230 Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker on the 



denuded of their seeds. The yellow colour of this grass, 

 Mhen used as a lining, often shows in very striking con- 

 trast to the dark colour of the outer nest. In diameter, 

 both inwardly and outwardly, the nests average much the 

 same as those of Hemixus flavala, already described, but 

 they are much more shallow, none that I have seen ex- 

 ceeding 1"*5 in depth, and the majority being but little 

 over 1 inch. All the nests seen in situ by myself were low 

 down in thick bushes, and were uncommonly well concealed. 

 Most nests were in thick clusters of twigs, not higher than 

 3 feet from the ground ; one or two were built in similar 

 clusters 4 to 5 feet up, and one or two others were placed in 

 thick forks, also low down. Two nests brought to me, with 

 one of the parent birds, which had been trapped on them, 

 were said to have been taken from small saplings, and from 

 situations 7 to 8 feet from the ground. 



Blyth's Bulbul does not seem to mind much in what kind 

 of country it breeds, for I have taken nests from scrub- 

 jungle, scanty forest, or steep hillsides, from dense mixed 

 forest and bush in ravines, and from small clusters of bushes 

 almost in open ground. I do not think it ever breeds below 

 2500 feet, and more commonly over 4000. The normal 

 number of eggs is two, rarely three. The ground-colour is 

 a pale cream, generally very faint, never at all warm, with 

 primary freckles and tiny straggly blotches ol: brownish pink, 

 less often brownish red. The secondary marks consist of the 

 same sort of freckles, but of a pale pinky grey, and at the 

 larger end there are often a few very pale blurred clouds of 

 neutral tint, giving a purple tinge to this part of the egg. 

 In distribution the primary and smaller secondary markings 

 are almost equally distributed, but are, if anything, more 

 numerous at the bigger end, where also, in most eggs, they 

 form a very well-defined ring. In some the freckles are 

 equally very numerous over the whole surface of the egg, 

 the secondary blotches coalescing with, and much hidden 

 by, the superior and darker ones. In shape the eggs are 

 long regular ovals — the longest, proportionately, of all the 

 eggs of the Brachypodinae. The shell is smooth, but gloss- 



