OTOCOMPSA. 395 
Description. Forehead, crown and lores black ; hinder parts of 
cheeks and ear-coverts white surrounded with black; a tuft 
of ecrimson-scarlet feathers under the eye and extending over the 
lower ear-coverts; whole upper plumage, wings and tail ruddy- 
brown, the feathers of the wing margined paler and the tail 
having all but the central, or two central, pairs tipped with fulvous- 
white, purest on the outermost feathers; lower plumage white, 
pure on the chin and throat and suffused with fulvous-brown on 
the flanks and thighs ; a broad band across the breast dark brown, 
more or less broken in the centre ; under tail-coverts crimson. 
Colours of soft parts. Iris hazel-brown or crimson-brown ; 
bill, legs and feet black. 
Measurements. ‘Total length about 200 mm.; wing 88 to 
95 mm.; tail 80 to 85 mm.; tarsus about 20 mm.; culmen about 
14 mm. 
The nestling has no red ear-tufts and the under tail-coverts 
are pink, 
Distribution. Himalayas, Simla to East Assam, North and 
South of the Brahmaputra, Bengal, Oudh, North of Orissa; North 
Chin and Kachin Hills, North Yunnan. ‘he birds from China 
are very doubtfully separable but if separated would be known 
as O. emeria jocosa. 
Nidification. This Bulbul breeds from early March to late 
September but most birds build in April, May and June. They 
are found during the breeding season from the level of the plains 
up to at least 7,000 feet, perhaps up to 8,000. They make a com- 
pact, cup-shaped nest of twigs, roots, bents, leaves and grasses, 
lined with fine roots or grasses. Generally it is placed on low 
shrubs but sometimes in small trees, cactus hedges or trellises of 
verandahs. I once found a nest in a grass field quite on the 
ground amongst the roots of the grass. They are birds cf civiliza- 
tion, selecting gardens and cultivation for their abodes and even 
when they breed away from human haunts they select the thinnest 
scrub or fringes of heavier forest. Their eggs number three or four 
and are like those of the genus Molpastes but rather less variable. 
200 eggs average 22-2x16'2 mm., the extremes being 241 x 
NG30523:0 <1 7-15 19-056: 0 and*21 ex 13°OAnm? 
Habits. The Red-whiskered Bulbul is just as familiar and 
friendly a little bird as his Red-vented cousin and is even more 
cheerful and lively in his actions. They are less quarrelsome 
than the birds of the previous genus but are equally good fighters 
when roused, the males fighting fiercely in the breeding season 1 
their special ground is invaded. Their notes are much the same 
as those of Molpastes but much more musical. They fly well, 
though at no great rate. Their diet is both insectivorous and 
vegetarian and they can do a good deal of mischief in frait and 
veget: able gardens, destroying oranges, plums etc. when only just 
formed and raspberries, straw berries ete. when ripe. 
