a 
SPIZIXUS, 401 
brown on the inner webs green on the outer, the inner secondaries 
green on both webs but more or less tinged with brown on the 
inner ; tail yellowish green, with an inch-wide band of dark brown 
near the tips; lower plumage dull greenish yellow, brightening to 
yellow on the beily and under tail-coverts. 
Colours of soft parts. Iris red-brown to pure vandyke-brown ; 
bill very pale straw-white or ivory-white; legs and feet dull deep 
flesh-colour to grey-brown, 
Measurements. Total length about 210 mm.; wing 79 to 
89 mm.; tail about 90mm.; tarsus about 18 to 19mm.; culmen 
about 13mm. 
Distribution. Hills South of the Brabmaputra, Arrakan, Chin 
and Kachin Hills to Yunnan, 
Rothschild (Nov. Zool., xxvii, p. 50, 1921) points out quite 
correctly that Bangs and Phillips’s S. ¢. ingrami is merely the 
immature S. c. canifrons which has the throat grey instead of 
brown and the under parts rather dull olive-green instead of 
greenish yellow. 
Nidification. The Finch-billed Bulbul breeds from the end of 
April to the end of July from about 3,500 feet np to the highest 
peaks in the North Cachar, Khasia and Naga Hills and up to 
6,000 or even 7,000 feet in the Kachin and Yunnan Hills. The 
nest can be told at a glance from any other Bulbul’s nest, for it is 
made entirely of tendrils, some stout, some fine and rarely they may 
be mixed with a few tiny twigs or scraps of bracken, but these 
are so scanty that they are not noticeable. The lining, as a rule, 
consists merely of tendrils finer than the rest but I have seen 
seraps of dried bracken also used for this purpose. he internal 
shallow cup measures something under 3 inches (75 mm.) in 
diameter by under | inch (25 mm.) deep but the outer measure- 
ments are difficult to ascertain as the ends of the tendrils stick 
out in all directions. The nests are extremely well put together and 
stand very rough handling. The site selected is usually in a tall, 
scraggy bush or a small sapling, some 5 to 10 feet from the 
ground, standing in dense evergreen forests or in thick scrub- 
jungle. 
The eggs number two or three only, four being quite excep- 
tional, and are like very large examples of those of Xanthicus 
flavescens. The ground-colour is anything from the palest pink 
to a rather deep brick-red pink but they are so completely covered 
with innumerable freckles and tiny blotches of light red, deep red 
or dark brownish red, that little of the ground-colour is visible. 
Many eggs, indeed, look almost unicoloured at a short distance. 
In shape they are long, blunt ovals and the texture is fine, 
practically glossless and very fragile. 100 eggs average 25°7 x 
17-6 mm.; the greatest length and breadth 28°1x18-0 and 
26-0 x 19°3 mm. and the least each way 24'0 x 16°1 mm. 
Habits. The Finch-billed Bulbul is a bird of fairly high 
altitudes and is not found below 3,000 feet even in the cold 
VOU. I. 2D 
