180 CRATEEOPODID.^. 



coloration go, the description of the eggs of Molpnstes leucor/eni/s 

 is equally applicable to those of the present species. If any 

 distinction caTi be drawn, it is that, as a body, bold blotches of 

 rich red and pale purple are more commonly exhibited in the eggs 

 of this species than in those of either of the preceding ones. 



In length the eggs vary from 0*8 to 0*9, and in breadth from 

 0-85 to 0*7, but the average of twenty-seven eggs was 0"83 nearly, 

 by 0-63 barely. 



289. Otocompsa fuscicaudata, Gould. The Southern lied- 

 ivhiskered Bulhul. 



Otocompsa fuscicaudata, Gould, Hume, Rouyh Draft N. Sf E. no. 400 

 bis. 



The Southern Red-whiskered Bidbul is found throughout the 

 more hilly and more or less elevated tracts of the peninsula, 

 from Cape Comorin northwards as far as Mount Aboo on the west, 

 and the Eastern Ghats, above Nellore, on the east. How far 

 northwards it extends in the centre of the peninsula I am not 

 certain, but I have seen a specimen from the Satpooras. 



They breed any time from the beginning of February to the 

 end of May. Their nests are usually placed at no great height 

 from the ground (say at from 2 to 6 feet) in some thick bush. 



The nests of this species that I procured at Mount Aboo, and 

 which have been sent me by Mr. Carter both from Coonoor and 

 Salem, and by other friends from other parts of the Nilghiris, 

 where the bird is excessively common, very much resemble those 

 of 0. emeria, but they are somewhat neater and more substantial 

 in structure. They differ a good deal in size and shape, as the 

 nests of Bulbuls are wont to do. Some are rather broad and 

 shallow, with egg-cavities measuring 3| inches across, and perhaps 

 1 inch in depth ; while others are deeper and more cup-shaped, the 

 cavity measuring only 2| inches across and fully 1| inch in depth. 

 Tliey are composed in some cases almost wholly of grass-roots, in 

 others of very fine twigs of the furash {Tamar'uv furas), in others 

 again of rather fine grass, and all have a quantity of dead leaves 

 or dry ferns worked into the bottom, and all are lined with either 

 very fine grass or very fine grass-roots. The external diameter 

 averages about 4| inches, but some stand fully 3 inches high, 

 while others are not above 2 inches in height. As might be 

 expected, the White-cheeked and White-eared and the two lled- 

 whiskered Bulbuls' types of architecture differ considerably ; inter 

 se, the nests of M. leucotis and M. hucogenys differ just sufficiently 

 to render it generally possible to separate them, and the same may 

 be said of the nests of 0. emeria and 0. fiiscicmuJata. But there 

 is a very wide difference between the nests of the two former and 

 the two latter species, so that it would be scarcely possible to 

 mistake a nest belonging to the one groiqo for that of the other. 

 Tlie incorporation of a quantity of dead leaves in the body of the 

 nests, reminding one nuicli of those of the English Nightingale, is 



