41G Mr. J. D. D. La Touclie on the 



74. loLE HOLTi (Swinhoe). 



This Bulbul is very common about Kuatun. It was 

 breeding, I think^ during the latter part of our stay, but we 

 could not find the nest. The natives say that it is a late 

 breeder. 



75. Hypsipetes leucocephalus (Gm.). 



Tliis bird comes to the Kuatun Mountains for the breeding- 

 season. In 1898 it first appeared towards the latter end of 

 April. A pair settled about the village, and other couples 

 were often met with in the neighbourhood, while flocks 

 would be seen flying swiftly high overhead from one moun- 

 tain to another. Our collectors brought us two nests, each 

 witli three eggs, in 1896. One nest was taken at the end of 

 May and the other at the beginning of June. The latter 

 nest is a compact and fairly strong shallow cup, made of 

 strips of bark, coarse grass, and moss, on a foundation of 

 moss. It is lined Avith pine-needles and a strip or two of 

 sword-grass. The inner diameter is 2f X 3 inches, the inner 

 depth about 1|, the outer diameter 4^ X 5, and the outer 

 depth about 2. The eggs of this nest are of elongated ovate 

 shape. The ground-colour is a very pale mauve, and they are 

 spotted all over with very dark brownish carmine over dark 

 and light lavender-grey. The spots are more numerous 

 about the large end. The texture is somewhat glossy. 

 These eggs measure l-20xO-73, Mo x 0-71, and 1-15 x 0-70 

 inch. The eggs from the other nest are ovate. Both clutches 

 are very large editions of the eggs of Pycnonotus sinensis. 

 Another nest with three eggs, taken in 1897, was sold 

 to me on our arrival at Kuatun as the nest and eggs of 

 H. leucocephalus. 



These eggs are so different from those obtained by our 

 men in 1896 that, did I not know the Kuatun men and our 

 collectors to be so careful in their statements, there would 

 be reason to think that a mistake had been made somewhere. 

 The ground-colour is pink. The spots are large and few in 

 number, and are chiefly disposed about the large end ; they 

 are of the same brownish carmine as in the first two clutches. 



