XANTHIXUS. 393 



Measurements. Total length about 205 nmi.; wing 81 to 

 iS7 iimi. ; tail about lUO mm. ; tarsus about -0 mm. ; culmen 

 about 10 mm. 



Distribution. Assam, South ot' the Brahmaputra as far East as 

 the Ivaga Hills, Muuipur, Lushai, Chin tlills aiul Arrakan. 



Nidification. In Assam and the Chin Hills Blyth's Bult)ul 

 breeds between 3,500 and 7,000 feet in April, May and June, 

 but nests and birds sent me from the Arrakan Yomas were taken 

 at about 3,000 feet in February and March. 



They are forest birds, their nests being generally placed in 

 quite low bushes and carefully concealed and as the bird slips out 

 very silently when disturbed, the nests are hard to find. In 

 shape they are shallow cups very neatly made of grass, fine twigs, 

 weed steins, an odd leaf, scraps of moss or lichen and a few 

 coarse roots. The lining is nearl}^ always the flowering end of a 

 coarse grass, bright tan in colour. The bush selected is always 

 one in forest or thick scrub, the rare exceptions being in mixed 

 scrub- and bamboo-jungle. 



They lay either two or three eggs, most often the former. 

 These are typical Bulbul's eggs but very finely freckled or stippled 

 instead of blotched, and, whilst the markings are generallv 

 very profuse everywhere, they are often nuich paler and 

 pinker than they are in Molpastes. There are sometimes about 

 the larger end a few short lines of darker reddish brown or 

 purplish black. h\ shape they are long, rather blunt ovals 

 with fragile, glossless shells. 100 eggs average 23-8 X 16-4 mm., 

 the greatest and least lengths being 26'8 X 17*4 and 187 x 

 15-2 mm. and the broadest and most narrow 26-8 x 17'4 and 

 21*8 X 15'0 mm. respectively. 



Habits. Blyth's Bulbul may rarely be found in valleys of the 

 higher ranges as low down as 1,500 feet but normally they are 

 birds of the higher hills between 3,500 and 7,500 feet. In 

 M'inter they frequent more open country, such as patches of 

 cultivation, light forest, bamboo- and scrub-jungle round cultiva- 

 tion, open glades and light forest near streams and tracks but in 

 the breeding season they retire to the deeper forests. They may 

 be found in Hocks of anything from half-a-dozen to over thirty and 

 resent other birds feeding with or near them, often quarrelling 

 even amongst themselves over food and other matters of interest. 

 They are not noisy birds and seem to have no song, most of their 

 conversational notes being much like those of the last genus. 

 They feed on both insects and fruit and frequent bushes, low 

 trees and high trees alike in their quest for them. 



(409) Xanthixus flavescens vividus. 

 The Mulioyit Bulbul. 



Xanthi.riis Jiuvescens vividus (misprint vivida) Stuart Baker, Bull. 

 B. O. C, xxxviii, p. 10 (1917) (Muleyit Mt). 



Vernacular names. Cheng-ma-kator (Ivachin). 



