PYCNONOxrs, 187 



29r». Pycnonotus finlaySOni, Sfiickl. Fhilnysonx Sinpr-ilimnted 



Jhdhul. 



Ixus fjnlaysoni (SlncJcl.), Ilune, Cut. no. -152 ter. 



Major C. T. Bingham says :— " On the 22nd May, 1877, while 

 \\andfriii2; about collecting in the jungles below the Circuit-house 

 at Maulinain, 1 came across a neat, though thinly made, cup-shaped 

 nest in the fork of a tall sapling, some 12 feet above the ground. 

 Coming closer, I perceived it contained eggs, which were plainly 

 visible through the frail structure of the sides. On looking about 

 to find the owner, I saw a couple of Ptjcnonotus Jinhiijsoiu flitting 

 about uneasily in a tree close at hand ; so I hid myself a few yards 

 off, and was almost immediately rewarded by SL^eing one of them 

 (it turned out to be the female) fly down on to the nest, and seat 

 herself on the eggs. Approaching cautiously, I managed to shoot 

 her as she slipped off ; but, on taking down the nest, I found 1 had 

 fired too soon, as one of the eggs (there were but two) was smashed 

 by a pellet of shot. The nest was rather a deep cup, and, notwith- 

 standi ng its flimsy sides, strongly made of grass-roots, lined \Aith very 

 tine black roots of fern. The one unbroken egg was rather roundish 

 in shape, of a dull whitish and claret colour, mixed and spotted ami 

 clouded with deeper vinous red, chiefly at the larger end." 



Mr. J. Darling, Junior, found the nest of this Bulbul on more than 

 one occasion at Taroar in the Malay peninsula, lie writes : — " J 

 shot this bird off a nest Avith two eggs on the 8th February ; the 

 nest was in a bush 5 feet from the ground; the foundation was of 

 leaves and fine grass, lined with line grass and a few cocoanut fibres. 

 The nest was 3 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep. The eggs 

 were too hard-set to blow. 



" On the 10th February I took another nest of Pijcnonoim fialay- 

 soni at Taroar. The nesib was built in a small shrub '3 feet from the 

 ground, in a fork ; foundation of dead leaves, built of fine twigs and 

 fibrous bark ; lined ^^^th fine grass-bents and moss-roots. Egg-cavity 

 2| inches in diameter, 1| deep ; walls | inch thick, bottom ^ inch. 



■with fine grass-bents. There was a good deal of cobweb in the const rucliou. 

 It was an exact fa'-simile of many nests of Otocompsa fuscicaudata from the 

 Nilgberry HiEs. The egg-cavity was 3 inclies in diameter and 2^ inches deep ; 

 the walls were ^ inch thick, tlie bottom 1 inch." 



The eggs are of the usual variable Bulbul type, some broader and more regulai-, 

 some more elongated, some more or less pyriform. The sliell as in others, and 

 apparently rarely showing any very perceptible gloss. The ground-colour pinky 

 white to a warni pink ; the markings, sjieeks, and spots, or, when three or four 

 of these latter have coalesced, occasionally small blotches of a rich maroon-red 

 intermixed with spots and specks and clouds of pale purple. The markings 

 always apparently pretty thickly set everywhere, but almost invariably most 

 densely in a zone about the larger end, where they become at times more or less 

 confluent. Of course as in others of the genus, in some eggs all the markings 

 are very fine and speckly, while in others they are somewhat bolder. In some 

 the red greatly preduminates ; in others, again, the grey underlying clouds are 

 ACiy widely extended, and form by far the most coi:spicuous part of the 

 markings, giving a grey tinge to the entire egg. The eggs vary from 0-82 to 

 0-91 in length and from 061 to U-()5 in breadth. 



