230 BIRDS OF THE PLAINS 



a little these two species of bulbul, which resemble one 

 another very closely in their habits. 



Molpastcs is a bird about half as big again as the 

 sparrow, but with a longer tail. The whole head is 

 black and marked by a short crest. There is a con- 

 spicuous crimson patch of feathers under the tail. The 

 remainder of the plumage is brown, but each feather on 

 the body is margined with creamy white, so that the 

 bird is marked by a pattern that is, as " Eha " points 

 out, not unlike the scales on a fish. Both ends of the 

 tail feathers are whitish. 



Otocompsa is a more showy bird. The crest is long 

 and projects forward over the forehead. The crimson 

 patch, so characteristic of bulbuls, also exists in this 

 species. There is a similar patch on each side of 

 the head — whence the bird's name, the red-whiskered 

 bulbul. There is also a white patch on each cheek. 

 The white throat is separated from the whitish abdo- 

 men by a conspicuous dark brown necklace. This 

 bird must be familiar to every one who has visited 

 Coonoor or any other southern hill station. The less 

 showy variety — the red-vented bulbul, as it is called — 

 is common in and about Madras. 



It will be noticed that I have refrained from giving 

 any specific name to either of these two genera. This 

 is due to the fact that these bulbuls are widely dis- 

 tributed and fall into a number of local races, each 

 of which has some little peculiarity in colouring. For 

 this reason, bulbuls are birds after the heart of the 

 museum ornithologist. They afford him ample scope 

 for species-making. 



