364 PYCXOXOTID-I. 



site was low down in some thick tangle of canes and bushes 

 growing amongst palm-ferns. The nests are very heavily made, 

 hemisplierical cups of leaves, bamboo-spathes etc., wound round 

 with roots, grass aud stems of weeds ; the inner lining is generally 

 of bamboo leaA^es but there is always also a true lining of coarse, 

 red roots of ferns and bracken. Eoughl}' the nests average 

 about 5" X 2|'' externally and 3^'' x 1|" internally. Gates men- 

 tions finding these nests 10 feet up in small trees but nearly all 

 mine were less than 4 feet from it. The birds lay in May and 

 June and often during the early rains of July and August, and in 

 North Assam and Sikkim, where the rains do not break until June, 

 few nests will be found before that month. The normal clutch 

 of eggs is two only, sometimes three and very rarely four. They 

 are extremely beautiful eggs ; the ground-colour is a deep salmon, 

 rarely with a lilac tinge, and the markings consist of irregular 

 lines, specks and blotches of different shades of blood-red and 

 maroon with secondary markings, sometimes absent, of grey and 

 neutral tint. The markings are generally rather profuse every- 

 where, but in some are confined to the larger end and the lines 

 are generally on this part of the egg. Tl>e surface is hard, fine 

 and intensely glossy and the shape is a long oval, distinctly 

 pointed at the smaller end. 



One hundred eggs average 2G-9 x 18'G mm. and the extremes 

 are 27-5 X 18'6 mm.; 26-1 x 20-0 mm. ; 23-3 X 18-3 mm. and 24-8 x 

 180 mm. 



Habits. Though this Bulbul may be found up to 6,000' feet, it 

 is typically a bird of the humid forests of valleys between 1,000 

 and 3,000 feet. On rare occasions it may wander into bamboo- 

 jungle but it is essentially a resident of tree-forest with the most 

 thickly grown underwood. It is, unlike most Bulbnls, really 

 gregarious, wandering about the bushes, cane-brakes and scrub in 

 small parties of half-a-dozen to a dozen, creeping and clambering 

 about them very much in the same manner as do the Laughing- 

 Thrushes. It is, however, a good flyer when forced to take wing, 

 though it prefers pedestrian work when possible. It feeds on 

 both insects and seeds and fruit, and in jN^orth Cachar was very 

 partial to the berries of a babool-like tree {Phyllanihus emlica), 

 swallowing them whole although they were as big as marbles. 

 They are noisy birds with a few sweet calls and many dis- 

 cordant ones. 



(381) Criniger tephrogeuys burmanicus. 



The Bukmese White-tkkoated Bulbul. 



Crinif/er burmanicus Oates, Fauna B. 1., Birds, i, p. 256 (1889) 

 (Tounghoo). 



Vernacular names. None recorded. 



Description. Similar to C. t. flaveolus but with the upper parts 

 less olive-green and more greyish, especially on the head and 

 crest ; the upper breast is white as well as the chin and throat. 



