BULBULS 233 



favourite site, so are crotons, especially if they be in 

 a verandah. A pair of bulbuls once built a nest in my 

 greenhouse at Gonda. Among the fronds of a fern 

 growing in a hanging basket did those unsophisticated 

 birds construct that nest. Every time the fern was 

 watered the sitting bird, nest, and eggs received a 

 shower-bath ! 



Sometimes bulbuls do by chance construct their nest 

 in a well-concealed spot, but then they invariably " give 

 the show away" by setting up a tremendous cackling 

 whenever a human being happens to pass by. 



I have had the opportunity of watching closely the 

 nesting operations of seven pairs of bulbuls ; of these 

 only one couple succeeded in raising their brood. The 

 first of these nests was built in a croton plant in a 

 verandah at Fyzabad. One day a lizard passed by and 

 sucked the eggs. The next was the nest at Gonda 

 already mentioned. In spite of the numerous water- 

 ings they received, the eggs actually yielded young 

 bulbuls ; but these disappeared when about four days 

 old. The mali probably caused them to be gathered 

 unto their fathers. The third nest was situated in a 

 bush outside the drawing-room window of the house 

 in which I spent a month's leave at Coonoor. This 

 little nursery was so well concealed that I expected the 

 parents would succeed in rearing their young. But one 

 morning I saw on the gravel path near the nest a 

 number of tell-tale feathers. Puss had eaten mamma 

 bulbul for breakfast ! The fourth nest — but why should 

 I detail these tragedies? Notwithstanding all their 

 nesting disasters, bulbuls flourish so greatly as to 



