418 PYCNONOTID A. 
Distribution. The Peninsula of India, from Baroda on the 
West and Midnapore on the East down to Cape Comorin; 
Ceylon. Rare or absent on the Deccan table-land and throughout 
the Central Provinces. 
Nidification. This bird breeds very commonly in Ceylon, the 
West coast of South India and again in West Bengal and parts 
of Orissa. The nest is not, I think, distinguishable from that 
of Otecompsa but is on the average more untidy, flimsy and 
unfinished. ‘The sites selected are low, thick bushes in scrub- 
jungle, the outskirts of forest and partly cultivated country and 
the nest is seldom more than 4 feet from the ground. Hume 
says the eggs are wnlike those of Molpastes or Otocompsa. Whilst, 
however, richly marked, handsome eggs such as are so often 
obtained of MWolpastes are very rare in this species, the eggs as 
a series are like weakly marked, rather long-shaped eggs of that 
bird. Normally: only two eggs are laid, sometimes three, and 
the average of sixty eggs is 22°9x 15°8 mm., the extremes being 
25°5 x 15°6, 24°6 x 17:0, 19:0 x 15°6 and 23-8 x 15:0 mm. 
The birds lay in almest every month of the year in Ceylon but 
chiefly in February and March, whilst in Bombay they lay from 
April to July. 
Habits. The White-browed Bulbul is a bird neither of actual 
forest nor of compounds and gardens. It prefers scrub- and bush- 
jungle, thin rather than dense, the outskirts of forest and country 
which is partly cultivated and partly wooded. It does not enter 
gardens but may be seen in the vicinity of villages. It is found 
only in the plains and Joewer hills. 
Pycnonotus plumosus. 
The birds of this species are spread over a very wide area 
through East and South Burma, the Malay Peninsula and many 
of the islands and again East through Siam, Yunnan, Annam, 
ete. There are three races separable but they do not occupy 
very well-defined areas and it is not easy to say exactly where 
P. p. blanfordi and P, p. plumosus meet. Between P. p. robinsoni 
and P. p. plumosus I cannot fix anything definite but throughout 
the Northern Peninsula they probably represent Eastern and 
Western races. They may eventually have to be treated as 
species. 
Key to Subspecies. 
A. Ear-coverts brown with silvery-white stripes. P. plumosus plumosus, 
B. Ear-coverts entirely silvery-white. [p. 419. 
a. Paler both above and below ..,......... P.p. blanfordi, p. 420. 
b. Darker both above and below .......... P. p. robinsoni, p. 420. 
