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The Molpastes Bulbul is a bird about half as large again 

 as a Sparrow, but having a longer tail. The head is black and is 

 marked by a short thick crest. In some species there is a white 

 patch on each cheek. Under the tail there is a conspicuous patch 

 of feathers which is crimson in some species and yellow in others. 

 The remainder of the plumage is brown, but each feather is 

 margined with creamy white, so that the bird is marked by a 

 pattern not unlike the scales of a fish. The illustrations facing 

 page 296 in " Bombay Ducks," which are reproductions of photo- 

 graphs taken by Captain Fayrer, I. M.S., give an excellent idea of 

 Molpastes hatmorrhous and Otoco7npsafuscicatidata. The Molpastes 

 Bulbuls are distributed all over India, Burma and China, and 

 each local race has peculiarities of its own, so that ornithologists 

 have described nine or ten Indian species of Molpastes, but the 

 differences which distinguish some of these so-called species are 

 so slight that I am inclined to consider the various forms races 

 rather than species. 



At the meeting points of these " species" we come across 

 Bulbuls which do not correspond with any of the described 

 species. Such forms are the result of the interbreeding of two 

 or more local races. 



For all practical purposes there are but two Indian species 

 of Molpastes— the Red-vented Bulbuls and the Yellow-vented 

 and White-cheeked Bulbuls, which may be called respectively M. 

 hcemorrhoits and M. leucogenys. The habits of the all Red-vented 

 Bulbuls are similar. They are sprightly, active birds, continually 

 on the move. They frequent gardens and low jungle. They go 

 about in pairs and probably mate for life. They twitter in the 

 most cheery manner almost without intermission, but they can 

 scarcely be called songsters, for to use the words of Mr. E. H. 

 Aitken they cannot sit down and compose a song. They feed 

 upon both insects and seeds. Mr. Finn has proved by experi- 

 ment that Bulbuls will eat almost any kind of insect, even those 

 which are supposed to be warningly - coloured. The White- 

 cheeked species are very destructive to gardens, since they 

 devour buds, blossoms, peas, and soft fruits. 



Bulbuls construct neat, cup-shaped nests, of the pattern 

 invariably figured on Christmas cards. They build, as often as 



