MOLPASTES. 175 



which I have seen in Dacca, The natives keep these birds for 

 fightint]^ purposes ; large sums are lost at times on these combats." 



Writing from Nepal, Dr. Scully remarlts : — " It breeds in May 

 and June in the Residency grounds, the nests being very commonly 

 placed in small pine-trees (Plmis lonr/ifoUa). Three is the usual 

 number of eggs found, and a clutch taken on the 29th May 

 measured in length from 0*85 to 0'93, and in breadth from 0-64 to 

 0-65." 



I have fully described the leading types of the eggs of these 

 Bulbuls under Molpastes Jurmorrhoiis. I shall therefore only here 

 say that the eggs of this species in shape and colour exactly 

 resemble those of its congener, but that as a body they are larger 

 in size ; every variety observable in the eggs of the one is, as far as 

 I know, to be met with amongst those of the other. Taking only the 

 eggs of typical l)irds from Lower Bengal and Sikhim, they vary 

 from 0'88 to I'Oo in length and from 0*67 to 0*75 in breadth. 



283. Molpastes intermedius (A. Hay). The Punjab 

 Red-vented Bidhid. 



All my specimens from the Salt Range belong to this species, and 

 not to M. ben(/(densis, so that Mr. W. Theobald's remarks in regard 

 to the Common Bulbul's nidification about Find Dadan Khan and 

 the Salt Range must refer to this species. He says : — 



" Lay in May, June, and July ; eggs, four ; shape, blunt ovato- 

 pyriform ; size, 0-87 by 0-62 ; colour, deep pink, blotched with 

 deep claret-red ; nest, a neat cup of vegetable fibres in bushes." 



From Murree, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall writes :— " This 

 Bulbul breds in large numbers on the lower hills." 



From Mussoorie, Captain Hutton remarked : — " This is more 

 properly a Dhoon species, as although it does ascend the hills, it 

 is represented there to a great extent by M. leum/enys. It breeds 

 in April, May, and June, constructing its nest in some thick bush. 

 On the 12th May one nest contained three eggs of a rosy-white, 

 thickly irrorated and blotched with, purple or deep claret colour, 

 and at the larger end confluently stained with dull purple, ap- 

 pearing as if beneath the shell. The nest is small and cup-shaped, 

 composed of fine roots, dry grasses, flower-stalks chiefly of forget- 

 me-not, and a few dead leaves occasionally interwoven ; in some 

 the outside is also smeared over here and there ^\"ith cobwebs and 

 silky seed-down ; the lining is usually of very fine roots. Some 

 nests have four eggs, which are liable to great variation both in 

 the intensity of colouring and in the size and number of spots." 



284. Molpastes leucogenys (Gr.). The White-cheeked Bulhid. 



Otocompsa leucogenys (Gray), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 90; Hume^Itoudh 

 Draft N. ^- E. no. 458. 



The "White-cheeked Bulbul breeds throughout the Himalayas, 

 from Afghanistan to Bhootan, from April to July, and at all 

 heights from 3000 to 7000 feet. The nest is a loose, slender fabric. 



