds; it lays more than twenty eggs, always an odd number. It takes great care of its chicks, and its care is noted in the fact that it feeds so many chicks alone, and yet when they grow up they are found very fat. When the chicks are brought out of the nest, they follow their mother through the flock, hiding their hunger and not asking for food, as long as they are able to live by their own care. - [Badke translation/paraphrase]