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not, in the most exposed situations. The Croton plants which 

 are grown in pots in the verandahs of many hungalows are very 

 favourite nesting sites. Rose bushes, too, are popular. Mr. 

 William Jesse records the building of a nest on a rafter in a 

 bungalow verandah. Colonel Butler once found a nest "'inside 

 an inhabited bungalow upon the top of a door leading out of a 

 sitting room ; the door was open and the bolt at the top had been 

 forced back, and it was between the top of the door and the too 

 of the bolt that the nest rested. The old bird entered the build- 

 ing by passing first of all through the lattice work of the verandah 

 and then through a broken window pane." 



A pair of Bulbuls once built a nest in my greenhouse at 

 Gonda. (In India greenhouses are constructed of wooden lattice 

 work, not of glass). Among the fronds of a fern growing in a 

 hanging basket did those unsophisticated birds construct their 

 nest. Every time the fern was watered the sitting bird, nest and 

 eorcr.s received a shower bath ! Notwithstanding this, those ege:s 



00 o ' no 



actually yielded young Bulbuls ! 



In consequence of the exposed situations in which the 

 nurseries of Bulbuls are placed many of the eggs and young 

 birds fall victims to Lizards, Crows, and other creatures which 

 prey upon young birds. Notwithstanding this Bulbuls flourish 

 like the green bay tree. 



Three eggs are usually laid. They are pink, heavily 

 blotched with brownish red. The nesting season is from Feb- 

 ruary to August. As is usually the case, the birds in South 

 India nest earlier in the year than do those in the North. 



Red-vented Bulbuls are often kept as pets both by Euro- 

 peans and natives of India. More charming pets it is impossible 

 to have. Unfortunately their diet is largely insectivorous, so 

 that they cannot be fed on seed. A young Bulbul I kept used to 

 fly on to my shoulder whenever it saw me, and open its mouth, 

 flutter its wings and twitter, which was its way of demanding 

 food. It would insist on using my penholder as a perch, and as 

 my handwriting which, at its best, has been compared to cunei- 

 form hieroglyphics, was not improved by an excitable little bird 

 hopping up and down the penholder, I was obliged to shut the 

 Bulbul up in a cage while I was writing: it used to resent this 

 and did not hesitate to tell me so! 



